1) Woodstock was a massive three-day music festival held in Bethel, New York in 1969 that brought together half a million people for peace, love, and music. 2) The festival was organized as a profit-making venture but became free due to logistical issues. It featured iconic performances but also dealt with rain, mud, lack of facilities and overcrowding. 3) Though challenging conditions, the overall spirit at Woodstock was peaceful and it became cemented in history and pop culture as a pivotal moment that represented the counterculture movement of the 1960s.

1. Woodstock
Instructor – Lucy Beam
Hoffman
“For many hippies,” says Damon Bach, a historian at Texas A&M University, “it
was three halcyon days where they were immersed in their ideal microsociety.”
The counterculture
movement of the 1960s

2. Max Bernard Yasgur
• (December 15, 1919 – February 9, 1973) was an American farmer. He was the
owner of the 600-acre (240 ha) dairy farm in Bethel, New York, where the
Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held on August 15–18, 1969.
(1) Crosby, Still & Nash - Woodstock Lyrics - YouTube

3. (1) Richie Havens - Freedom at Woodstock 1969
(HD) - YouTube
• The Woodstock Music Festival began on August 15,
1969, as half a million people waited on a dairy
farm in Bethel, New York, for the three-day music
• Billed as “An Aquarian Experience: 3 Days of Peace
the epic event would later be known simply as
become synonymous with the counterculture
• Woodstock was a success, but the massive concert
without a hitch: Last-minute venue changes, bad
hordes of attendees caused major headaches. Still,
because of—a lot of sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and
• Woodstock was a peaceful celebration and earned
in pop culture history.

4. Woodstock

5. Bobbi and Nick Ercoline
Ms. Ercoline’s tender moment became
the subject of a photograph chosen for
the cover of the soundtrack album, a
three-LP set that was once a familiar
sight in record collections in dorm
rooms and coffee houses throughout
the country.
Behind a pair of big shades, clad in a
multicolored garment and partly
covered by a comfy pink-trimmed
blanket wrapped around her boyfriend,
she seemed to embody the flower-
child spirit.
In fact, she and Nick represented
something else: the broad appeal
held by the counterculture of the
1960s.

6. Woodstock Ventures
• The Woodstock Music Festival was the brainchild of four men, all age 27 or younger, looking for an
investment opportunity: John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang.
• Lang had organized the successful Miami Music Festival in 1968 and Kornfeld was the youngest vice
president at Capitol Records. Roberts and Rosenman were New York entrepreneurs involved in

7. Woodstock ventures, LLC

8. Profit maker???
• Woodstock was conceived as a profit-making venture. It became a "free concert"
when circumstances prevented the organizers from installing fences and ticket
booths before opening day. [page needed] Tickets for the three-day event
cost US$18 in advance and $24 at the gate (equivalent to about $140 and $190
today).

9. Creedence Clearwater
• Creedence Clearwater Revival was the first big-name talent to sign on and gave
Woodstock the credibility it needed to attract other well-known musicians.
• (1) Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising (Official Lyric Video) –
YouTube

10. Where Was Woodstock?
(not here)
• The initial plan for Woodstock called for the event to be held at Howard Mills Industrial Park in
Wallkill, New York.
• Wallkill town officials got spooked, however, and backed out of the deal, passing a law that
eliminated any possibility of holding the concert on their turf.
• Woodstock Ventures explored a few other venues, but none panned out. Finally, just a month ahead of
the concert, 49-year-old dairy farmer Max Yasgur offered to rent them part of his land in the White
Lake area of Bethel, New York, surrounded by the verdant Catskill Mountains.
• With the concert just a month away, the four frantic partners jumped at the opportunity and paid his
asking price.

11. The road to Woodstock
(1) Road To Woodstock | Woodstock | American Experience |
PBS - YouTube

12. Woodstock Becomes
a Free Concert
• With a venue and talent secured, the partners turned to
logistics. Fencing, entrance gates and ticket booths
needed to be set up and a performers’ pavilion,
pavilion, concession stands, bathroom facilities and
facilities and medical tents built.
• But by the time people started arriving a couple days
couple days ahead of the concert, the fencing, gates
fencing, gates and ticket booths still weren’t ready.
weren’t ready.
• According to Lang, in an interview with The Telegraph,
“You do everything you can to get the gates and the
and the fences finished—but you have your priorities.
priorities. People are coming, and you need to be able
to be able to feed them, and take care of them, and
them, and give them a show. So you have to
prioritize.”
• With no efficient way to charge concert-goers, Lang and
his partners decided to make Woodstock a free event.

13. Bathroom facilities

14. Weather and conditions

15. Peace and love
• Although the crowd at Woodstock experienced bad weather, muddy conditions and a lack
of food, water and adequate sanitation, the overall vibe there was harmonious. Looking
(1) Jimi Hendrix - The
Star Spangled Banner [
National Anthem ] ( Live
at Woodstock 1969 ) -
YouTube

16. The Masses Arrive
• As an estimated one million people descended on Woodstock, its organizers scrambled to add more facilities. Highways
and local roads came to a standstill and many concert-goers simply abandoned their cars and trekked the rest of the way on
foot. Eventually, about half a million people reached the venue.
Originally, about 50,000 people were
expected. But by August 13, at least that
number were already camped out on
location and over 100,000 tickets pre-
sold.

