August 15, 1969: The Woodstock Music & Art Fair begins on Max Yasgur's dairy farm outside Bethel, Sullivan County, New York. Around 500,000 fans attended the 3-day event, a landmark in rock and roll history.
John P. Roberts and Joel Rosenman were New York entrepreneurs, and were building a recording studio in Woodstock, in Ulster County in the Catskill Mountains of New York. They thought of holding a rock concert to promote the studio. In the end, the studio became an afterthought, and was never built.
They contacted Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld, who had organized the Miami Pop Festival the year before, bringing in 25,000 fans over 2 days. Between them, they began setting up what they had hoped would be an East Coast equivalent of the Monterey Pop Festival that had been held outside San Francisco in June 1967. Monterey Pop had gotten 50,000 people. The Woodstock promoters planned for 3 times that many, or 150,000.
Except they couldn't get a place to hold the show. The Town of Woodstock denied them a permit. So did Saugerties, and then so did Wallkill. Finally, Max Yasgur, a dairy farmer in Bethel, offered his farm as a site, as it had a slope which made for a natural amphitheater. It was 57 miles southwest of Woodstock, and 103 miles northwest of Times Square.
Tickets were $24 for the whole 3 days -- about $189, or $63 per day, in 2022 money. Sounds like a bargain. Maybe it would have been, if not for the rain and the mud.
Sure, it looked like a blast, if you saw the movie Woodstock, which was released on March 26, 1970, 7 months after the festival. Because that meant you didn't have to live through...
* The traffic jam, as bad as any as has ever hit the New York Tri-State Area. When Arlo Guthrie told the crowd, "The New York State Thruway's closed, man!" he wasn't kidding. The promoters expected around 150,000 people, and thought they had enough facilities, including the access roads, to handle that.
But, depending on whose figures you believe, anywhere from 300,000 (The New York Times on the day after) to 850,000 (cited by Richie Havens as a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show 25 years later) showed up. The best-known figure is 500,000, due to the line in Joni Mitchell's song, "By the time we got to Woodstock, we were half a million strong." The next week's issue of Rolling Stone had the headline, "Woodstock: 450,000," and that is usually cited as the most accurate number.
(By the way, Joni wasn't there. Neither was Bob Dylan, whose supposed presence was said to be the reason so many people came -- the reasoning being that he actually lived in the town of Woodstock, which refused to host the festival. By the time they finally got the permit from the Town of Bethel, the posters with the name "Woodstock" had already been printed.)
In the 1970 Census, Buffalo was listed as having 462,768 people. If there were more than that at Woodstock (which is certainly possible), that would have made the Festival the 2nd-largest "city" in the State of New York, behind only the City of New York. And since about 3 times as many people as expected showed up, they had problems with...
* The food situation. There wasn't enough. To this day, there are nearby store owners who say they made a fortune selling sandwiches and soda to people going to the festival.
* The hygiene situation. Anyone who's ever been to a sold-out football game and had to use the bathroom, and has been foolish enough to wait until halftime, understands why baseball has 9 innings instead of 2 halves or 4 quarters. It's bad enough when 60,000 people want to use the john at once, in a building designed to hold that many.
Now imagine that, out of 500,000 people, at any one time, 1 percent need to relieve themselves. That's 5,000. I don't know how many port-a-potties they had, but imagine that it was 100. That's 1 contained hole in the ground for every 50 people. That's not enough.
And I don't think there were shower facilities there, and lots of people stayed for the full 3 days. (Given the traffic, they may not have had much choice.) And remember, this was the middle of August in New York State. Hot. So even if it hadn't rained, producing all that dinginess and mud, those 600 acres must've given off some serious fumes, above and beyond anything that was being smoked. This, of course, gave rise to the myth of "the dirty hippie," which is also greatly exaggerated, but, at Woodstock, was bad enough.
* The medical situation. I don't know how many "bad trips" or overdoses there were. But the legend of someone getting on the microphone and warning Woodstockers about "the brown acid" (LSD, possibly laced with PCP, a.k.a. "angel dust") has been well-documented. Out of the 500,000 or so people who were there, it's been said that 3 died: One from an overdose, one from appendicitis, and one fool who decided to sleep under a tractor on a hill, and you can guess the result.
Now, there were almost certainly more murders, overdoses, accidents, medical miscues and "deaths by misadventure" that weekend in New York City, with all the modern medical facilities available, including some of the most honored hospitals in the world. But the men running Woodstock were woefully underprepared in this regard.
