A Rain-Soaked Affair
The Woodstock festival (planned as a three-day event that ran for four days) culminated on a Monday on August 18, 1969. It was a rain-soaked event, which meant that festival-goers had to dredge through all the mud. Electricals were also affected and risked the performers who took to the stage to thrill the gathered masses.
The buzzing sound of amplifiers and microphones frequently echoed through the grounds, and the equipment also sent jolts of shocks to anyone who handled them. These conditions also affected some of the bands' performances, and the technical difficulties didn't allow some of them to complete their sets.
Peace, Love, & Hardcore Partying
Woodstock, promoted as a live music event in the countryside, geared towards bringing together the inspired generation of young people at the peak of the love and peace culture that reigned at the time. A line-up of 32 musicians got scheduled to perform, and in every sense, they brought down the house.
Nearly half a million people descended on the farm to enjoy great music and indulge in some hardcore partying. Illicit drugs were in free flow, and even some performers were said to have taken to the stage in "high spirits." This photo captures the sense of freeness experienced during the festival.
A 20-Mile Entanglement
Sold-out is an understatement when describing the turnout at the Woodstock event. The 600-acre farm got filled to the brim, causing a logistical issue. Cars created a huge snarl-up on highway 17B, and the traffic jam went on for over 20 miles.
Woodstock caused a spectacle in the upstate New York locale, which housed an estimated 3,900 locals. They were naturally baffled by the massive gathering, and it wasn't peace and love for them, exactly. Most people had to ditch their vehicles and proceed to the farm on foot, while others resorted to climbing up their rides or elevated areas to get a glimpse of the concert from a distance.
Hip Fashion
Woodstock was an event of cultural significance with the diverse display of art, music, and fashion. The crowd turned up in their best garb, given that this was smack in the middle of the hippie generation. The hippie generation often gets caricatured as an irresponsible, naive, and unconsequential one, but nobody can dispute that they were also a fashionable lot.
This girl stepped out in a black outfit that she paired with a leather armband, artisanal necklaces, and a cowboy belt. The photos from the event still serve as a point of reference for several young women and men nowadays who are involved in the fashion industry.
Lighthearted Moments
Woodstock brought together teenagers and hippies from just about every corner of America. They were all drawn to Bethel, New York, with the promise of enjoying a weekend of nothing but love and peace punctuated with incredible music.
Pictured above is a young Jackie Barg, sitting on the grass and peacefully blowing out bubbles in the air. We also appreciate that photographers were documenting the event. They have helped us take a walk down memory lane, getting a glimpse of a portion of what life was like in the '60s.
The Festival Headliner
Woodstock also put together one of the best line-ups ever, featuring notable musicians like Ravi Shankar, Joan Baez, Santana, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, Jimi Hendrix's band, accompanied him to deliver an epic performance. Hendrix was the festival's headliner, and he didn't disappoint.
Monday morning served as an extra, with Hendrix's performance going well into the wee hours of the morning. He belted out hits like Purple Haze and Foxy Lady, and it was well worth it for those who stayed till then. Hendrix reportedly banked $18K from that performance.
A Crowd Of 40,000 On The Last Day
The crowd had thinned out significantly by the time Hendrix took to the stage, and it was because of the rainfall. Unfortunately for those who bailed out before Hendrix took to the stage, they missed out on what was undisputedly the best and longest performance in his career.
Hendrix had chosen a morning slot after the rainfall messed things up. The event, meant to wrap up on Sunday, saw people already dispersing by the time of his performance. The crowd had gone down to about 40,000. But with Hendrix delivering a two-hour set, it was well worth the wait.
Love That Stood The Test Of Time
This photo is perhaps one of the more famous ones from Woodstock. It captured a young couple wrapped up in a blanket, trying to beat the cold. It happens to be Nick Ercoline and Bobbi Kelly, whose love story embodies what the Woodstock festival was all about. The at-the-time young couple was taking in the sweet sounds of Jefferson Airplane's set.
Ercoline and Kelly have stayed together to this day. They've proven that theirs was a love meant to last, much like how the great memories from Woodstock stood the test of time. They are married and have two children.
