Approximately How Many People Attended the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival?
Where was it held? (Hint: non in Woodstock) Who virtually got electrocuted? And why did and so few people see Hendrix? On the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, nosotros gather the facts.
Information technology was a concert that was supposed to describe 50,000 people — but in a unmarried weekend, Woodstock attracted more than than 400,000 and became one of the almost important concerts of all time. For music lovers it was a gathering of some of the best musicians of the time; for peace activists it was a meeting place for like minds; for illicit drug enthusiasts it was a identify to experiment; for the neighbours it was a giant headache; and for the organizers it was both a dream and a nightmare. This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of that famous — and infamous — concert, then to mark the occasion, we've gathered a flurry of facts. Where was it really held? (Hint: not in Woodstock.) Who was the farmer who shared his land? How did a member of the Grateful Dead almost get electrocuted? And why did nigh of the oversupply miss Jimi Hendrix's ready? The festival was the brainchild of money-minded entrepreneurs Woodstock might be associated with peace and dearest, but the idea originated with New York entrepreneurs John P. Roberts and Joel Rosenman. The investors were approached past music promoters Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld, who hoped to open a recording studio in Woodstock, N.Y. — a favourite area for top recording artists including Bob Dylan and the Ring. Instead, Rosenman and Roberts suggested an outdoor concert featuring those artists. "Joel and I had never washed whatever of this earlier," said Roberts in the new PBS documentary Woodstock. "But because of ticket sales we actually felt that we were going to plough a profit." It wasn't held in Woodstock Despite its name, the music festival wasn't really held in Woodstock, N.Y. Originally it was supposed to happen at a 300-acre industrial park in Wallkill, N.Y., but locals opposed the result and, later having given the festival initial approval, the boondocks officials refused to upshot a permit, proverb they were sick-equipped to accommodate l,000 people. The event ended up happening in Bethel, N.Y., roughly 70 kilometres southwest of Woodstock. It happened on a dairy farm The festival was held on a subcontract owned past Max Yasgur, who grew up the son of Russian Jewish immigrants and studied real manor law at New York University, and then started a dairy subcontract, which grew to get the largest in the region. Before his death in 1973, Yasgur never revealed exactly how much he was paid for sharing hundreds of acres of land that weekend; merely co-ordinate to the New York Times, festival sponsors pegged the price at $50,000. (Others have said it was closer to $ten,000.) The neighbours were none too pleased Needless to say, not everyone was happy that 400,000 people descended on the rural farming community of Bethel, which had a population of just ii,366. Co-ordinate to a 1969 New York Times article titled "Farmer with Soul," Yasgur received threatening phone calls and messages from neighbours angry about the hundreds of cars clogging the roads and the people flowing onto their backdrop. Signs in the boondocks called for a boycott, reading, "Stop Max'southward Hippie Music Festival. No 150,000 hippies here. Buy no milk." The festival had a couple of unlike names Say the give-and-take "Woodstock" today and people know exactly what you lot're talking most — but at the time, the festival was too referred to as the Bethel Stone Festival and the Aquarian Music Festival. (Somehow "I was at Bethel" doesn't have quite the aforementioned band.) Creedence Clearwater Revival was the first human action to officially sign Creedence Clearwater Revival was reportedly the first musical human action to sign a contract for the event, for roughly $ten,000 — effectually $70,000 today. "In one case Creedence signed, everyone else jumped in line and all the other big acts came on," said drummer Doug Clifford in an interview. The next acts to sign on the dotted line were Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker and 10 Years Afterwards. Organizers weren't ready in time When the festival got the kick from the boondocks of Walkill, organizers had merely 29 days to find a new site and become everything prepare. "The thing is that it was such a short time," said Woodstock lighting designer Chip Monck, who doubled every bit the weekend's emcee, in a Houston Relate interview in 2009. "It was particularly difficult to try and re-create what we had in design. And obviously, equally y'all know, no ticket booths, no fences, no staging roof, no ability to hang the low-cal testify, no ability to hang the 650,000 watts that were underneath the stage, no power to build a secure barrier, which was a great assistance in a foreign way. Lots of things were missing." Advance tickets cost $6 to $xviii — and so nothing Tickets for a solar day pass were $half dozen, and $eighteen for the weekend — roughly $42 to $126 today. But with the site unsecured, and thousands of people flooding in from all directions, the promoters had little choice simply to requite upward on trying to collect ticket money and they made the event complimentary. "I recall it was Tuesday. The construction foreman tells us, 'We don't have enough time to finish everything. So which would you lot like to have us cease: the gates and the fences, or the phase? Nosotros don't take enough men and material to practise both,'" remembered Rosenman in the PBS doc Woodstock. "I remember thinking, if nosotros don't accept gates and fences, so we're non going to collect tickets. We'll exist bankrupt. And if we don't have a stage we'll be in jail because there volition be