History Of The Woodstock Festival

Woodstock was a planned event however; the majority of it just fell into place for three days. The second quality is “is it temporally bounded”. The event was bounded by the first and last days. Next is “is it spatially bounded”. It contained a stage for the musicians and an area marked off for those that paid for their ticket however, during the occasion the boundaries for the ticket holders was breached. Another quality is “was it programmed”. Woodstock was programmed due to the line-up, or the order in which the musicians sang. The fifth quality is “is this a coordinated public event”. This was the main purpose for Woodstock to get people to come together to share the peace and love. The final quality is “is the event heightened”. Woodstock is still remembered as being three days of a concert and people coming together to enjoy good music and love.

The Family of Woodstock, a social service agency, was founded by those individuals who felt that certain factors presented the opportunity for them to start a social service agency as a direct result of the Woodstock Festival held

Music soared through the air and into the ears of the more than 450,000 hippies that were crowded into Max Yasgur's pasture. "What we had here was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence," said Bethel town historian Bert Feldmen. "Dickens said it first: 'it was the best of times, it was the worst of times'. It's a mixture that will never be reproduced again" (435). It also closed the New York State Thruway and created one of the nation's worst traffic jams (Lehrman eLibrary). Woodstock, with its rocky beginnings, epitomized the culture of that era through music, drug use, and the thousands of hippies who attended, leaving behind a legacy for future generations. The lack of planning gave Woodstock the potential for disaster. Volunteers from inside and outside the festival helped relieve any possible problems. Helicopters were used to fly in food, doctors, medical supplies, and even music acts scheduled to appear (Sitkoff eLibrary).

In 1969, a group of men set up a music festival, known as Woodstock, which lasted for three,

Rock and roll has developed a long way throughout the years from a dance craze in the 1950’s to a political and cultural landscape that is recognized worldwide. Rock and roll has come to define the roots of teenage rebellion, people who don’t follow the norms, and have disrespect for authority. The style of rock and roll itself is a melting pot of music, a combination of sounds that include jazz, country, blues, ragtime, gospel, swing, classical, and ethnic music. It can be a simple variation of three chords to a complex chromatic scale combination. It can convey emotions such as love, hate, fear, lust, sadness, joy, disillusion, or a strong sense of reality. Many things can be said about rock but the fact is that it is the most widely

Many of the people attending Woodstock were given a ray of hope in a world that didn’t accept them. Through all the drugs and mud etched in their minds, the desire for love and acceptance made its way to the surface. The mood created by this is what made Woodstock so memorable. Had it not been for this prevalent feeling many people would have dismissed this festival as just another excuse to get high and listen to music. Examples of this new feeling were given during the concert itself. Small things that made such a difference included the fact that there was no destruction of property reported during the duration of the event. (Jacksonville.com) Also, although there was a large amount of trash left at the end, the 600-acre cleanup project was completed within five days with the help of fans and crewmembers. (Visi.com)

A three day concert that rolled into a fourth day, involved a lot of drugs, music, and mud. It soon became a symbol of what is known as “Woodstock Nation”, which is the term used to describe young people who distrusted authority and standard American values. In the sixties the word “hippie” had a negative connotation to it, making this festival more frowned upon than anything. This festival was also considered a reaction to conservative attitudes of post World War I.

Woodstock was a four day long music and arts festival. The event was held on August 15 to 18 in 1969. Woodstock took place on Max Yasgur’s Dairy Farm in Bethel, New York. Nearly 500,000 people attended the festival, some as young as even two years old. The festival became a free event as people began to show up because even though tickets were sold there were far too many people to check tickets. The people who attended Woodstock savor all memories they have of the four day festival because it truly was a one time event, even though it was been tried to be recreated before. Woodstock started as a music festival and ended as a historical symbol that provoked cultural and political change.

influential in the North as well. Blacks moved from the South to the North and

Woodstock was originally suppose to have only three bands playing at the 4 day festival. This 4 day music and art festival was originally suppose to be held on the outskirts of New York but was later changed to Bethel, New York to accommodate the many people that were coming. The festival was originally set to cost for attendance, but many of the attendees showed up days before the event even happened. Those in charge decided to cut their loses and let everyone in free.

Woodstock Woodstock was a rock music festival that took place near Woodstock, New York in a town called Bethel. The festival took place over three days, August 15, 16, and 17, 1969. The original plan for Woodstock was an outdoor rock festival, "three days of peace and music" in the Catskill village of Woodstock. The festival was expected to attract 50,000 to 100,000 people. It was estimated that an unexpected 400,000 or more people attended. If it weren't for Woodstock, rock and roll wouldn't be where it is today. Woodstock became a symbol of the 1960s American counterculture and a milestone in the history of rock music. The original plan for Woodstock had been to build a recording studio in the town of Woodstock (Sandow,

John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld, and Mike Lang were the minds behind the creation of these “Three Days of Peace and Music”, the oldest of which was only 27. This festival, and all the music played during this time, was extremely influential. Americans at this time needed a weekend of peace, for tension was high. At this time Nixon was threatening to bomb North Vietnam, over 35,000 U.S. military personnel have died in the line of duty, and communism was terrifyingly close to America. Friends and family were overseas, and this music festival was a way to spread the idea of peace and love through a medium that was understood by all: music. This festival would not have occurred if it was not for the high tensions and influence of countureculture through popular music at the time.

These concert goers enjoyed no rules, drug use, sex, and loud rock music. Some of the best known artists from this concert were; Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Who, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, Sly & the Family Stone, and Jefferson Airplane.

The Woodstock festival descended on Bethel, New York promising three days of peace and music. Event organizers anticipated 15,000 people would attend but were overwhelmed by the 300,000 people that flooded this rural area of New York state from August 15 -17, 1969. While these facts are well known and indisputable, the festival itself has proven to be a controversial endeavor. What began as a small business venture was soon brimming with the controversy of an entire decade. It becomes clear when examining the strikingly different accounts of the festival that reactions varied depending on the fundamental values and personal circumstances specific to each observer and to the

By 1965, hippies had become an established social group in the United States, which eventually permeated worldwide through music, literature, the dramatic arts, fashion, and the visual arts. By June 1966, around 15,000 hippies moved into the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. On October 6, 1966 California declared LSD a controlled substance making it illegal. In response, San Francisco hippies gathered in the Golden Gate Park and called the protest the Love Pageant Rally, which attracted 700-800 people. Later in 1967, the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park led to the legendary Summer of Love on the West Coast, and the 1969 Woodstock Festival on the East