Founded and directed by Charlotte Moorman, the Annual Avant Garde Festivals of New York began in 1963 as open forums for the presentation of experimental music, which was emerging out of the Fluxus movement and Happenings. By 1971, these evening salons of inventive musical works were expanded to incorporate electronic music, dance, performance, kinetic art, and video art. For more than a decade, these carnivalesque productions were held at such wildly diverse locations as Shea Stadium, Wards and Mill Rock Islands in the East River, the World Trade Center, the decks of the Staten Island Ferry, and on a train en route to Buffalo from Grand Central Station.

The 7th Avant Garde Festival was presented in 1969 on two islands, Wards and Mill Rock, in the East River. Here Yalkut's rare documentation records performances on Wards Island, beneath one of Buckminster Fuller's famous geodesic domes.