a hundred k kids running around with cipher to do for three days," he said. "And then that was the answer." [36.vii] Hundreds of thousands of people showed up Organizers expected effectually 50,000 attendees, merely more than 400,000 descended on the site; some estimates are as high every bit 500,000. Past 9 p.m. on the Thursday night, traffic was already snaking 11 miles and was four cars broad. "That doesn't allow for too many lanes of automobiles," read the New York Mail service, "but then how bad could Mike Lang feel to be stuck in a traffic jam when every car that got past his happy face was actually headed for his pocket?" Some of the biggest bands said no Dozens of bands said yeah, but some of the biggest bands from the time said no, amid them Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Bob Dylan, Jethro Tull and Frank Zappa, and of course, the Beatles. The artist lineup was incredible Most people know the big artists that played Woodstock — Santana, CCR, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix to proper noun a few — but 34 acts were on the nib. The Friday lineup included Richie Havens, Swami Satchidananda, Sweetwater, Bert Sommer, Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar, Melanie Safka, Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez. Sat was Quill, Country Joe McDonald, Santana, John B. Sebastian, the Keef Hartley Band, the Incredible Cord Ring, Canned Oestrus, Mount, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Rock, the Who and Jefferson Airplane. Sunday included the Grease Ring; Joe Cocker; State Joe and the Fish; Ten Years After; the Ring; Johnny Winter; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Paul Butterfield Dejection Band; Sha Na Na; and Jimi Hendrix. Because of the many delays, however, the bear witness went far, far off schedule. CCR ended up feeling miffed Credence Clearwater Revival experienced big travel delays, and then didn't get to play until quondam between 1 and three a.thousand. Sun morning because the Grateful Dead went on likewise long, which left a biting gustatory modality in the band's mouth — to the point where pb man John Fogerty refused to allow their set up to be included in the original Woodstock documentary. "Nosotros followed The Grateful Expressionless and information technology was aggravating. They went way over their allotted time. Everybody has to sort of play ball," recounted Clifford in an interview. "It was a combination of many things. At that place was terrible weather. It was raining and I don't believe the stage was covered. Things got wet, the electronics got wet so there were those kinds of issues. Simply I call up nosotros did a really skillful task with our functioning against those kinds of circumstances." Fifty years later, CCR finally released an anniversary album featuring their memorable set. Joni Mitchell wasn't there One of Joni Mitchell'southward most famous songs is Woodstock, which is written in start person and describes the experience of traveling there. "By the time nosotros got to Woodstock / We were one-half a million strong / And everywhere there was song and celebration," she sings. Only affair was, Mitchell didn't perform at Woodstock or fifty-fifty attend. (Her managing director thought information technology would be more advantageous to play The Dick Cavett Show.) Rather, she was inspired by what her and so-boyfriend Graham Nash told her about the experience, and composed the song in a New York hotel room after watching footage of the result on Tv. The song besides became a hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Immature. The sound was splendid Outdoor festivals can be a nightmare audio-wise, but pioneering audio engineer Bill Hanley devised a custom sound setup that became known equally the "Woodstock sound system" — one that some said was the most avant-garde, most expensive and largest ever constructed. Hanley's system took full advantage of the field'southward bowl shape, and involved custom speaker columns powered by more than 10,000 watts of McIntosh tube power amplifiers. "We congenital two speaker towers each of which had ii levels containing its own speaker cluster," remembered Hanley in an interview. "The highest one was 70 feet high to adapt the audition in the centre of the field and high up on the colina. The lowest one, at xx anxiety, was for the audience nearest to the stage. There were four cabinets arrayed on both towers on each level, which had about 32 woofers each." (You tin detect more on the audio setup hither.) The Grateful Dead's gear up was electrifying — literally Past the time the Grateful Dead took the stage on Saturday nighttime, information technology was pouring rain — which did not make for a good mix with the electrical instruments. "It was raining toads when we played," remembered guitarist Bob Weir in Rolling Stone. "The rain was part of our nightmare. The other role was our sound human being, who decided that the footing situation on the phase was all wrong. It took him virtually two hours to change it, which held up the show. "He finally got it set up the way he wanted it, but every time I touched my instrument, I got a shock. The stage was wet, and the electricity was coming through me. I was conducting! Touching my guitar and the microphone was nearly fatal. There was a groovy big bluish spark about the size of a baseball, and I got lifted off my feet and sent back eight or 10 feet to my amplifier." Janis Joplin'due south guitarist was from Stratford, Ont. But weeks before Woodstock, Stratford-born guitarist John Till joined Janis Joplin's Kozmic Blues Band, and says the toughest affair about the festival was the non-stop waiting. "We were all prepared to go on when we were supposed to be going on," said Till in a Toronto Star interview. "So everybody did any they had to practice to go gear up, only then there was the letdown