The Hippiest-Dippiest Signs
Even the signs depicted what the festival was all about, and naturally, they took on a hippie-theme. Regardless of your chosen path, you were guaranteed to bump into pleasant surprises, and it looks like it was lots of fun roaming around the grounds.
Woodstock depicted the optimism shared by the generation that believed in the counterculture movement. Above all, everyone wanted a better future, and they didn't want to see the world descend back to what it became during the two World Wars. We can't say that "the better future" was realized, but the beautiful messages from that generation still resonate in our hearts and minds.
Vibing With The Crowd
The atmosphere created at Woodstock was simply spectacular, and even the celebrities who attended the festival mingled freely with the crowd. There were vast acres of grass to sit on for the perfect experience of love and peace. Here, we see Grace Slick, Jefferson Airplane's lead singer, and Sally Mann (wife to drummer Spencer Dryden at the time) just chilling out.
Slick would later confess during an interview with Rolling Stone that getting to the Woodstock site was near impossible. The massive vehicle entanglement had closed off all the roads. Fortunately, the festival organizer arranged for the band to fly in aboard a helicopter.
Tim Hardin Left His Mark At Woodstock
Tim Hardin took to the Woodstock stage for a solo performance of his classic hit If I Were A Carpenter. He only had his guitar for that performance, and before he went up on stage, this photo was snapped, showing him deep in focus while writing something down.
Hardin also performed a set with the backing of a band, and it's a shame that his performances didn't get included in the '70 film or the original Woodstock soundtrack album. Thankfully, his performances later made it on the 1994 Woodstock box set.
Setting The Standards For Future Festivals
People who attend music festivals always dress to the nines and show up with the right attitude to have lots of fun. It all goes back to the Woodstock festival. The event hugely set the precedence of what everyone can expect from festival-goers and performers.
The photo above is a clear indication of where it all started, and looking at this lady dressed the part, gives us a sense of deja vu. That's why you see young festival attendees these days incorporating shiny stickers and sprinkles as part of their festival look.
The Muddy Grounds Didn't Dampen Their Spirits
Besides the logistic nightmare, Woodstock was a chaotic scene because of the downpour. The adverse weather conditions didn't deter the festival from proceeding as it should, though. The crowd braved the muddy grounds and even set up tents to rest in between the festival days.
They also didn't care about getting their feet dirty, and it isn't even a big concern when you are having fun. These two look like they were making the best out of it all, wringing a blanket that got drenched as it rained. They were in great spirits and were in it to enjoy the unforgettable performances.
Nourishing The Spirit
Hippies receive a fair share of criticism stemming from the perception that they are hypocritical and shallow. Nowadays, the movement is all about promoting counterculture and subculture at a spiritual level. Woodstock isn't even close to what you would describe as a religious festival, but it drew in a few well-known spiritual leaders.
Swami Satchidananda Saraswati, the late Indian yoga adept religious teacher, is one of the spiritual gurus whose presence didn't go unnoticed. He delivered a speech that kicked off the festival, explaining that music is a connecting element in the world. Nowadays, Indian religious culture has a visibly strong presence in America, stemming from those times.
A Welcoming Small-Town Farmer
Woodstock Ventures is the company behind the festival's financing, and the enterprise still exists to this day. According to Reuters, the company is still raking in the big bucks. Their ventures wouldn't have been possible without the farm that hosted the event.
Max Yasgur is the man who opened up his doors to host the festival. A Bethel-based farmer, Yasgur was more than welcoming to the crowd that descended on his dairy farm for the celebratory weekend. Unfortunately, his neighbors in the small town didn't take too kindly to the event's proportions, and they even sued him. Yasgur passed away in 1973, just four years after the historic festival.
Milk Right From The Source
Since the event happened on a dairy farm, there were lots of cows roaming around. One of the cattle became famous thanks to this photo that showcased a group of festival-goers milking it for some fresh milk.
