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Original festival ("the" Woodstock in a widely-used, purist sense) held in 1969 namesake events held in 1979, 1989, 1994, and 1999
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Original festival booked for August 15-17, 1969 (for three days), although technically, it can be said to have been held August 15-18 (thus, for four days), due to the late start of the August 17th performances Later namesake festivals were held at various dates
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Rock and related genres, with the original festival showcasing, in addition to what could just be called rock-and-roll or rock, the styles of Blues-Rock , Folk-Rock , Jazz-Rock , Latin Rock , Psychedelic Rock , and related eclectic/fusion niches — and, in each of the post-1969 Woodstocks, somewhat similar rock-related genres were showcased In the most recent incarnations of the event, Alternative Rock and Rap were also showcased Also, some Folk was showcased (via promoters or spontaneously) in the original and some later Woodstock festivals
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: redirects here. For other uses, see
Woodstock (disambiguation) ''
The (the original 1960s-era festival; namesake festivals were held later) is the most famous
Rock Festival ever held. It was held at
Max Yasgur 's 600 acre (2.4 km&
2)
Dairy Farm in
Bethel, New York on August 15-17, 1969. The Woodstock Festival held that weekend represented the culmination of the
Counterculture of the 1960s and the ultimate climax of the "
Hippie era". Many of the best-known musicians of the times appeared during the rain-plagued weekend, much of which was captured in a successful 1970 movie, ''
Woodstock ''.
Joni Mitchell 's song "
Woodstock " encapsulated the event and became a major hit.
The
Festival bears the name "Woodstock" because it was originally scheduled to take place in the town of
Woodstock , in
Ulster County , but the town offered no appropriate site to host such a large event. A site was found in the town of
Wallkill ; local opposition arose, however, and the event was almost cancelled altogether. But
Sam Yasgur persuaded his father Max to allow the concert to be held on the family's alfalfa field, located in
Sullivan County , which lies about 40 miles southwest of Woodstock itself.
Although the show had been planned for a maximum 50,000 attendees, over 500,000 eventually attended, most of whom did not pay admission. The
Highway s leading to the
Concert were jammed with
Traffic and people as they abandoned their cars and walked for miles to the concert area. The
Weekend was
Rain y, facilities were overcrowded, and attendees shared
Food ,
Alcoholic Beverage s, and
Drugs . Local residents of this modest tourist-oriented area gave blankets and food to some concertgoers. However, no
Violence was reported and the fact that attendees were remarkably well behaved was particularly noted.
The festival did not initially make
Money for the promoters, although, thanks to
Record sales and proceeds from the highly regarded
Film of the event, it did eventually become profitable.
Three persons died at Woodstock: one from a
Heroin overdose, one from a
Ruptured Appendix , and one from being run over by a tractor while sleeping in a nearby hayfield. Two unconfirmed births reportedly occurred at Woodstock.
Arguably the stars of Woodstock were began to sing the chorus. After their set, the band's leader,
Pete Townshend , began smashing his guitar and ultimately threw it into the crowd. This moment helped establish The Who as superstars and helped their album ''
Tommy '' sell multi-
Platinum . Along with The Who, Jimi Hendrix also had a big impact with his performance, including a distorted version of "
The Star Spangled Banner ". The song was somewhat controversial, as the
Vietnam War was underway and the sound effects that Hendrix generated with his guitar paralleled the sounds of the violence and destruction of the conflict. These two performances are held by fans as some of the greatest in rock history, though both The Who and Hendrix regarded their performances as sub-par.
The promoter of the original Woodstock were
Michael Lang ,
Artie Kornfeld , John Roberts, and Joel Rosenman. Roberts was the money man, with a
Trust Fund bankroll; his friend Rosenman, a graduate of
Yale Law , was a lounge guitarist. Their associates were Kornfeld, a vice-president at
Capitol Records , and Michael Lang. An unlikely businessman, Lang was a light-hearted hippie who had owned a
Head Shop , and hoped to eventually build a
Recording Studio in the Woodstock area to serve artists such as
Bob Dylan and
Janis Joplin , who had homes nearby. When Lang and Kornfeld presented the idea to Rosenman and Roberts, Rosenman hatched the idea of a rock concert instead of a studio with the same performing artists. After toying with an
Age Of Aquarius theme, they settled on the slogan "Three Days of Peace and Music", partly as a way to placate suspicious local officials, and partly to appeal to
Anti-war sentiment. They hired commercial artist Arnold Skolnick to design the artwork, which incorporated a
Catbird design Skolnick had in his notebooks.