17. • The Woodstock audience was diverse and a reflection of the rapidly-changing times. Some were hippies who
felt alienated by a society steeped in materialism.
• In 1969, the country was deep into the controversial Vietnam War, a conflict that many young people vehemently
opposed. It was also the era of the civil rights movement, a period of great protest and unrest. Woodstock was
an opportunity for people to escape into music and spread a message of unity and peace.
Soldiers and Hippies Face Off

18. Materialism emerges in
the 70’s

19. Safety and
Security
Issues
• Volunteer doctors, EMTs and nurses
manned Woodstock’s medical tent. Most
injuries were minor such as food poisoning
and wounded bare feet.
• It’s widely reported eight women
experienced miscarriages. One teenager
died after being run over by a tractor.
Another person died a drug-related death.
• Security was limited since off-duty
duty police officers were banned. It’s
banned. It’s estimated there were no
were no more than a dozen police
police officers to keep an eye on
on 500,000 people.

20. Performers
• (1) JOE COCKER With A Little Help From My Friends 1969 Woodstock -
YouTube
• (1) Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit, Live from Woodstock 1969 [HD]
(Lyrics). – YouTube
• (1) Santana - Soul Sacrifice 1969 Woodstock live concierto HQ – YouTube
• (1) Woodstock - 16/08/1969 - Janis Joplin – YouTube
• (1) Creedence Clearwater Woodstock Complete (Enhanced Video) -
YouTube

21. Sha na na
• Woodstock brings certain
sounds and images to mind.
Jimi Hendrix’s iconic
• - “Star Spangled Banner.”
• - Joe Cocker’s croon.
• - Sha Na Na’s anachronism.
Masses of people rolling
around in mud, if just for a
little while.
• And when the last notes of
Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” faded,
there was little to do in Bethel
besides head home. But not
before cleaning up.
• (1) Sha-Na-Na Live @
Woodstock 1969 At The Hop
.mpg - YouTube

22. How Long Did it Take to Clean
Up After Woodstock?
• The True Glory of Woodstock
Is That They Managed to
Clean Up So Well
Who were the performers?
FRIDAY
Richard Pierce
Havens
Swami
Satchidananda
Sweetwater
Bert Sommer
Tim Hardin
Ravi Shankar
Melanie
Arlo Guthrie
Joan Baez
•SATURDAY
•Dan Cole – vocals
•Jon Cole – bass, vocals
•Norman Rogers – guitar, vocals
•Phil Thayer – keyboards,
saxophone, flute
•Roger North – drums
•Country Joe McDonald
•Santana
•John Sebastian
•Keef Hartley Band
•The Incredible String Band
•Canned Heat
•Mountain
•Grateful Dead
•Creedence Clearwater Revival
•Janis Joplin and the Kozmic
Blues Band
•Sly & the Family Stone
•The WhoJ
•efferson Airplane
SUNDAY THRU MONDAY
MORNING
Joe Cocker and the Grease
Band
Country Joe and the Fish
Ten Years After
The Band
Johnny Winter
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Sha Na Na
Jimi Hendrix

23. Additional Performers
• Country Joe and The Fish
• Ten Years After
• The Band
• Johnny Winter
• Blood Sweat and Tears
• Crosby Stills Nash and Young
• Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Musicians who declined to perform at Woodstock
included:
•Simon and Garfunkel
•Led Zeppelin
•Bob Dylan
•The Byrds
•The Moody Blues
•The Doors
•Roy Rogers
•John Lennon
•Chicago Transit Authority
•The Rolling Stones

24. The mythology of
Woodstock
• Woodstock wasn’t by any means the
only massive festival of its time, but it
remains the touchstone.
• The mythology holds that Woodstock
changed lives and transformed the
world, and what promoter wouldn’t
want to claim that?
• Events such as the massive California
Jam in April 1974 aimed to outdo
Woodstock for cultural impact, or at
least to make more money (and, in the
latter case, easily succeeded).

25. Murder at the
Altamont Festival
brings the 1960s to
a violent end
• Altamont, a new music festival in Northern
California, was the brainchild of the Rolling
Stones, who hoped to cap off their U.S. tour in
late 1969 with a concert that would be the West
Coast equivalent of Woodstock, in both scale
and spirit.
• Unlike Woodstock, however, which was the
was the result of months of careful planning by a
team of well-funded organizers, Altamont was a
largely improvised affair that did not even have a
definite venue arranged just days before the
event.

26. The Altamont Speedway
Free Concert: The Deadly
End To The Hippie Era
• The violence just in front of the stage was
incredible," Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones
recalls of The Altamont Speedway free concert
on Dec. 6, 1969 in Livermore, Calif. The festival
was intended to be an epic event — and it
certainly was, but for all the wrong reasons.
• The festival was meant to bring the radically
counter-cultural 1960s to a glorious end.
Instead, the festival that meant to encapsulate
the Summer of Love ended in tragedy when four
people died, including 18-year-old Meredith
Hunter who was stabbed by a Hells Angel.
• What led to this disastrous show? Most believe
it was a lethal combination of grave
disorganization and poor decision making by
the festival's orchestrators, which included none
other than legendary rock band The Rolling
Stones.

27. Marty Balin of the band Jefferson Airplane (on the ground in the
white hat) is surrounded Hells Angels, acting as both security and
hoodlums.

28. Indictment
• SAN FRANCISCO — 21-
year-old Hell’s Angel has
been indicted for the
murder of Meredith
Hunter at the Rolling
Stones‘ disastrous free
concert at Altamont.

29. Grateful Dead Decides not
to play
• Scully, the manager of the
Grateful Dead, who had
connections to the Angels in
San Francisco. But, when
the Dead reached the
speedway, bad acid and
wine had been flowing for
hours, and the injuries were
stacking up. The band
decided not to play. In the
years since, this absence
has spared it from much of
the blame for what unfolded.

30. Other Music
Festivals in the 70’s
• Monterey Pop Festival
• Newport Folk Festival
1965
• Altamont
• Isle of Wight Festival
1970
• Festival Express
•

31. Posters