One of the shortcomings of the festival encountering adverse weather conditions, along with the pile-up on the highway, is that it made it near impossible to leave and access food. The thousands of attendees who arrived unprepared for the unforeseen circumstances were more than happy to enjoy a fresh glass of milk right from the source, though.
A Closer Look At The Traffic Jam
The highway pile-up we were referring to has been captured clearly in this photo. Several people were unable to make it to the concert site because of the unprecedented traffic jam. Most resorted to leaving their vehicles on the road and walking ten or so miles to the farm.
This young couple got photographed killing time while sitting on the trunk of a vehicle. The acoustic guitar, a befitting item to bring in a musical event, may have provided some reprieve upon waiting hopefully for the rides to start moving.
Free For All
The massive turnout presented some questions since the event organizers only sold 100,000 tickets. The '60s were a different time, and during the counterculture movement, youngsters weren't going to let something as frivolous as not having tickets prevent them from showing up.
Yasgur's farm had a small fence encasing the property, making it easy for the gate crushers to access the grounds. Most even arrived long before the actual event kicked off, and Woodstock Ventures hadn't anticipated anything like that happening. In the spirit of love and peace, they turned it into a free for all event.
The Aftermath
If you ever hosted a party, you know all about the feeling of being left with a lot of cleaning up to do the following morning. Woodstock was just like that, with the extent of being a gigantic party of 500,000 people!
Poor Max Yasgur found his Bethel dairy farm in a terrible state after the festival's end. The piles of trash left behind by the supposedly nature-loving hippies did not make for a beautiful sight, and the locals were shocked to see their hometown in such a state. That's why Yasgur refused to host a second edition of the festival in 1970.
The Ugly
Despite all the fond memories existing from the historic concert, it's impossible to sweep the shortcomings under the rug. Attendees enjoyed the music and the spirit of the event but under dreadful conditions. Sanitary resources were scarce, and the rain that almost wouldn't stop pouring didn't make things any better.
Lisa Law is a woman who reportedly sacrificed her sleep to make sandwiches to feed hordes of hungry people. Four containers offering nearly 10,000 gallons of drinking water were also available for the concert attendees. Perhaps the attendees persevered the horrid conditions because most were very high.
Help From An Unlikely Source
When you start dissecting the unsanitary conditions experienced during the four-day event, things only go downhill. Mud entered everyone's tents, and let's not even dive into the subject of bathrooms. People went without clean water and food, but rescue came from an unlikely source.
The U.S. army stepped in to fly in medical supplies and boxes of food provided by the government. Volunteer physicians also joined the event. They weren't contracted by the festival planners, though. It must be why we never heard about any serious injuries or diseases breaking out during the event.
A Disaster Area
Officials (and everyone else, in general) were shocked by the news surrounding the conditions that the concert-goers survived. The event had some serious repercussions, and the then-State Governor Nelson Rockefeller declared the small town a disaster area.
It gave a different side to the story, and that doesn't even scratch the surface, considering there were parents who were worried about what their kids had gone through. On the other hand, the attendees were simply in it for the spirit of love and peace against the backdrop of good rock and roll music.
Where Are The Chairs?
Woodstock must have been a great case study for future concert planners because such an event wouldn't make it past the planning stage today, with exceptions like the disastrous Fyre Festival. Several events still embrace the casual approach these days. Even so, you'll find decent structures in place, including basics like seats for the attendees.
The lucky few were able to find a spot to sit on the tractor, as depicted in this photo. Most had to get comfy on the ground, which wasn't exactly a pleasant experience after the rain left it soaked and muddy.
Capitalists Weren't Welcome
Some enterprising festival-goers saw the opportunity to capitalize on the four-day event. They tried to turn a profit out of the masses by selling clothing and food. It was an interesting turn of events because hippies against capitalism didn't let the opportunity to make a tidy profit slip by.
One food stand even hiked the price of burgers from $0.25 to $1. The anti-capitalists at the event didn't want to have any of it, and they went mad. It escalated into a sort of riot, and the food stand got burnt down.
Rescue Squad
The festival organizers expected a turnout of about 200,000 people, but more than double the number of anticipated attendees turned up. That's why there was a shortage of everything, and thankfully, the extensive grounds available at the farm contained the enormous crowd.
