[Vision2020] Forty Years Ago (August 15, 1969) - 3 Days of Peace and Music

[Tom Hansen]

The Woodstock Music and Art Festival was a rock music festival at Max
Yasgur's 600 acre dairy farm in the town of Bethel, New York from August
15 to August 18, 1969. It might be the most famous rock concert and
festival ever held. For many, it showed the counterculture of the 1960s
and the "hippie era". Many of the most famous musicians at the time showed
up during the rainy weekend, as can be seen in a 1970 movie, Woodstock.
Joni Mitchell's song "Woodstock", about the event, also became a major hit
song for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. In recent years, a number of
attempts were made to recreate it, but the original Woodstock festival of
1969 has proven to be legendary.
The festival was called "Woodstock", because it was supposed to be in the
town of Woodstock, in Ulster county; but the town would not give a place
for such a large event, because they thought that over a million people
would come. A place was found in the town of Wallkill, but when people who
lived there were against it, the event was almost cancelled. Sam Yasgur
persuaded his father Max to let the concert happen on the family's alfalfa
field, in Sullivan county, about 40 miles southwest of Woodstock.

Although the show was planned for as many as 200,000 fans, over 400,000
came; most of these did not pay to get in. The roads to the concert were
jammed with traffic. People left their cars and walked for miles to get to
the concert area. The weekend was rainy and overcrowded, and fans shared
food, alcoholic drinks, and drugs. Some people who lived there, including
those at nearby Camp Ma-Ho-Ge, gave blankets and food to some
concert-goers.

After two days of rain, there was deep mud in many places. There was
almost no water for washing, and not enough toilets. Many of the
concert-goers had brought small tents to sleep in; some of these turned
into piles of cloth and mud. Even though this may not have been the most
comfortable place, the crowd kept up kindness and good cheer among
themselves. As the half-million people in the audience became aware of
this, a warm feeling of friendship spread to everyone. Some of the music
stars of Woodstock were The Who and Jimi Hendrix.

Because of arguments about getting paid, The Who did not play on the stage
until about 4:00 in the morning. One part of The Who's show was the song
"See Me, Feel Me", when the sun rose just as lead singer Roger Daltrey
started to sing the chorus. When The Who was still playing, Abbie Hoffman
jumped on the stage stopping the show, and tried to stir up the crowd with
yippie slogans, but he was knocked off the stage by the guitar of the
band's leader, Pete Townshend, to the delight of the audience. At the end
of The Who's set, Townshend slammed his guitar into the stage and threw it
into the crowd. This helped set up The Who as super-stars, and caused
their album Tommy to sell multi-platinum.


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The build-up of Woodstock's stages while Crosby, Stills and Nash are
playing in the background.

Crosby Stills Nash A Long Time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PFCgAhZEO8

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Woodstock, A Retrospective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ4QF45Vygw

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Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze – Woodstock 1969

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIvs4j4IniA

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Joe Cocker – With A Little Help From My Friends – Woodstock 1969

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQYDvQ1HH-E

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Richie Havens – Freedom – Woodstock 1969

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-d5x-CiTUs

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The Who – My Generation – Woodstock 1969

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH9IgJZCx4c

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Joan Baez – We Shall Overcome – Woodstock 1969

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQiIZXkt2RM

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Creedence Clearwater Revival – Born on the Bayou – Woodstock 1969

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJjW_ddjqbI

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Janis Joplin – Work Me Lord – Woodstock 1969

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAY-Ei7SFWw

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Arlo Guthrie – Coming Into Los Angeles – Woodstock 1969

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwsDYcKpCTs

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Country Joe and the Fish – Fixin’ to Die Rag – Woodstock 1969

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdeCxJmcAo

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Max Yasgur on stage at Woodstock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R4yv63TaAI

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Seeya at Palouse Pride, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

“This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place, and I
think you people have proven something to the world: that a half a million
kids can get together and have three days of fun and music and have
nothing *but* fun and music, and I God bless you for it!”

- Max Yasgur (Dairy farmer who, in 1969, let his land be used for the
Woodstock festival)