In 1969, a monumental music festival changed our world. More than half a million people came together - united in a message of peace, openness and cultural expression – and demonstrated how a generation could be heard. Today, Woodstock lives on. Gathered on Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York, they came from all over....changing forever the face of rock and roll-encrypting our minds with images of love and peace....
Woodstock originally was designed as a profit-making venture. It famously became a "free concert" only after it became obvious that the event was drawing hundreds of thousands more people than the organizers had prepared for. Tickets for the event cost $18 in advance and $24 at the gate for all three days. But a late change in venue did not give the festival organizers enough time to prepare. Organizers felt they had two choices. One option was to improve the fencing and security which might have resulted in violence; the other involved putting all their resources into completing the stage, which would cause promoters to take a financial hit. The crowd, which was arriving in greater numbers and earlier than anticipated, made the decision for them. The fence was cut the night before the concert.
During the sometimes rainy weekend, thirty-two acts performed outdoors. Among them were sensational bands like Santana, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, Ten Years After, the Band, CSN&Y and Jimi Hendrix. I know, that's a lot of acts!
The influx of attendees to the rural concert site in Bethel created a massive traffic jam. To add to the problems and difficulty in dealing with the large crowds, recent rains had caused muddy roads and fields. The facilities were not equipped to provide sanitation or first aid for the number of people attending; hundreds of thousands found themselves in a struggle against bad weather, food shortages, and poor sanitation.
The festival was remarkably peaceful given the number of people and the conditions involved, the audience, in tune with the idealistic hopes of the 1960s, Woodstock satisfied most attendees. There was a sense of social harmony, which, with the quality of music, and the overwhelming mass of people, many sporting Bohemian dress, behavior, and attitudes helped to make it one of the enduring events of the century.
It is widely regarded as one of the most pivotal moments in rock and roll's music history...I have often wondered what it would be like to have experienced this.
25 years later gave birth to a new generation to the those attended the first. Organizers had come with plans for a second Woodstock to commemorate the anniversary of the original. Of course by then, the times had changed and the music had evolved. Skepticism arose as plans unraveled. Would the memory of the original be tarnished?
Woodstock '94 was settled in a large field in Saugarties, NY, about ten miles away from the original site and it was originally proposed as the location for the 1969 concert for permission to use the property was not granted. Tickets were sold for $135 to try to limit attendance to 250,000 people. Kind of steep price, yet considering the Eagles were charging the same amount for their shows, to see 67 acts in three days seemed fair. An eight foot high fence was erected around the venue to thwart gate crashers.
Instead of driving cross country and paying the big bucks to see this historical event, it was decided that staying at home and spending $50 to watch it on pay per view was a better idea. After all, it was my Woodstock...and I got a free T-shirt out of the deal. So I took the liberty of video and audio taping the ENTIRE concert...
67 acts and a wide diverse amount music covering two stages was presented to the hordes of music fans that came in from all points of the globe. Some new acts as well as the older ones. Among them were Collective Soul, Blues Traveler, Blind Melon, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, Aerosmith, Allman Brothers Band, Green Day, Bob Dylan, Traffic, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Peter Gabriel. Returning from 1969 were Santana, Joe Cocker, Country Joe, CSN and the Band. There was no way I could miss this...
As I was watching this spectacle, I couldn't help to notice how surreal and crazy it was. It was a combination of generations-young and old-in the crowds and in the mosh pits. Body surfing, beach balls and naked people. An experience that felt a reminiscent to the original Woodstock with a modern twist. Rains came down during Saturday afternoon turning the place into "Mudstock". Out came the "Mudpeople" turning hills into mudslides-all caked with mud. By the time Aerosmith hit the stage late Saturday night with a mind blowing show, the crowd had swelled to an approximate 450,000 people. The gates had been taken down, lest people getting injured breaking in. At that point it became a free concert....
By the time I shut down my VCR and stereo, moments after the Sunday night Peter Gabriel finished his set, I was exhausted. Yet I smiled when I went to bed knowing a peaceful show worthy of the Woodstock name would bring up memories of a lifetime for me....
Five years later, as promoters wanted, came another Woodstock. Given the circumstances of the previous peaceful Woodstocks back in '69 and '94, it didn't seem to be a bad idea at first. A Woodstock every five years? The first one was a sacrilege while the second one was a peaceful commemorative, the third one was overkill.
Organizers picked the abandoned Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, NY, which was about 200 miles away from the original site, to solve the problems dealing with the mud that plagued the previous shows. Tickets were sold for $150 a piece, which were considered expensive that time period standards. Prior to the concert, the promoters of the event were determined to avoid the gate-crashing that had occurred at previous festivals, and had characterized the site as "defensible", describing the 12-foot plywood and steel fence intended to keep out those without tickets. About 500 New York State Troopers were hired for security. Woodstock 99 was conceived and executed as a commercial venture with dozens of corporate sponsors, and included the presence of vendor "malls" and modern acoutrements such as ATM's and e-mail stations.
Over 100 acts came to this event! Among them were Insane Clown Pose, Buckcherry, Korn, Bush, Kid Rock, Counting Crows, Dave Matthews Band, Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine, Muse, Godsmack, Jewel, Willie Nelson, Creed and Megadeth, Returning from '94 were Collective Soul, Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. No one from the '69 show made an appearance...
Sounds if the promoters finally got it all together....WRONG! Very wrong...
But what went wrong? Crass commercialism for starters. Participants who had not brought sufficient food or water to the show had to either buy from onsite vendors, whose merchandise was expensive: a single-serving pizza sold for $12, bottles of water and soda went for five bucks a pop. The oppressive heat —which reached above 100 F-baking concert goers on the asphalt certainly didn't help matters. One by one, the testosterone driven metal bands pushed the crowds into a frenzy. Some crowd violence and looting was reported during the Saturday night performance by Limp Bizkit, including a rendition of the song "Break Stuff". Violence escalated the next night during the final hours of the concert as the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed. During the band's set, the crowd began to light candles, some also using them to start bonfires. The hundreds of empty plastic water bottles that littered the lawn/dance area were used as fuel for the fire. Many large bonfires were burning high before the band left the stage for the last time. Participants danced in circles around the fires. Looking for more fuel, some tore off panels of plywood from the supposedly inviolable security perimeter fence. ATMs were tipped over and broken into, trailers full of merchandise and equipment were forced open and burglarized, and abandoned vendor booths were turned over, and set afire.
Police investigated four alleged instances of rape that occurred during the concert. Eyewitnesses reported a body-surfing woman being pulled down into the crowd and gang-raped in the moshpit during Limp Bizkit's set. Seven arrests were made on the final night of the concert and, afterward, police reviewed video footage, hoping to identify and hold accountable rapists and looters who, amid the chaos, had not been arrested. Approximately 12 trailers, a small bus and a number of booths and portable toilets were burned in the fray. Six people were injured.
I was so glad that I turned down the $50 per per view for this show. The only act that I was even interested in at the time was Metallica. It deeply saddened me, to know that the great sacrilege of Woodstock was tarnished by a bunch of assholes....
Over the weekend Hurricane Irene sliced up the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to New England leaving a death toll now at 37 and a trail of destruction in its wake. As of this point, millions are still without power and the rebuilding begins.
