Woodstock 1969

Woodstock Sunayana Sharma, Brandon Mohawk, Mackenzie Surdu, Cooper Kukal, and Anna Gretzinger

What was Woodstock and How was It Created?

Woodstock was a music festival that took place from August 1518th of 1969. It took place on a dairy farm in the Catskill Mountains, Northwest of New York City in upstate New York. The 600acre farm was owned by a man named Max Yasgur, and was located in Bethel, New York, which is actually 43 miles southwest of the city of Woodstock.

Above: Max Yasgur, overlooking part of the dairy farm where Woodstock was held.

Birds-eye view of the crowd of Woodstock in 1969.

Over the course of 3 days, 32 different acts performed, including many big names that will be talked about later in the presentation. The festival attracted an audience of more than 400,000 people. Woodstock was originally designed as a profit-making venture, but became a “free concert� after the event drew hundreds of thousands more attendees than it had originally planned. Local officials were told that the festival would not attract more than 50,000 attendees. The tickets costs $18 if purchased in advance, or $24 at the gate. Adjusted into today's dollars would be about $120 and $160 respectively.

Who Played at Woodstock & How Did They Get Involved?

Over the 3-day event, 32 artists performed outdoors, including some popular names at the time. In April 1969, Credence Clearwater Revival became the first act to sign a contract to perform at the event. They agreed to play in exchange for $10,000. After signing CCR, it became much easier for the Woodstock promoters to sign big names.

Other artists included Santana, whose drummer was the youngest performer at only 20 years old, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, and Jimi Hendrix. These were the biggest names performing at the time, though the festival had many more, less-popular, acts.

Above: A promotional poster advertising Credence Clearwater Revival and the Woodstock Festival.

Jimi Hendrix performed a two-hour set at the festival, including his rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner halfway through, which became incredibly popular, and is thought of as one of the best renditions in history. Hendrix was also the highest paid artist at the festival, bringing in $18,000 ($114,000 in 2015 dollars).

Promotional poster, 1969.

Jimi Hendrix performing during Woodstock, 1969.

Earnings per artist varied drastically. Ranging from Santana’s low earnings of $750 to Hendrix’s $18,000. Festival promoters tried for even more popular acts, but were either rejected or were unable to make an agreement. These artists included Bob Dylan (unhappy about the number of hippies near his home), Simon & Garfunkle (declined as they wanted to work on their new album), Led Zeppelin (felt they would have been “just another band on the bill”, the Byrds (felt it would be no different than any other festival), Chicago (originally signed, but due to a schedule error, had to miss the festival. They were replaced by Santana), and the Doors (Signed on, but pulled out last minute). There were many others that were pursued but did not perform.

What Was the Effect of Woodstock on the City it Was In? Woodstock was an iconic music festival that affected and continues to affect society. Not only did Woodstock impact New York, but it impacted America as a whole. The festival was originally created in order to raise funds to open a recording studio and “Rock N Roll Retreat”, but after the founders lost money on the festival, this was impossible.

Later, a documentary on the festival, Woodstock, helped the founders to pay off most of the debt (over $1M), but they were still left with over $100k in debt. On the opening day of the festival, over half a million-people attended, more than twice the original estimate. This caused traffic jams so bad that medical emergencies were not able to be attended to.

Below: Original Flyer for Woodstock

Above: Traffic jam at Woodstock

The Woodstock festival had very lasting effects on society. The original grounds are now cited as a historic location. In 2006, the Bethel Woods Center opened to fund preservation of the location of Woodstock. The CEO of the Bethel Woods Center claims that the Bethel Woods Center was put in place to “preserve the spirit of the sixties,” and help to “advance educational and cultural initiatives at the museum and festival grounds.”Years later, society feels the true influence of the Woodstock festival.

Before Woodstock began, hippies were seen as radicals and oftentimes even crazy. After the festival, people began to think that hippie ideas were more ideal. The music played at the festival gave society the nudge it needed to start accepting hippie ideas, such as peace and love. Music became a huge outlet for expression and creativity and largely remains that way today –Fundamentally this is all because of Woodstock.

What Effects has Woodstock had on culture/music Festivals?

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Woodstock is easily the most well-known music festival of this time period and even to this day.

This festival and the many concerts that took place during it, are responsible for so much change in different aspects of life. For the acts that were able to get a spot during Woodstock, their careers were immediately helped out by just their presence at the festival. Many groups got their official start at Woodstock and that is the most direct impact the festival has made on music.

Even more significant to Woodstock’s memory is how the festival effected the American culture at the time. Taking place on a muddy farm with no sanitation and an all-around lack of all things necessary for personal health, Woodstock is considered to have been the happiest place on earth at the time. People were starving and contracting diseases from the unsafe conditions, but it didn’t seem to matter as everyone went on with their psychedelic trance

After the original Woodstock, what were future concerts like?

Woodstock set the bar for music festivals extremely high, even with its vast number of attendants and drug activity it was a very successful relatively peaceful festival. Woodstock was so incredibly successful due to the sponsors of the event spending months of planning and a substantial amount of money ensuring Woodstock would be successful and safe.

Since then music festivals have either been disastrous in their attempts to recreate Woodstock or they have been taken over by large corporations who sponsor and profit greatly off of the festival.

The most disastrous recreation of Woodstock is seen in the Altamont 69.

The Rolling Stones organized a free concert featuring a variety of bands, on the fly at Altamont Speedway as a way to end their tour. The organizers of this event lacked the resources to safely accompany all the attendants of the concert. The security was provided by the Hell’s Angels biker gang in exchange for beer as a source of payment.

This tragic failure of a Woodstock recreation cost the lives of three people in the chaos.

Altamont ‘69 The hells angels idea of security included beating fans aggressively, they seemed to be more invested in showing their dominance and brute violence than keeping both members of the band and their fans safe.

Artists attempted to recreate the event of Woodstock ‘94 Woodstock two more times but the events turned out to be tacky knockoffs of the original. The Woodstock events following the original were an incredible failure in capturing the feeling of the original Woodstock event. The Woodstock 94’ event was incredibly less violent than the Altamont incident but it was not without its faults. This three-day festival is best described as a mud pit filled with hippie wannabes. The attendants of this concert were more invested in the partying nature of the music festival rather than re-creating the peace and love atmosphere from the first Woodstock. The rain that accompanied this Woodstock ‘99 three-day festival seemed to diminish the attendee's spirits and also resulted in many people visiting the festivals health center.

The Woodstock 99’ was an incredible disaster as well. There were no casualties recorded from this concert which is a step up in comparison to the Altamont and Woodstock 94 festivals. However, the festival was not without its faults. There were reports of rape, overflowing of toilets, an absurd amount of money required for food and water offered at this event and fires. This event did not capture the peace and love that was established during the first Woodstock.

Now, today music festivals are planned a year in advance and sponsors go through incredible lengths to ensure the safety of fans and the performers.

This is seen with festivals such as Faster Horses, Coachella, and La La Palooza. These festivals are successful in allowing fans to enjoy a variety of different bands in one event, however, the festival culture has turned into partying and displaying “festival fashion” in which young people tend to dress like promiscuous looking hippies. The peace and love atmosphere of the original Woodstock has never been recreated and I doubt it ever will be.