Woodstock 40 Years Later

32 Performances in Four Days: Sullivan County Declared State of Emergency

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Less than a month after landing on the moon in 1969, there was a three-day music and peace festival filled with bad drug trips, food poisoning, and diarrhea. Over the course of one weekend, Woodstock epitomized a generation, beckoned an era, and endorsed the spirit of a movement.

Michael Lang, co-creator of Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, explains the meaning of Woodstock in an interview with History.com, "We were struggling to get out of this war with Vietnam. That whole decade had been filled with efforts to improving the human condition with human rights struggles, civil rights and women's rights. We were just first realizing that we were trashing the planet we lived on and the ecology movement was just beginning and a lot of groups at the time were turning a bit violent in trying to get their message out, [out of] frustration. The government and Washington [were] very unresponsive and conservative and it was a pretty dark time. [With the] assassination of Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, it was just a terrible time we were going through."

Bethel, New York, over 500,000 people arrive on a 600-acre farm to become part of music history, changing rock and roll forever. "It was incredible," Carlos Santana said in Rolling Stone. "I'll never forget the way the music sounded bouncing up against a field of bodies." Audience of the youth, nearly all high, but well-behaved.

The most common drug at Woodstock was marijuana, which about everyone there smoked. Heroin, LSD, mescaline, and STP circulated around the crowd, drawing attention to the stage for announcements warning of adverse substances being passed around. Only a handful of arrests were made.

The New York Times quotes the festival's chief medical officer, Dr. William Abruzzi, "There has been no violence whatsoever, which is remarkable for a crowd of this size. These people are really beautiful."

The festival total of people treated for illness, injuries, and drug reactions, reached about 4,000 with only two deaths. Overdosing on heroin caused one death. The second death was a 17-year old boy who was run over by a tractor while sleeping in a cornfield. There were also four miscarriages and two births.

Day 1: August 15, 1969

The first day began at 5:07PM with Richie Haven. Swami Satchidananda gave the festival invocation. Following with performances by Sweetwater, The Incredible String Band, Bert Sommer, Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar, Melanie, Arlo Guthrie, and Joan Baez, who was then six months pregnant.

Day 2: August 16, 1969

Quill opened at 12:15PM with a four-song set lasting 45 minutes. Then there was music by Keef Hartley Band, Country Joe McDonald, John Sebastian, Santana, Canned Heat, and Mountain. The Greatful Dead played five songs before the amplifiers overloaded an cut them off. The show resumed with Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin with The Kozmic Blues Band, Sly & the Family Stone, The Who, and Jefferson Airplane. The Who started at 4 AM and played 25 songs including Tommy.

Day 3: August 17-18, 1969

Joe Cocker began the day at 2PM with The Grease Band. A thunderstorm heavily down poured on the concertgoers. The audience was encouraged to take shelter where possible. Boys and girls walked around nude, covered in thick mud. The storm left an increased risk of bronchial disease and influenza.

The show resumed at 6PM as naked man rushed the stage and cheered. Country Joe and the Fish began their set. Music continued with Ten Years After, The Band, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Johnny Winter with Edgar Winter, his brother. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young took the stage at 3AM with both electric and acoustic performances. The festival was concluded with Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Sha-Na-Na, and Jimi Hendrix.

Max Yasgur, owner of the farmland, talked about the possibilities of disasters, violence, rioting, and looting caused by half of a million people in three days. However it turned out as the time well spent in peace with music that, "this is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place and I think you people have proven something to the world, that half a million people can get together and have three days of fun and music, and have nothing but fun and music... God bless you all."

The original dairy field has been preserved in its natural state as the place where it all started. A plaque pays tribute to the festival and the performances. Remnants of a neon flower and a bass remain untouched since the first show. A wood totem pole is placed in the middle of the field with a carving of Janis Joplin up top, Jimi Hendrix in the middle, and Jerry Garcia on the bottom. Thousands of people still continue to visit the Yasgur farms.

Commemorating the 40^th Anniversary of Woodstock on August 15, 2009 the Bethel Center for the Arts held an eight-hour show overlooking the original field. The Heroes of '69 played a sold-out show, as their greatest rennin in 40 years. The alumni who gathered were Levon Helm, Leslie West from Mountain, Jefferson Starship, Conrad Oberg covered Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Canned Heat, and Country Joe McDonald.

The upcoming film, Taking Woodstock, is to be released on August 26, 2009. Directed by Ang Lee, the film is based on the autobiography Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life written by Elliot Tiber and Tom Monet. The film follows the life of Elliot Tiber, living in Upstate New York and wannabe Greenwich Village interior designer.

The legacy of Woodstock will forever be understood as the revolution of communion. "I think that when Woodstock came along it was like suddenly this amazing moment of hope, where this tremendously large group of people got together and had this amazingly peaceful experience and became this community that set an example for everybody. It really demonstrated in a practical way that there was a better way for us to live together. I think that's why it was remembered so much. It was this moment of hope in a very dark time," said Michael Lang.

"I like to compare it to [President Barack] Obama's inauguration, which came also at a pretty dark time for America and the world. We had gotten to a place where we were kind of headed over a cliff, and we're heading for another four years of that and suddenly-I think this is one of the best qualities that Americans have is to realize something and change the direction to do the right thing," Lang added. "The inauguration felt like another moment of hope in a very desperate time. The spirit of the crowd in the inauguration in 20-degree weather was just a sense of joy and hope that was phenomenal."

The phenomenon of Woodstock will never be replicated. No one was prepared for what was about going to take place that weekend. Looking back, the audience had almost unlimited freedom to participate in any recreational activities which harmed only themselves. A place without violence, especially at a huge concert slightly comparable to Lollapalooza in Chicago or Bonnaroo in Manchester, is nowadays unheard of. It is expected that people will fight with each other, and it is this mindset that digs our problems deeper.

When people hear about Woodstock the typical idea is, "a bunch of hippies tripping on acid." What we should really be getting out of the event is about a group of people coming together, in mutual support under hard times, taking a break from the harsh realities and actually enjoying life. The value in art and music, with friends and family, is immeasurable and hardest to attain.

Citations:

Michael Lang Woodstock Interview

Woodstock Now & Then

History.com

http://www.history.com/content/woodstock/michael-lang-interview

Woodstock in 1969

Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6085488/woodstock_in_1969

Woodstock Performers

Woodstock Now & Then

History.com

http://www.history.com/content/woodstock/august-15-1969