Remembering Woodstock… 45 years on!

45 years ago, in August 1969, the world watched as one of the most celebrated music festivals in history took place at a time when Americans were deeply divided. It kicked off on 15th August 1969.  Over 500,000 people from across the country gathered to celebrate “Three Days of Peace and Music”, and so many of us in Australia watched on in curiosity.   There was three days of legendary performances, unimaginable mud, and unforgettable experiences and it became the symbol of the Baby Boomer generation.

The Woodstock movie in 1970 was one everyone went to see. People sat in drive ins, pretending they were there, all over the world.

Today, you can listen to a playlist from the 1969 festival online, or watch a youtube video from the historic event.

But today we’re going to pull you into the mood of the era with some photos and videos you can enjoy!

The story below tells an awesome tale of the era.

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Three Days of Peace and Music

They came on foot, hitching rides from as far away as Miami and then hiking through the rolling countryside. They came by bus. They came by car. And they all converged on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York. They kept coming even after the highways were clogged with traffic, after the alfalfa field was crammed with people shoulder to shoulder. Half a million people gathered on August 15, 1969, for what would become the most famous rock concert ever, Woodstock.

With an advertising budget of less than $200,000, the festival’s organizers – all under the age of 26 and bankrolled by someone’s trust fund – expected, and planned for, around 200,000 people. They were quickly overwhelmed. By the end of the first day the crowd had grown to 500,000. It dawned on the festival’s organizers and the area’s residents that the situation was potentially dangerous. The medical facilities were inadequate for hundreds of young people struggling with bad trips and the beginnings of a dysentery outbreak. Food and water were running out. To make matters worse, a huge storm turned the entire hillside into a mud pile.

Despite the conditions, and the music dragging hopelessly behind schedule, the audience remained remarkably well-behaved. People shared what little they had with their neighbors. After the violence at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago the year before, many locals were jittery about an “army of freaks” descending on their town. But the gentle demeanor of the young crowd seemed to bridge that gap. One police officer noted, “Notwithstanding their personality, their dress, and their ideas, they were and they are the most courteous, considerate, and well-behaved group of kids I have ever been in contact with.” Area residents, many of whom had been charging for water the day before, let their hoses run and handed out blankets. The Air Force set up a post to airlift people to medical facilities and arranged food drops.

Meanwhile some of the biggest names in rock played on, including The Who, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, and the Grateful Dead. There were moments of musical transcendence, including Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s performance of Suite: Judy Blue Eyes at a little after three in the morning on Monday, Joe Cocker’s ecstatic rendition of With a Little Help From My Friends, and Joan Baez singing Joe Hill to a hushed crowd after dedicating her performance to her husband, who was serving time for refusing the draft. The festival was brought to a close on Monday by Jimi Hendrix, whose hyperintense Star-Spangled Banner was played to a nearly empty field as the audience filtered out to search for their cars or seek rides home.

The backers of the festival lost $2 million, but the organizers called it a success because of its peaceful atmosphere. There were two deaths, one from an overdose and one from an accident, and only a handful of arrests, a triumph given the size of the crowd. When asked about the financial shortfall, the producer Michael Lang replied, “Today is a time to think about what happened here – the youth culture came out of the alleys and the streets. This generation was brought together and showed it was beautiful.”