The 40 Year Anniversary of Woodstock

Woodstock was a symbol of the rebellious society of the time. The youths that went were looking to vent out frustrations that their parents had forced upon them. For most youths, the "3 Days of Peace, Love, and Music" seemed to be just the place to balance their thoughts, relax with friends, and meet new people that hated their parents as much as they did. Two-hundred thousand people were expected to show for the Woodstock festival, and instead an overwhelming "400,000 youngsters turned up to hear big- name bands play in a field near the village of Bethel, New York state in what has become the largest rock concert of the decade". The attendents and the mood of the Woodstock festival in Bethel, New York was that of the counter-cultered young society of the late sixties.

Kiyah Sewell Mr. Downey English 11CP 22 May 2014 HIR Paper 400,000 people, 32 bands, and 3 days of Peace, love and Rock and Roll (Gerdes, Louise). Woodstock was a free 3 day concert held in Max Yasgur's 600 acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York (Statement on the Historical and Cultural Significance of the 1969 Woodstock Festival Site). What was first made to be a recording studio for the community of Woodstock became an iconic American image (Gerdes, Louise 16). Woodstock was a defining moment in American history because it influenced counter culture and changed the lives of the younger generation that we see today. The years preceding Woodstock were filled with multiple large events such as the Civil Rights Movement, protest against the Vietnam War, and the Stone Wall Riots in 1969 located in New York.

Woodstock, presumably named after the Peanuts cartoon character, became known as most popular music festival in US history, after the three day concert involving; sex, drugs and Rock & Roll took over the town of Bethel, New York. “It is acknowledged as the defining moment of the rock-driven counterculture of the late 1960’s, when half a million fans descended on a small farm in upstate New York for what was promised to be “3 days of peace & music.” (Evans 8) What started as a simple investment proposal to help four young men open a recording studio and retreat for New York musicians, ended with over a half of million people crammed into a 600-acre dairy farm, riddled with muddy, half (fully) naked, and completely “stoned” hippies. John Roberts, heir to a pharmaceutical fortune, and his friend, Joel Rosenman were looking for ways to invest Roberts’ money in such a way that would make them more money. They placed an ad in the New York Times stating they had capital and were looking for business propositions. Soon, they were introduced to Artie Kornfield and Mike Lang.

Differing Views on the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival On August 15, 1969 at five-o’clock p.m., on a 600-acre hog farm in the small town of Bethel, NY, Richie Havens took the stage as the opening act at the legendary Woodstock Festival. Destined to become the largest gathering of people in one place at one time, Woodstock stood for three days of peace, love, and music amidst the horrors of the Vietnam War. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children made their way to the Catskills in New York to take part in the festival and hear their favorite music groups live. Even though tickets for the event had been pre-sold, the directors of the Woodstock declared it a free event on the same day that it started. All over the country people watched footage and read about the festival that many believed was going to be a disaster.

It wouldn't be until six years later that the festival would be founded by Paul Tollett with help from Goldenvoice, a promoting company and brings thousands of fans out to the Colorado Desert of the very first Coachella Music Festival in 1999. The debut of Coachella was headlined by acts like Beck, The Chemical Brothers, and Rage Against the Machine and was amazing and went quite well for being first run. The first festival as it was could not compare to the ones that followed with even more attractions. In fact the first Coachella Music Festival was held in October and only at the two day event and there was no on site camping due to the madness at Woodstock'99. Many other things happen during and after the first festival including 1999 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival taking $800,000 hit on the inaugural event.

Woodstock History What is Woodstock? It is one of the most famous festivals in history due to the four young men John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artic Kohn, and Mike Lang. It was three days of peace and music. It took lots of planning most things didn’t even go right, for instance the location. They had planed to hold the event in Wallkill, New York but the town did not want to hold the festival there because all the violence due to Vietnam weeks before.

Initially, Woodstock was simply going to be a concert for people to attend and enjoy, free of repression and the outside war zones. Unexpectedly, an estimated 500,000 people were at the gates waiting two days before the concert even started (Evans 65). Woodstock was not anticipated to have such an infinite amount of people, but once word spread about the serene music extravaganza, it would be impossible to miss out. The majority of the people attending, were present those three days to protest the gruesome effects caused by war. Many people wanted to revolt against the Vietnam War and racial tension vastly developing across the nation (64).

Many large concerts have occurred in the United States, but none have been as symbolic as the three-day music and art fest that touted the slogans of peace and love. This event was identified as such as a result of the peace movement and the emergence of the flower children. Woodstock Music Festival took place near Woodstock New York on August 15, 16, and 17, 1969, and became a symbol of the 1960s American counterculture. Woodstock began with the following four partners: Michael Lang, the manager of a rock band, Artie Kronfeld, an executive at Capitol Records, and two capitalists, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman who supplied most of the money and the original idea. Their original plan was to build a recording studio in Woodstock, a small town in the Catskill Mountains that had become a rock music Mecca when musician Bob Dylan and his rock group called the Band settled there.

To promote the idea of the studio, the four partners decided to stage a concert, which they called Woodstock. Naming it after the town in which it was originally going to take place in. It started out as a moneymaking venture a rock concert, pure and simple. An attempt to duplicate or maybe even surpass the success of Monterey Pop, which attracted 50,000 people two years earlier. The Woodstock Festival was expected to attract 50,000 to 100,000 people.

Woodstock changed the world of music and the ways in which mainstream media outlets framed the coverage of the festival aided in this change. The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was a weekend-long festival that took place in rural Bethel, New York from August 15 to August 18, 1969. As described in an August of 1969 issue of Life magazine, “The original plan was for an outdoor rock festival, “three days of peace and music” in the Catskill village of Woodstock. What the young promoters got was the third largest city in New York state, population 400,000 (give or take 100,000), location Max Y... ... middle of paper ... ...neration of young people attained a critical mass for three days in a rural New York meadow. As such, it had far-reaching political implications and could be construed to pose a threat to society's ruling elites.