Here we see the helicopter that arrived with army officers to drop off essentials for the attendees. The military men pictured were going through their checklist and ticking off the items they had distributed. Their pet dogs also accompanied them, and it's just so adorable seeing them enjoy some bread and milk.
Janis Joplin Calming Her Nerves With A Drink
Janis Joplin was among the A-list stars who performed at Woodstock. The late Joplin appears calm in this photo, where she shares a drink with someone. However, that wasn't the case when she initially touched down at the venue. Joplin felt nervous seeing the mammoth crowd, and perhaps that's where the drink came in and helped calm her down.
Joplin's set got delayed, but she offered a marvelous performance going well into Sunday morning. Pete Townsend from The Who, the English band, was quoted saying that the heroine and alcohol held Joplin back from delivering her best, though.
Entry For All And Their Pets
When the festival organizers declared it a free-for-all event, some attendees took it as an invitation to bring their pets along. We are not talking about cats and dogs, but rather exotic pets like this monkey. This girl tagged the cute little creature along with her, getting it its place in history through this snap.
The photo has always been a favorite online, and it was a big hit on the meme site 9GAG. Sadly, there's not much known about the girl and her pet monkey. Just like us, a lot of people are probably wondering what happened to them after attending Woodstock.
The No Shows
Everyone in the know knew that Bethel was the place to spend that summer weekend in 1969. The crowd was well-entertained by the astonishing line-up of the hottest stars at the time. However, several of the counterculture artists booked for the festival were unable to make it to the event.
For instance, John Lennon couldn't get a visa to the U.S. since he got stuck in Canada. Bob Dylan wasn't able to go since his son was sick. As for The Jeff Beck Group, they disbanded the night before Woodstock kicked off.
Non-Stop Partying
Before 72-hour non-stop parties were a thing, Woodstock set the pace as among the very first of such events. After all, the music only got stopped for about two hours during the event's initial 48 hours.
The party continued even when that occurred, and festival-goers stepped in to play their instruments. There were also improv psychedelic jams that filled the air when the rock and roll paused. Amazingly enough, kids were present during the 1969 happening. This man can be seen walking a small child while other youngsters slept on the wet grass.
A Monument To Counterculturism
One of the misconceptions is that the Woodstock festival happened in a place called Woodstock. On the contrary, the small rural town of Bethel hosted the concert. It subsequently went down in history as a monument to counterculturism.
Billionaire Alan Gerry acquired the site where the historic festival took place, and in 1998, he converted it into the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Bethel has since become a place where men and women, drawn to the history of '60s counterculture, visit to set their eyes on where the iconic festival took place.
Giving Birth At A Music Festival
The music took center-stage at Woodstock, but several other forms of artistic expression displayed at the event didn't go unnoticed. Artists of all kinds flooded at Bethel to showcase their various forms of expression whenever the opportunity presented itself.
This is a puppet show that one of the artists put up, providing an alternative to the show that was going on at the main stage. It was a delightful show for the small children who had accompanied their folks to the festival. Hundreds of toddlers were present at the site, and history even says that the festival saw the birth of two babies.
All-Around Free Supplies
Most festivals these days capitalize on just about every aspect, with food and water contributing to a bulk of the profits made during such events. However, for Woodstock, the attendees were fortunate enough to receive medical supplies, food, and water for free. They got grossly overlooked because of the extraordinary turnout, and that's when the government stepped in to offer them if only to prevent a looming health disaster.
The concert-goers were also indulging excessively in drugs, which meant that they weren't all that focused on fuelling their bodies properly. The estimate is that 90% of the crowd that attended the festival were cannabis consumers.
The Unsung Heroes Of Woodstock
Nurses were among the medical professionals who offered their services to the festival. In fact, over 45 doctors and other medical volunteers were on standby to dispense treatment to the dehydrated and fatigued youth that attended this historic happening.
