Woodstock Festival

:Woodstock redirects here. For other uses, see Woodstock (disambiguation)

The festival

The festival bears the name "Woodstock" because it was originally scheduled to take place in the town of Woodstock, in Ulster County; local opposition arose, however, and the event was almost cancelled altogether. But Sam Yasgur persuaded his father Max to allow the concert to be held on the family's property, located in Sullivan County, which lies to the south and west of Ulster County.

Related Topics:
Woodstock - Ulster County - Sam Yasgur - Sullivan County

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Although the show had been planned for a maximum 50,000 attendees, over 500,000 eventually attended, most of whom did not pay admission. The highways leading to the concert were jammed with traffic as people tried to make it to the concert. The weekend was rainy, the facilities were overcrowded, and attendees shared food, alcoholic beverages, and drugs. However, no violence was reported and the fact that attendees were remarkably well behaved was particularly noted.

Related Topics:
Highway - Concert - Traffic - Weekend - Rain - Food - Alcoholic beverage - Drugs - Violence

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The festival did not initially make money for the promoters, although, thanks to record sales and proceeds from the highly regarded film of the event, it did eventually become profitable.

Related Topics:
Money - Record - Film

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There were three deaths at Woodstock: one from a heroin overdose, one from a ruptured appendix, and one from being run over by a tractor. Two unconfirmed births reportedly occurred at Woodstock.

Related Topics:
Heroin - Ruptured appendix

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The promoters of the original Woodstock were Michael Lang, Artie Kornfield, John Roberts, and Joel Rosenmann. Roberts was the money man, with a trust fund bankroll; his friend Rosenmann, a graduate of Yale Law, was a lounge guitarist. Their associate Kornfield was a vice-president at Capitol Records, fond of drugs and well-connected. The idea, though, came from Lang, who had previously produced the Miami Pop Festival. An unlikely businessman, Lang was a light-hearted hippie who had owned a head shop, and now hoped to eventually build a recording studio in the Woodstock area to serve artists such as Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin, who had homes nearby, and saw a festival as a way to underwrite and promote the studio. After toying with an Age of Aquarius theme, they settled on the slogan "Three Days of Peace and Music", partly as a way to placate suspicious local officials, and partly to appeal to anti-war sentiment. They hired commercial artist Arnold Skolnick to design the artwork, which incorporated a catbird design Skolnick had in his notebooks.

Related Topics:
Michael Lang - Artie Kornfield - Trust fund - Yale Law - Lounge - Capitol Records - Miami Pop Festival - Head shop - Recording studio - Bob Dylan - Janis Joplin - Age of Aquarius - Anti-war - Arnold Skolnick - Catbird

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lang would go on to produce successor concerts in 1994 and 1999, although he had nothing to do with the Woodstock-named concerts of 1979 and 1989.

Related Topics:
1994 - 1999 - 1979 - 1989

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~