of not going on." "I think we came out the other side of our getting all jacked upwards and excited and getting ready to run out in that location and do our affair. We sort of let the air out of the tires. So when nosotros went on two hours after we were supposed to, I don't remember we had every bit much energy as we would've at the scheduled fourth dimension. Just it was a task. You simply practice the best y'all can," said Till, who didn't realize the issue was noteworthy until later. "I had no thought it was going to have on the aura or its place in history that it did." Information technology wasn't supposed to be political Woodstock followed soon later on the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther Male monarch Jr. and anti-war New York senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Vietnam State of war continued to rage — but organizer Michael Lang didn't want the festival to be overtly political. "Politics would not be part of the onstage proceedings," Lang wrote. "It was the identify where art and commerce could coexist, where opposing ideas could coexist, where our humanity would come outset and our differences would merely add together color. Elements of the festival were deeply grounded in the surreptitious motility, but the focus would remain peace and music." The Grateful Expressionless's Bob Weir agreed. "When I heard Pete Townshend had kicked Abbie Hoffman off the stage, I was delighted, because I take always thought that rock and radical politics are a bad mix. I've always felt that the politicians should go out us the hell solitary," he said in Rolling Stone. "Basically, information technology was simply a music celebration, a music event. There were those who tried to meet a deeper significant and draw conclusions, but I don't recollect anyone went to Woodstock to make a statement. They went to political party and hear good music. Or peradventure I just slept through all the political significance." Food for Beloved got torched These days, large festivals have nutrient service down to a fine science, and vendors know exactly how to set up shop in remote locales, but in outdoor fests were a relatively new phenomenon and large nutrient vendors said that Woodstock was too daunting a task. Festival organizers somewhen hired a three men with lilliputian food feel who called themselves Nutrient for Love. Unfortunately, lines were long, and as supplies dwindled, Food for Honey jacked up their prices — so much that hot dogs reportedly jumped from $.25 to $1 apiece — and, frustrated by the long waits and the loftier prices, people burned down ii of the concession stands. The adjacent morning time, Wavy Gravy attempted to at-home the situation. "There's a guy up at that place — some hamburger guy — that had his stand burned downwardly last night," he said. "Merely he's still got a trivial stuff left, and for you people that still believe capitalism isn't that weird, you might assistance him out and purchase a couple hamburgers." Simply others stepped in to feed the crowd Locals heard about the nutrient shortages and famously stepped in with thousands of nutrient donations that were airlifted to the site, including thousands of sandwiches, fruit, canned items and water. According to the Smithsonian, Wavy Gravy'south grouping, the Hog Subcontract Collective, also stepped in to help, serving chocolate-brown rice, vegetables, and granola. "What we take in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000! Now it'due south going to be good food and we're going to become it to you," he said. "We're all feeding each other." The farm owner too chipped in Max Yasgur also chipped in to assistance, providing concertgoers with milk, cheese and butter, sometimes at cost but ofttimes for free. A relative also arrived with a auto filled with loaves of bread to go with the cheese and butter. Afterwards hearing that some residents were selling h2o to young people at the festival, Yasgur was furious and put a huge sign on his befouled that read "Gratuitous Water." "How tin can anyone enquire for coin for h2o?" he asked. In that location weren't nearly enough toilets Because organizers had no idea that near half a one thousand thousand people would evidence up, they didn't have most enough toilets. In fact, in that location were but 600 — roughly ane for every 700 people. According to Consumer Reports, a full house at New York's Yankee Stadium is roughly 52,000, and they take 843 toilets, or i for every 62 fans. "Every time people would become up and clap, one-half a million people were moving in closer," i attendee remembered. "So it kept on getting tighter and tighter and tighter. So it got to the point where we couldn't go to the bathroom or anything, and so people used to laissez passer each other [up over the crowd]. You'd be passed over hundreds of people until in that location was a little bit of leeway somewhere where they had space and so you'd go to the bathroom. Some people but started [urinating] right on the spot. Nosotros all did." Farmer Max Yasgur got a huge introduction At one point, emcee Chip Monck introduced farmer Max Yasgur to the crowd, which won the meek farmer a huge circular of applause. "I'grand a farmer," he said. "I don't know how to speak to 20 people at once permit alone a oversupply like this. This is the largest grouping of people ever assembled in one place ... but I remember yous people have proven something to the world — that a half a million kids can gather and have 3 days of fun and music and have nothing simply fun and music!" Reportedly a pro-war, police-and-gild Republican, Yasgur became teary. "And I God bless you for it!" Monck warned people almost bad drugs In films about Woodstock, y'all can too meet Monck making announcements about the weather, about safety — during a storm he implores people to become down from the towers they climbed because of