Story of Woodstock Festival

Woodstock Festival, rock festival that took place near Woodstock, New York, on August 15, 16, and 17, 1969, and that became a symbol of the 1960s American counterculture and a milestone in the history of rock music. Prominent among those attending were members of the counterculture, who were often referred to as hippies and who characteristically rejected materialism and authority, protested against the Vietnam War, supported the civil rights movement, dressed unconventionally, and experimented with sex and illicit drugs.

Photo by srv.strat

Woodstock was conceived by four young partners—Michael Lang, then the manager of a rock band; Artie Kornfeld, an executive at Capitol Records; and two venture capitalists, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman. Their original plan had been to build a recording studio in Woodstock, a small town in the Catskill Mountains that had become a rock center when musician Bob Dylan and a rock group called The Band settled there. To promote the idea of the studio the four partners decided to stage a concert, which they officially called The Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Inspired by the Monterey Pop Festival held in Monterey, California, in 1967, the Woodstock Festival was expected to attract 50,000 to 100,000 people. After a long search for a large enough space, the partners eventually rented a field from a prominent local dairy farmer, Max Yasgur, who owned land about 77 km (48mi) from Woodstock, in the town of Bethel. Early in the week before the festival, it became clear that the event was going to draw a much larger audience than expected. By the day before the official opening, traffic jams miles long blocked most roads leading to the area. On Friday, August 15, when the festival began, its management was unable to monitor the estimated 400,000 or more people coming into and out of the field and decided to waive admission fees. Sweetwater, the band scheduled to open the festival, could not get to the site because of the traffic, and so folksinger Richie Havens, who was already there, began the festival instead. As a result of the audience size, volunteers from inside and outside the festival helped relieve any possible problems: Helicopters flew in food, doctors, and medical supplies, along with many of the musical acts that were scheduled to appear. During the monumental three-day event some of the greatest musicians of the 1960s performed, including Janis Joplin, Ravi Shankar, Arlo Guthrie, and Joan Baez as well as the bands The Who; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; The Jefferson Airplane; The Grateful Dead; Sly and the Family Stone; and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Singer Joe Cocker and guitar player Carlos Santana, up to then unknown, became overnight stars. Jimi Hendrix, the final act of the festival, played a freeform solo guitar rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.” The festival caused some inconvenience to the surrounding communities and some area residents were suspicious of the unconventional looks and behavior of the young people who attended. Yet the festival was peaceful. The event, thought by some to mark a high point in the American counterculture, was documented in the motion picture Woodstock (1970).

Photo by multiplybytwo