Lang would go on to produce successor concerts in 1994 and 1999, although he had nothing to do with the Woodstock-named concerts of 1979 and 1989.
In 1997, the site of the concert and 1,400 surrounding acres was purchased by Alan Gerry for future development as Performing Arts Center under the
Gerry Foundation . In 2000 the Gerry Foundation announced that the original 38 acres of the Woodstock site was to be preserved, though in 2002, there may be development plans on the original site
{Link without Title} .
On August 12-13th 2006, the site will host a two-day Woodstock anniversary concert. No artists have been announced to the event yet.
The day officially began just after 5 p.m. with Richie Havens, and featured many mellow sets showcasing most of the event's folk artists.
- Richie Havens , opening with his twelve-string guitar and "High Flyin' Bird"
- Country Joe McDonald , five-song set including "Janis" and "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag"
- John Sebastian , not originally scheduled but found wandering around the massive crowd and agreed to play a set.
- Incredible String Band : "Catty Come", "This Moment Is Different", and "When You Find Out Who You Are"
- Sweetwater , including "Motherless Child", "What's Wrong", and "Why Oh Why"
- Bert Sommer , including "Jennifer", "She's Gone", "Things Are Going My Way", and "Smile"
- Tim Hardin , "If I Were A Carpenter"
- Ravi Shankar , with a 5-song set, but he had to quit due to rain
- Melanie , "Beautiful People" and "Birthday of the Sun"
- Arlo Guthrie , "Coming Into Los Angeles", "Walking Down The Line", and "Amazing Grace"
- Joan Baez , ending a 5-song set with "We Shall Overcome"
The day opened at 12:15 pm, and featured some of the event's biggest psychedelic and guitar rock headliners.
- Quill , with one song, "Waitin' For You"
- Santana : "Persuasion" and "Soul Sacrifice"
- Canned Heat , including "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "Going Up The Country"
- Mountain , hour-long set
- Janis Joplin , ten-song set including "Piece of My Heart"
- Sly & The Family Stone started at 1:30 am, playing songs such as "Everyday People", "Dance To The Music", "Music Lover", and "Higher"
- Grateful Dead : "St Stephen", "Mama Tried", "Dark Star/High Time", and "Turn On Your Lovelight"
- Creedence Clearwater Revival , featuring "Born On The Bayou", "Bad Moon Rising", and "Suzie Q"
- The Who began at 3 a.m., kicking off a long, 24-song set including "Pinball Wizard" and "My Generation"
- Jefferson Airplane began at 8 a.m. with an eight-song set, capping off the overnight marathon with "White Rabbit."
The day opened at 2 p.m. with Joe Cocker. The day's events ultimately drove the schedule nine hours late, and by dawn the concert was continuing in spite of attendees having left, returning to their weekday obligations.
- Joe Cocker , started the day with "Delta Lady", "With A Little Help From My Friends", and other songs
- After Joe Cocker's set, a storm disrupted the events for several hours
- Country Joe And The Fish resumed the concert around 6 p.m.
- Ten Years After performed four songs including "I'm Going Home"
- The Band played a ten-song set
- Blood, Sweat & Tears ushered in the midnight hour with five songs including "Spinning Wheel"
- Johnny Winter featuring "Tobacco Road" and Edgar Winter
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young began around 3 a.m. with separate acoustic and electric sets
- Paul Butterfield Blues Band , five songs, including "Everything's Gonna Be Alright"
- Sha-Na-Na , including "Who Wrote The Book of Love", "Duke of Earl"
- Jimi Hendrix , who was supposed to end the concert at midnight, started at 9 a.m. with sixteen songs, ending the event with "Hey Joe"; ironically it was one of the most photogenic and talented performances but it played to a relatively empty house
- The Jeff Beck Group was scheduled to perform at Woodstock but failed to make an appearance due to the band's break-up the week before.
- Iron Butterfly were also expected to perform, but were stuck at an airport.
- Neil Young joined Crosby, Stills & Nash but refused to be filmed; by his own report Young felt the filming was distracting both performers and audience from the music. Young's "Sea Of Madness," heard on the album, was actually recorded a few days before the festival, at the Fillmore East dance hall.
- Joni Mitchell was slated to perform, but she was unable to get there due to the closure of the New York State Thruway . She wrote and recorded the song " Woodstock " that was a major hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young .
- Ethan Brown was a solo guitarist highly admired by the 'hippie' youth, but he was arrested three days before the festival on acid-related charges.
- Canadian group Lighthouse was originally scheduled to play at Woodstock, but in the end they decided not to, fearing that it would be a bad scene. Later, several members of the group would say that they regretted the decision.
