Woodstock+Festival+'69

= Woodstock =

= = = =

toc Woodstock was an outdoor music festival that has held Friday through Monday the weekend of August 15, 1969. The festival was held at Bethel, New York on a 600 acre dairy farm, 43 miles from its namesake Woodstock, New York. During the weekend, thirty-two acts performed to half a million people. Woodstock is regarded as one of the greatest rock concerts in history and is considered one the most iconic events of the 60’s.

** Planning and Organization **
Woodstock was planned and prepared through the work of four men: Michael Lang, John Roberts , Joel Rosenman , and Artie Kornfield. Micheal Lang was the one who possessed previous experience as a concert promoter. The Miami Pop Festival, where an estimated 100,000 attended, was one the festivals he organized. Roberts and Rosenman possessed the financial resources (Roberts was heir to a pharmaceutical firm and Rosenman was a music executive) and planned to use their money as an investment. The two placed an ad in the New York Times saying, “Young men with unlimited capital looking for interesting, legitimate investment opportunities and business propositions" The advertisement caught the attention of Lang and Kornfield and the men collaborated initially on having a recording studio retreat at Woodstock where many top artists lived ( Bob Dylan, The Band ). The idea morphed into a music festival for 50,000 people where the top artists in the world, at the time, would play. Tickets were printed and sold through mail or in select stores. Tickets prices ranged from $7-$18 depending on how many days one planned to attend. The men finished planning with gathering food, hiring security and signing artists. Creedence Clearwater Revival was the first act to sign agreeing to play at the concert for $10,000. Doug Clifford , Creedence’s drummer, later said, "Once Creedence signed, everyone else jumped in line and all the other big acts came on."

** Complications **
The initial location decided for the festival was at Wallkill, New York. The Woodstock Ventures (Roberts, Rosenman, Lang, Kornfield) had rented out a farm in the area and had all of the logistics planned out. Unfortunately the townspeople opposed the project; they did not want thousands of hippies descending on their town causing mass chaos and damage. On July 15th 1969, a month before the festival was planned to occur, the town banned the concert officially citing that the outhouses did not meet the town code. Despite the set back, Max Yasgur quickly offered his farm in Bethel for the festival. The Yasgur’s farmland formed a slow bowl which slowly dipped down. This was where the stage was built and behind the stage was a pond. The pond would become popular for skinny dipping later on. However, the late change in location did not give the organizers time to prepare, and it soon became apparent that over 200,000 people were attending. Faced with major logistical problems and not having time to build fences and ticket booths, the men decided to make the concert free due to fear of rioting.

** Festival **
The festival itself was surprisingly peaceful considering the fact that an estimated 500,000 people attended the event and there were no reported fights or other violence. The event was characterized with rock’ n’ roll, nudity, lots of drugs, sex along with rain and mud. An estimated 500,000 people showed up and another million journeyed to Woodstock but created an eternal traffic jam around the area. The organizers were forced to hire helicopters to shuttle the performing acts to the stage. Two babies were born during the festival, two people died from a heroin overdose. Finally, one person died from a tractor running over them. Despite the massive food shortage, lack of water and poor sanitary conditions, the concert went relatively well and many attendants were satisfied. Oral stories describe the festival as a spiritual experience where half a million people attended a concert where was there social harmony, peace and love. People shared food, water and sexual partners. The attendees had fun taking drugs, skinny dipping and listening to music.

** Performing Acts **

 * Friday, August 15**
 * Richie Havens
 * Swami Satchidananda - gave the invocation for the festival
 * Sweetwater
 * Bert Sommer
 * Ravi Shankar
 * Tim Hardin
 * Melanie
 * Arlo Guthrie
 * Joan Baez
 * Saturday, August 16**
 * Quill, forty-minute set of four songs
 * Country Joe McDonald
 * John Sebastian
 * [[image:http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BQaigIqXhFs/TUNjvCf8vwI/AAAAAAAABKg/2BRMtbICrvk/s1600/Who-Woodstock.jpg width="483" height="314" align="right" caption="The Who live at Woodstock"]] Santana
 * Keef Hartley Band
 * The Incredible String Band
 * Canned Heat
 * Mountain
 * Grateful Dead
 * Creedence Clearwater Revival
 * Janis Joplin with The Kozmic Blues Band
 * Sly & the Family Stone
 * The Who began at 4 a.m., kicking off a 25-song set
 * Jefferson Airplane
 * Sunday, August 17 to Monday, August 18**
 * The Grease Band
 * Joe Cocker
 * Country Joe and the Fish
 * Ten Years After
 * The Band
 * Blood, Sweat & Tears
 * Johnny Winter featuring his brother, Edgar Winter
 * Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
 * Paul Butterfield Blues Band
 * Sha-Na-Na
 * Jimi Hendrix