the electrical danger — and nearly bad drugs. "The brown acid that is circulating effectually us isn't also skillful. It is suggested that you lot stay abroad from that. Of course information technology's your own trip. And then exist my guest, simply please be advised that at that place is a warning on that one, OK?" Joe Cocker wasn't that sweaty If y'all look at the footage from Joe Cocker's performance, he looks similar he's drenched in sweat; just actually, he had just had a huge quantity of water dumped on him. During the heavy rains, the canvas roof over the stage filled with water and threatened a collapse, and then the phase techs decided to cut a hole to release the water. "Which is in fact a very practiced fashion of getting rid water on the roof, except for the fact that Joe Cocker was straight underneath in the eye of a set. Therefore he looked similar everybody else — [like] a drowned rat," remembered Monck. "It wasn't sweat. It wasn't perspiration. It was just f--king water." Sha Na Na played before Jimi Hendrix Later an unforgettable and exhausting weekend, it must have felt incredibly odd to wake up to Sha Na Na, the tongue-in-cheek '50s-styled doo-wop group, singing hits like Duke of Earl and At the Hop — but they did, and they did it at around 7:30 a.m. Mon, right before Jimi Hendrix took the phase. At the fourth dimension, they didn't have a record deal, but their appearance at the festival — and in the Woodstock documentary that followed — cemented their career, and fifty-fifty sparked a '50s resurgence that led to Grease, American Graffiti and Happy Days, also as Sha Na Na'due south cocky-titled TV show. Well-nigh of the crowd missed Jimi Hendrix Jimi Hendrix was the last to perform at the festival, and past the time he got onstage, it was 8:30 Monday morning time and the crowd had dwindled from 400,000 to just 30,000. He performed his iconic and politically fuelled version of The Star-Spangled Imprint roughly 90 minutes into his two-60 minutes set. In that location were at to the lowest degree two deaths Farmer Max Yasgur considered it a resounding success Dairy farmer Max Yasgur, who owned the state where the festival happened, considered the festival a resounding success, and a victory for peace and homo kindness. "If a one-half million young people at the Aquarian Festival could plow such adverse conditions — filled with the possibility of disaster, anarchism, looting and catastrophe — into three days of music and peace," he said in an interview, "so perhaps there is hope that if we join them, nosotros can turn those adversities that are the problems of American today into a hope for a brighter and more peaceful future." Many take tried, simply failed, to recapture the magic of Woodstock Information technology seems that at every major anniversary, brave concert promoters aim to recapture the magic — but ultimately, all of the attempted Woodstock revivals accept failed, some of them spectacularly. This year, Woodstock 50 was supposed to feature huge names including Jay Z, the Killers, John Fogerty, Miley Cyrus, Robert Plant, Janelle Monáe, the Raconteurs and others — and was existence led in office by original Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang — simply brutal apart in 1000 mode subsequently a series of organizational failures. "They postponed announcing the tickets, and I remember reading a while ago that they didn't have some of the permits," John Fogerty said in an interview with Rolling Rock. "That just blew my heed. You lot'd think it would be the first thing y'all'd do and not the concluding matter. You got the sense there was some shakiness to this whole thing," said Fogerty. "But the starting time Woodstock happened more past people wishing for it to happen than whatsoever effort of peachy organization." For more than on the festival, listen to q Friday for an interview with Andy Zax, producer of Rhino Records' new 38-CD, 432-track complete Woodstock box set, Woodstock - Back To The Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive. Also lookout Woodstock: Three Days That Changed a Generation on The Passionate Eye Saturday and Sunday. 
The stage was wet, and the electricity was coming through me. I was conducting! Touching my guitar and the microphone was nearly fatal. There was a cracking big blue spark virtually the size of a baseball, and I got lifted off my anxiety and sent back 8 or ten anxiety to my amplifier. - Grateful Expressionless guitarist Bob Weir
I had no idea it was going to accept on the aura or its place in history that it did. - John Till, Canadian guitarist for Janis Joplin
There's a guy up there — some hamburger guy — that had his stand burned down last night. But he's even so got a little stuff left, and for y'all people that nonetheless believe capitalism isn't that weird, you might help him out and buy a couple hamburgers. - Wavy Gravy, whose group the Hog Subcontract Collective helped to feed people at Woodstock
Despite the lack of organisation, food, and medical supports, only two people died at the festival — ane reportedly from a drug overdose, and one from a tractor driver accidentally running over an attendee who was sleeping in a nearby field. There were no reports of violence. If a half million young people at the Aquarian Festival could turn such adverse conditions — filled with the possibility of disaster, riot, looting and catastrophe — into three days of music and peace, and then perhaps at that place is hope that if we bring together them, nosotros can plow those adversities that are the problems of American today into a hope for a brighter and more than peaceful futurity. - Max Yasgur, farmer who hosted Woodstock on his state
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/blog/woodstock-at-50-fascinating-facts-about-the-weekend-that-defined-a-generation-1.5245497
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