Anywhere from 1 to 3 births were said to have happened there (although no one has ever found a documented "Woodstock Baby"), to say nothing of the conceptions that happened there, and the couples that met and had children later on, so the deaths are probably more than balanced out. But then, if there were births at Woodstock, those required medical attention, too.
* The weather situation. Yeah, it rained. That's no myth. At one point, somebody onstage got all those people to chant, "No rain! No rain! No rain! No rain!" That worked about as well as chanting, "One, two, three, four, we don't want your fuckin' war!" As in, not at all.
* The traffic jam, as bad as any as has ever hit the New York Tri-State Area. When Arlo Guthrie told the crowd, "The New York State Thruway's closed, man!" he wasn't kidding. The promoters expected around 150,000 people, and thought they had enough facilities, including the access roads, to handle that.
But, depending on whose figures you believe, anywhere from 300,000 (The New York Times on the day after) to 850,000 (cited by Richie Havens as a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show 25 years later) showed up. The best-known figure is 500,000, due to the line in Joni Mitchell's song, "By the time we got to Woodstock, we were half a million strong." The next week's issue of Rolling Stone had the headline, "Woodstock: 450,000," and that is usually cited as the most accurate number.
(By the way, Joni wasn't there. Neither was Bob Dylan, whose supposed presence was said to be the reason so many people came -- the reasoning being that he actually lived in the town of Woodstock, which refused to host the festival. By the time they finally got the permit from the Town of Bethel, the posters with the name "Woodstock" had already been printed.)
In the 1970 Census, Buffalo was listed as having 462,768 people. If there were more than that at Woodstock (which is certainly possible), that would have made the Festival the 2nd-largest "city" in the State of New York, behind only the City of New York. And since about 3 times as many people as expected showed up, they had problems with...
* The food situation. There wasn't enough. To this day, there are nearby store owners who say they made a fortune selling sandwiches and soda to people going to the festival.
* The hygiene situation. Anyone who's ever been to a sold-out football game and had to use the bathroom, and has been foolish enough to wait until halftime, understands why baseball has 9 innings instead of 2 halves or 4 quarters. It's bad enough when 60,000 people want to use the john at once, in a building designed to hold that many.
Now imagine that, out of 500,000 people, at any one time, 1 percent need to relieve themselves. That's 5,000. I don't know how many port-a-potties they had, but imagine that it was 100. That's 1 contained hole in the ground for every 50 people. That's not enough.
And I don't think there were shower facilities there, and lots of people stayed for the full 3 days. (Given the traffic, they may not have had much choice.) And remember, this was the middle of August in New York State. Hot. So even if it hadn't rained, producing all that dinginess and mud, those 600 acres must've given off some serious fumes, above and beyond anything that was being smoked. This, of course, gave rise to the myth of "the dirty hippie," which is also greatly exaggerated, but, at Woodstock, was bad enough.
* The medical situation. I don't know how many "bad trips" or overdoses there were. But the legend of someone getting on the microphone and warning Woodstockers about "the brown acid" (LSD, possibly laced with PCP, a.k.a. "angel dust") has been well-documented. Out of the 500,000 or so people who were there, it's been said that 3 died: One from an overdose, one from appendicitis, and one fool who decided to sleep under a tractor on a hill, and you can guess the result.
Now, there were almost certainly more murders, overdoses, accidents, medical miscues and "deaths by misadventure" that weekend in New York City, with all the modern medical facilities available, including some of the most honored hospitals in the world. But the men running Woodstock were woefully underprepared in this regard.
Anywhere from 1 to 3 births were said to have happened there (although no one has ever found a documented "Woodstock Baby"), to say nothing of the conceptions that happened there, and the couples that met and had children later on, so the deaths are probably more than balanced out. But then, if there were births at Woodstock, those required medical attention, too.
* The weather situation. Yeah, it rained. That's no myth. At one point, somebody onstage got all those people to chant, "No rain! No rain! No rain! No rain!" That worked about as well as chanting, "One, two, three, four, we don't want your fuckin' war!" As in, not at all.
No, on August 15, 16, 17 and 18, 1969, Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel Woods, Sullivan County, New York, where the festival was held, was not the place to be. In contrast, the next year, when the documentary about the festival was released, a movie theater showing it was the place to be. There, the millions of people who have said they were there could have a far better experience than the half a million or so who actually were there.