**__ Noteworthy Performances __**
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 * Jimi Hendrix performed a psychedelic style improvisation of the national anthem. This rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner is regarded as one of the most iconic events of the 60’s.
 * Creedence Clearwater Revival played a 3 am set and members express bitter memories of the event. Concertgoers Despite their instrumental role in the success of Woodstock, the band believes themselves cheated due to the fact that the Grateful Dead jammed too long and all the concertgoers were asleep.
 * During the Who’s performance of their rock opera //Tommy//, Hossman a friend of Lang was onstage. He leapt up grabbed a microphone and criticized the performance. Pete Townshend , the band’s guitarist, hit him with his guitar.

= Woodstock Analysis =

The Woodstock music festival is the culmination of the counterculture movement during the 60’s. Half a million hippies gathered in relative peace to smoke pot, trip on LSD and groove to rock music. The festival is the clearest representation of what counterculture stood for peace, love, casual sex, drugs and harmony. The impact of these ideals continue to influence society today especially in the ideals of the youth.

**Woodstock and Rock Music **
Woodstock, the festival, is considered to be one the greatest concerts in rock’ n' roll history. The festival highlighted the cultural influence rock’ n ‘roll had on popular culture. The festival also ushered in the popularity of rock which is still seen today with an estimated two-thirds of people tuning to rock channels. Rock still heavily influences music today even 50 years after the 60’s. The festival is also remembered as one of the most iconic events in history. People still celebrate anniversaries of Woodstock the in 2009 being the 40th anniversary.

** Setting behind Woodstock **
The 60’s was a time of social dissent. The Civil Rights movement was at its peak with leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X spearheading racial equality. The Feminist movement was on the rise focusing on equal rights for both genders. The Vietnam War served as a back drop to the counterculture movement as anti-war sentiment, and a general atmosphere of rejecting social rules led many youth to abandon their middle class families in search of a new philosophy and way of life. These youth, calling themselves hippies, embraced the philosophies of the dissenting movements and rejected western society. Hippies instead accepted eastern values of Buddhism and Hinduism, and they emphasized living in harmony with oneself, other people and the Earth using the guiding motto “all you need is love.” To achieve harmony and inner peace, the hippies used drugs such as marijuana, LSD and heroin. The movement gained momentum as the Vietnam War dragged on, and by August 15th, 1969, the hippie movement reached its peak of influence and social acceptance.

** The Hippie Movement **
One must understand counterculture to understand the influence it had on society today. Counterculture is considered to be a reaction to the adult society of the 50’s. During the 50’s children were expected to be grateful, obedient sons and daughter ’s who followed strict family values such as abstinence and emphasis on education. However by the late 60’s the Vietnam War draft and the perceived oppression of youth led to a reaction to authority and government. Youths gathered in small communities where they rejected social restrictions, embraced values such as spiritual harmony, and a focus on being open-minded. These values lead hippies to embrace drugs, casual sex and a laid-back out look on life. Hippies also began to dress in a more bohemian style with round colored shades, tie-die, Native American jewelry and head bands. Men grew beards and women wore little to no make-up; both genders grew long hair.

** Impact Today **
More important than the event of Woodstock are the ideals behind Woodstock. Though the hippie movement is largely non existent in the U.S today the influence on society is immense. Firstly, drugs now are a huge part of society today. Marijuana is still very popular as a recreational drug with an estimated 40% of the population today say they have tried marijuana. LSD became extremely influential in the social acceptance of drugs. An estimated number of first time LSD users exploded from 200,000 to nearly a million between 1967 and 1968. Overall drugs are more accepted in society today due to the hippie movement. The hippie movement also changed attitudes about sex. Abstinence and family values changed to free love and “make love not war.” With an estimated 75% of Americans have had premarital sex compared to 48% during the 50’s. Today, sex outside marriage sex is more common place, though this also led to the rise of STD’s. Finally, Woodstock and hippies changed the role of youth. The days of obedient teenage children were gone. Even today, the general stereotype of teen is of an ignorant, rebellious person.

** Legacy **
Woodstock represented the very best of hippie culture; for four days, the world saw what the hippies stood for: peace, harmony, open-mindedness and acceptance. The impact of the movement and Woodstock are astronomical. Today Woodstock is viewed in an almost nostalgic way as the youth of today look back and see how half a million hippies showed up at a farm and enjoyed three days of peace, love and rock' n' 'roll.

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Spirit of the Woodstock Nation, LLC, 2009. Print.

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2007. Print.

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