A list of things you didn’t know about Woodstock
At the height of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, just a month after Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon, and just a week after the Manson murders took place in the Hollywood Hills, a crowd of half a million made their way to a muddy field beside a lake in the Catskill Mountains for what was to be a three-day festival of peace and music.
No one could have known it at the time, but the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, which began just after 5pm on August 15, 1969, would become a generation-defining, cultural touchstone that, a half-century later, continues to resonate, fascinate, and inspire imitations.
The original plan had nothing to do with a music festival
Lang and Kornfeld approached Roberts and Rosenman to invest in their dream of building a recording studio. However, the group quickly changed course, abandoning the idea of an indoor studio in favour of an outdoor music festival.
It didn't take place in Woodstock
The Woodstock Music and Arts Fair took place in Bethel, New York. Bethel, a town in Sullivan County, New York with a population of under 5,000 people, is around 110km southwest of Woodstock, New York.
... so why then "Woodstock"?
The newly formed investment group originally wished to build their recording studio in the bucolic, quaint and artsy Ulster County town of Woodstock, New York and therefore named their enterprise, “Woodstock Ventures.”
Woodstock was and is a haven for musicians, including Bob Dylan, who was a resident of Woodstock at the time of the festival.
Bob Dylan didn't perform at Woodstock
Despite that Bob Dylan was known for making music in Woodstock (he famously recorded music with The Band there), he declined an invitation to perform at the Woodstock festival in Bethel. He chose instead to perform at a music festival on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom.
The song "Woodstock" was written by someone who didn't perform at Woodstock
“Woodstock” was written by musician Joni Mitchell, who wasn’t even there (for reasons we’ll delve into later). But her boyfriend at the time was Graham Nash, and he was there and told her all about it. The song became one of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s most recognisable classics.
The moment Woodstock became "countercultural"
With Yasgur on board and permits promised by the Bethel Town Attorney and Building Inspector, the Town of Bethel nevertheless refused to issue the permit. A “Stop-Work” order was issued for Yasgur’s premises. This is the moment things became “countercultural” as Yasgur stood firm against the town and encouraged the young men involved to ignore the order.
How "countercultural" became "chaotic"
With less than a month to go before the festival was to begin, Woodstock Ventures began constructing a stage, concession stands, bathroom facilities, gates, fences and all other infrastructure needed to host a music festival.
Originally, they planned for 50,000 attendees, but by August 13, 1969, two days before the concert was set to start, at least that number had already arrived and were camped out waiting for the festival to begin, and at least another 100,000 tickets had been pre-sold.
Nearly half a million people showed up in total, so to say the organisers were ill-prepared was an understatement.
Only some people paid admission
As many as 186,000 $6 tickets were sold. But with the gates and fence incomplete when the crowds began arriving, the organisers realised there was no way they could check tickets or charge on-site admissions. So they stopped trying and opened the festival up to the public for free.
How the "bomber death planes" turned into "butterflies"
Mitchell’s “Woodstock” lyrics included the following line: “And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes riding shotgun in the sky, turning into butterflies above our nation.” While this was, no doubt, a reference to Woodstock’s transformative vibe of peace and love, it may also have been a reference to the assistance provided by the U.S. military, which kept the festival going amid the chaos by deploying army helicopters to deliver performers and much-needed medical supplies and food.
The three-day festival ended up lasting four days
Woodstock was billed as a three-day festival. But the chaotic conditions, including crowding, inclement weather and rampant drug use, led to delays, and the festival ended up stretching to a fourth day.
The set list was determined by traffic conditions
The first performer was supposed to have been Sweetwater, but they were stuck in traffic, so to get things going, the organisers asked folk musician Richie Havens to step up and perform the first set. Many acts had to be helicoptered in, including Arlo Guthrie and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Jimi Hendrix had the last words
Jimi Hendrix’s contract with the organisers stipulated no act could perform after him. Despite the chaos that had thrown the schedule off track, the organisers honoured Hendrix’s contract. At 9am Monday morning, after most of the crowd had already begun to head home – because the festival had been scheduled to end on Sunday night – Hendrix performed the festival finale, including his epic version of “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Creedence Clearwater Revival's debacle
Creedence Clearwater Revival had been the first big act invited to play at Woodstock. Originally scheduled to go on in the prime spot of just-after-midnight on Saturday night, Creedence had to wait until after 1am due to delays, including technical difficulties during the Grateful Dead’s performance. Most of the audience was asleep. Lead singer John Fogerty described the scene to Culture Sonar as “bodies from hell, all intertwined and asleep, covered with mud.”
Jerry Garcia had a "great weekend" but a "terrible set"
“The weekend was great, but our set was terrible. We were all pretty smashed, and it was at night,” he’s quoted by Biography as having said in 1971. Not only was he terrified the stage was going to collapse, the rain was causing the band’s guitars to spark. “Every time we touched our guitars, we’d get these electrical shocks. Blue sparks were flying out of our guitars.”
Woodstock launched Martin Scorsese's career
The 1970 documentary film, Woodstock, directed by Michael Wadleigh, was Martin Scorsese’s launching pad as a filmmaker. Having been hired as an assistant director, he was given the opportunity to do some editing work on the 120 hours of footage that had been taken. “I went to Woodstock as a schlep, and I came back as a schlep, but now I’m an assistant editor,” he’s quoted as having said in the aftermath.
The financial cost
All told, the four organisers spent nearly $3.1 million ($15 million in today’s money) on Woodstock – and took in just $1.8 million. Roberts’ wealthy family agreed to temporarily cover the enormous costs, but required repayment. It wasn’t until the early 1980s that Rosenman and Roberts were finally able to pay off the last of their debt.
Not everyone survived Woodstock
Sadly, one attendee died after being run over by a tractor. Another two died due to overdoses. In addition, eight women reportedly experienced miscarriages during the festival. Joan Baez, who was six months pregnant at the time, was not one of them.
Peace prevailed, mostly
Woodstock remained true to its “peaceful” billing except for one act of violence that happened when social agitator, Abbie Hoffman, jumped on stage during The Who’s performance to commandeer a microphone. “Many remember Abbie Hoffman being whacked in the head by the guitar-wielding Pete Townshend,” the Globe and Mail reports, but in Lang’s Woodstock memoir, he defends both Townshend and Hoffman.
Woodstock, 1994
Twenty-five years after turning down the first Woodstock festival, Saugerties hosted Woodstock II, the 25th-anniversary celebration of Woodstock. This time, Bob Dylan showed up. So did some of the original Woodstock performers. They were joined by newer groups such as Nine Inch Nails and Green Day, and about 300,000 audience members. Like the original Woodstock, the weekend was muddy and rainy.
Why no Woodstock 2019?
Since late 2018, one of the original organisers, Michael Lang, had been planning to commemorate the original festival’s 50th anniversary with an upstate New York outdoor music festival featuring around 80 major music acts, including some of the original performers. But plans went awry, and on August 1 the New York Times announced that Woodstock 50 was officially dead.
Image credits: Getty Images
This article originally appeared on Reader's Digest.