Woodstock Festival

if you could go back in time to any music festival in the past, which one it will be?

Mine will be woodstock for sure!

imagine being in a crowed of 500,000 people listening to the best artists of the 60’s, like jimmy hendrix, santana and CSN.

3 days, best music, best crowed, once in a lifetime or in a shorter name: woodstock festival 1969

Organizing Woodstock:

Woodstock festival was founded by four young men: John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang.

Michael Lang had experience in organizing festivals such as the Miami Pop Festival in 1968, but it was much smaller size.

The festival was supposed to take place in Howard Mills Industrial Park, Wallkill, New York. Shortly after, Wallkill town officials canceled, and only a month before the official date, Max Yasgur, a local farmer, offered to rent a part of his land in the White Lake area of Bethel, New York.

A short interview with Michael Lang:

Expectations Vs. reality:

Although Woodstock had the reputation, the logistics were quite a mess. by the time people started arriving the gates the ticket booths still weren’t ready. With no way to charge everybody, the organizers decided to make Woodstock a free event. originally, tickets costed about 150 USD today.

the organizers expected for 50,000 people to show up. Surprisingly 500,000 people reached the event!

the massive attendance made some serious problems:

there was one toilet cell for every 883 people, only dozen police officers.

Highways and local roads came to a standstill and many people simply trekked the way on foot, leaving their cars on the freeway.

Unfortunately, one teenager died after being run over by a tractor.

“I came upon a child of God

He was walking along the road

And I asked him where are you going

And this he told me

I’m going on down to Yasgur’s farm

I’m going to join in a rock ‘n’ roll band

I’m going to camp out on the land

I’m going to try an’ get my soul free”

Woodstock by joni mitchell

Joni mitchell was unabled to show up due to schedule conflicts, but wrote this song by her boyfriend’s stories back then, Graham Nash.

woodstock was the greatest music festival in the 60’s and still remains the favorite of 60’s lovers.

“Woodstock was not about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It was about spirituality, about love, about sharing, about helping each other, living in peace and harmony.”- Richie Havens

Richie Havens was the first in a list of 32 musicians that preformed in the festival, some of the best in those times.

let’s begin with the Richie Havens performance. Due to the traffic jams, some artists were delayed to the festival, so Havens continued playing to a total show of 3 hours!

Santana:

On the second day, there was a remarkable show by Santana who was pretty unknown until then and only played local gigs  in San Francisco.

Their debut album ‘Santana’ was released in the same month of the festival.

Notice Michael Shrieve drum solo!

The Grateful Dead:

The Grateful Dead came late because their soundman wanted to fix some electrical issues caused by the rain. Further, the stage was flooded and Sadly, the band members received electrical shocks when they touched their guitars and microphones.

The grateful Dead regarded as one of the best live bands back then, their show considered extremely bad.

The Who:

The Who started playing around 5:00 AM.

They played their famous exceptional Tommy album, a Rock Opera. During the show, Abbie Hoffman got on stage and grabed a microphone. Hoffman was protesting against the imprisonment of a marijuana usage. Townshend (the guitarist), was angry that someone took the stage, yelled: “Fuck off! Fuck off my fucking stage!” and hit him with his guitar!

Joe Cocker:

Joe Cocker went on stage at about 2.00 PM. Back then Cocker was hardly known. But after his success at Woodstock he became famous everywhere. Especially known for his cover to The Beatles song “With a Little Help from My Friends”.

Crosby Still and Nash:

Crosby Still and Nash (with Young), My all time Woodstock favorite! Their first gig was only a week before the festival! They said: “This is only the second time we’ve performed in front of people. We’re scared shitless”.

They opened with “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and covered The Beatles song “Blackbird”. Their setlist includes some other great songs from their first album.

Jimi Hendrix:

Hendrix’s band were the last to perform, scheduled for the third day’s night. Due to several delays (mostly rain), they played in the next day morning. the crowd had thinned to around 25,000 people.

The setlist was a mixture of well-known Jimi Hendrix Experience songs as well as some new materials.

Though he played it also on other occasions, his version to the national anthem famously associated with Woodstock. He imitated within his guitar gunfire, bombs and rockets sound criticizing the Vietnam war.

Fun fact- It was the only Hendrix show with second guitarist.

Woodstock officially ended after Hendrix left the stage.

Anti War Movement:

In 1969, US was deep into Vietnam War and it was also the era of the civil right movement. Woodstock was an opportunity for people to escape into music and spread a message of non violent protest, peace and love.

“What we are fighting for?

Dont ask me, I don’t give a damn,

Next stop in Vietnam”

Woodstock Legacy:

1969 Woodstock still considered the best music festival until today.

More than a festival, Woodstock was a symbol to the end of 60’s freedom, hippies, sex and drugs lifestyle. A year later, two of the best participants Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died.

Woodstock through the eyes of Max Yasgur, the farmer who lent his land for the festival: “…You’ve proven something to the world…the important thing that you’ve proven to the world is that a half a million kids, and I call you kids because I have children who are older than you are, a half a million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music and God bless you for it!”