In the background, the military was preoccupied with the Vietnam War, but they took the time to respond to Woodstock’s needs to avoid disaster scenarios. The military and medical professionals were responsible for ensuring that the peace and love that flowed at the venue did not venture into the dangerous limits.
Dominating The Headlines
It isn't surprising that Woodstock created a media frenzy, and the concert-goers even followed what was being said about them while the event continued. The reports were mostly negative, highlighting traffic jams, mud, and drugs.
A journalist named Barnard Collier, working with the New York Times back then, later admitted that his editors pressured him to write down negative reviews about the festival. It supported the perception that the festival was a dangerous initiative at the time. Fortunately, history rewrote the narrative, and we now appreciate Woodstock's cultural significance. We can't even imagine a world without Woodstock now!
Memories Made To Last
Like most aspects of history, thoughts about the Woodstock festival are purely a matter of perspective. For some, it represents a lost generation more focused on partying than making any meaningful contributions to society. For most, it's a reminder that the '60s counterculture movement created an ultimate statement never to be forgotten.
Despite being characterized as the "flower power" mindset, the primary values that describe the movement (love and peace) represent freedom. We can agree that it's an element that we are still collectively fighting for to this day and time.
Flowers For A Ticket
This lady takes us back to the sight that was common back in the '60s. She's all dolled up, hippie-style, and while it looks like she was hitchhiking, she was trying to score tickets to the festival. She was selling a bunch of flowers to get the funds she needed to buy the ticket.
This must have been before the festival organizers declared it a free for all event. The lady had also probably carried the bouquet, hoping to present it to her favorite musician. She needed to make $18 for a ticket to the three-day event.
A Floral Crown
Besides dressing up the part to attend the big event, the festival-goers also donned befitting accessories. This gal is an example of what you would see most ladies wearing back then to complete their outfits. She wore a floral headband over her dreadlocks, and we imagine it was an edgy sense of style during those times.
The banjo player in the background seems fixated by her look, and perhaps he was admiring the fact that she was a wild soul. Festivals are also some of the best places to meet new people, and life-long friendships must have come out of Woodstock.
Dance Until You Can't Move No More
Where there's music, there are bound to be people dancing, and at any musical concert, that's pretty much what everyone does. You might even pick up on a few new dance moves while attending festivals. With the free-flowing love that filled Woodstock, people weren't shy to bust their favorite skills and seize the day.
This woman looks like she was in the zone and dancing like nobody was looking. Her favorite band must have been playing, and she got moved by the tunes transporting her into her own kind of utopia.
Abbie Hoffman Caused A Kerfuffle On Stage
Abbie Hoffman was a renowned social and political activist best remembered for co-founding the Yippies (Youth International Party). He had a reputation for leading public riots, and he somehow nearly started one at Woodstock.
Hoffman disrupted The Who's performance because he wanted to bring light to the injustice brought about by poet John Sinclair's arrest. He grabbed the microphone from Pete Townsend, and a scuffle ensued on stage. While Townsend and most of the audience members agreed with Hoffman's sentiments, disrupting the band's performance didn't win him any favor. It just wasn't the right venue for a rally!
The Grateful Dead Delivered A Great Performance
The Grateful Dead reigned supreme for the better part of the '60s. Their jazz, country, and rock 'n' roll hits earned them a spot to perform at Woodstock. They were one of the acts that were gravely affected by rain-induced equipment problems.
They took to the stage late because it got flooded, and their electrical engineer, Owsley "Bear" Stanley, spent a significant amount of time fixing their instruments. Despite it all, the band managed to deliver a 90-minute stellar performance. Their Woodstock version of Turn On Your Lovelight clocked in at nearly 38 minutes!
It's been 51 years since Max Yasgur's farm in upstate New York hosted one of the world's most historic events. The Woodstock Music and Art Fair happened on August 15-18, 1969, and tales from the live music event still live on today despite the setbacks that marred it.
When people look back at Woodstock now, you rarely hear about the shortcomings. Instead, people choose to remember the hippie style, the anti-war chants, and not to forget, the great music. We have compiled some iconic photos from the iconic celebration that remind us why Woodstock lives on!