- The Doors were considered as a potential performing band, but it was feared that lead singer Jim Morrison would take off his pants.
- Led Zeppelin was asked to perform, but refused after they were offered a gig with higher pay.
- , and my secretary called and said, 'Yeah, listen, there's this pig farmer in Upstate New York that wants you to play in his field.' That's how it was put to me. So we passed, and we realized what we'd missed a couple of days later."
Woodstock has been romanticized and idealized in American popular culture as the culmination of the and other misbehavior, as well as two fatalities from
Drug overdoses, an accidental death caused by an occupied sleeping bag being run over by a
Tractor , and logistical headaches; furthermore, because Woodstock was not intended for such a large crowd, facilities which were needed were not sufficiently present, such as a sufficient number of
Toilets and
First-aid tents.
Some who attended the festival felt that it was chaotic and did not report having a positive experience. And, it makes sense to keep in mind that not all attendees were stereotypical 1960s-era idealists primarily driven to Woodstock through a burning commitment to peace and love. Much of the crowd surely attended for largely or purely hedonistic reasons relating to having a fun time while seeing a lot of hip bands (and most likely further motivated by the strong desire and strong opportunity, at least for many such folks, of getting high or "getting lucky" for largely or purely hedonistic reasons as well). And, to expand on what's been said in the last paragraph, there were types of undesirable human behavior (not officially sanctioned) at the festival, on top of some run-of-the-mill crime, ranging from arguably some
Profiteering to the unwise and at times uncaring serving of "electric
Kool-Aid " laced with random, "throw-in-whatever" hallucinogens which made a good number of ill-informed or unwarned (or simply desperately thirsty) people sick.
Also sometimes forgotten is that Woodstock began as a profit-making venture (unlike the
Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, whose profits were earmarked for charity) and that it only became a free festival after it became obvious that the concert was drawing hundreds of thousands more people than the organizers had expected or prepared for, and that the entry gates erected had been torn down by eager arrivals. Tickets for the event (sold in 1969) cost US$18 (which would be US$95.58 in 2005 with
Inflation factored in) for all three days. Ticket sales were limited to record stores in the greater
New York City area, or by mail via a Post Office Box at the somewhat-iconic Radio City Station Post Office located in Midtown
Manhattan .
Yet, in tune with (and competing with the standards of) the idealistic and almost mythical hopes of the 1960s, Woodstock seemed to "deliver the goods" to most attendees — most of them found its atmosphere and music to contain an unprecedentedly high degree of excellence; a beatifically eye-opening experience; and an epochal event confirming the power of the '' event as well — are all brandished into the turn-of-the-21st-century's historical lore largely due, arguably but convincingly, to those who actually saw Woodstock's performers, artists, and other festival-goers "in the flesh" at the storied event.
Whatever the reasons one attended Woodstock, what is also especially notable regarding the attendees is the degree of overall tranquility, and of interpersonal acceptance and assistance, which occurred among them, despite the aforementioned problems which were found at the event — all of which, as somewhat just alluded to, adds to the lore of Woodstock as well. Even many of the aforementioned hedonistically-driven attendees were no doubt affected immediately — and with many such affected people, likely affected deeply — by the sight of so many others who were displaying what seemed to be a communal, dramatic, and somewhat spontaneous mass-gathering truly committed to peace and love.
Finally, the background events of the time — ranging from
Civil Unrest to the
Vietnam War to profound changes in fashion and music and attitudes — all provided a powerful "social backdrop" for the event. Coupling this with the overall relative sense of social harmony, quality of music, and striking mass of people (many of them sporting bohemian dress, behavior, and attitudes) at Woodstock, the event took on a meaning and spirit (both during the festival and afterwards) that, as previously strongly alluded to, seems extremely difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate today through a rock festival or other conceivable event. For an article that gathers detailed contemporaneous newspaper and magazine reports of the event — including extracts from the ''New York Times'' and ''Rolling Stone'' — see Simon Warner's chapter "Reporting Woodstock" in the book ''Remembering Woodstock'' (edited by Andy Bennett, 2004).
The 1969 Woodstock Festival is also the reported place where many people met their future spouses.
See Also: Woodstock (film)
A documentary film, ''Woodstock'', was released in 1970. It received the
Academy Award For Documentary Feature , was directed by
Michael Wadleigh , and edited by
Martin Scorsese . The film has been deemed
Culturally Significant by the United States
Library Of Congress .
Two ''. It sold millions of copies and was based on the documentary film. Due to that album's success, a second album, ''
Woodstock 2 '', was released about a year later.