*
A band named Sweetwater was supposed to open the festival at 5:00 PM. But they were stopped by police en route. Richie Havens, who had made his name in the Greenwich Village folk revival of the early 1960s, was moved up. He looked out at the crowd, started strumming his acoustic guitar at warp speed, and just sang the word, "Freedom" over and over again, before segueing into "Motherless Child." He played until 5:54.
At 7:10, an invocation for the festival was given by a Hindu priest, Swami Satchidananda. At 7:30, Sweetwater finally went on. At 8:30, Bert Sommer -- not to be confused with Brett Somers -- took the stage, and got the first standing ovation of the festival for singing Simon & Garfunkel's song "America." (Neither Paul Simon nor Art Garfunkel attended, much less performed.)
At 9:20, Tim Hardin went on, and sang, among others, his 2 best-known compositions, "If I Were a Carpenter" and "Reason to Believe." Then it started to rain. Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar went on at 10:20, after 35 minutes of nobody wanting to play in the rain, and played 15 minutes. The Incredible String Band refused to go on, and at 11:00, Melanie Safka, another acoustic performer, was persuaded to go on, and played for 20 minutes. She later wrote "Lay Down (Candles In the Rain)" about the experience.
At 11:55, Arlo Guthrie, son of folk icon Woody Guthrie, came on, and said, "The New York State Thruway's closed, man!" At 12:55, another Greenwich Village folk music star, Joan Baez, came on. She was 6 months pregnant with her son, Gabriel Harris, who has since toured as her lead guitarist. At the time, her husband, David Harris, was in prison for draft evasion. Among her songs were the gospel tune "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome," which she had previously sung at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. She finished at 2:00 AM, and the show was closed for the night.
*
Major League Baseball games played on that Friday:
* New York Yankees 2, Chicago White Sox 1, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Fritz Peterson outpitched Gary Peters. Bobby Cox, now much better known as the Hall of Fame manager for the Atlanta Braves, went 3-for-4 and hit a home run for the Yankees.
* Philadelphia Phillies 1, Houston Astros 0, at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.
* Minnesota Twins 2, Washington Senators 0, at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. The Twins achieved this despite Harmon Killebrew going 0-for-4 and Rod Carew not playing. But Tony Oliva went 1-for-4 with an RBI, in support of Jim Perry, who allowed 7 hits in 7 innings, followed by Ron Perranoski allowing 2 in 2 to finish the shutout.
* Los Angeles Dodgers 9, Montreal Expos 2, at Jarry Park in Montreal.
* Atlanta Braves 8, St. Louis Cardinals 2, at Atlanta (later Atlanta-Fulton County) Stadium. For the Braves, Tony Gonazalez hit a home run, and Hank Aaron went 1-for-3. For the Cards, Lou Brock went 1-for-4 with an RBI, but Joe Torre went 0-for-4.
* Pittsburgh Pirates 5, Cincinnati Reds 1, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Buccos got home runs from Richie Hebner, Al Oliver, and 2 from Gene Alley. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4, and Willie Stargell went 2-for-5. Pete Rose went 1-for-4, and Johnny Bench went 0-for-4.
* Cleveland Indians 2, California Angels 1, in 12 innings at Anaheim (now Angel) Stadium.
* Oakland Athletics 4, Detroit Tigers 0, at the Oakland Coliseum. Lew Krausse pitched a 4-hit shutout, and hit a home run, to outpitch Mickey Lolich. Reggie Jackson and Al Kaline both went 1-for-4.
* San Francisco Giants 9, Chicago Cubs 0, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays and Dick Dietz hit home runs. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4.
* Baltimore Orioles 2, Seattle Pilots 1, at Sick's Stadium in Seattle. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4, and Frank Robinson went 1-for-5. Mike Cuellar outpitched Gene Brabender. While Pilots pitcher Jim Bouton (who did not get into this game) did mention the Moon landing in Ball Four, and also provided several discussions each on the subjects of music, fashion and hair, he did not mention Woodstock at all.
* Rained out, to play doubleheaders the next day: The New York Mets and the San Diego Padres at Shea Stadium in New York; and the Boston Red Sox and the Kansas City Royals at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
Also on this day, John Fetterman was born, later to be elected as a Democrat to be a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.
No comments:
Post a Comment