Woodstock, 1969
A farm festival of 400,000 people turned rock into a collective ritual for a generation.
Related
In August 1969 over 400,000 people crowded onto a farm in Bethel, New York. A site planned for a few tens of thousands was overrun, and rain and mud turned three days into a collective memory.
Time and place
15 to 18 August 1969, Max Yasgur's farm near Bethel. Michael Lang and three partners moved the event from Woodstock village; tickets were dropped, the gates opened free, and attendance passed 400,000.
What happened
Thirty-two acts appeared, among them Joan Baez, Santana and Jimi Hendrix. Rain turned the fields to mud, food and medical care ran short. At dawn on 18 August Hendrix tore the anthem into feedback and distortion. A live album and film followed.
What changed
Rock moved from clubs to a mass outdoor ritual, and the festival became an industry. Recording, film and news turned a local event into a global symbol, while exposing conflicts of logistics, safety and commerce; Altamont at the end of the year cooled the free-festival ideal.
Listen for the turn
The library holds no Woodstock recordings and no rock-band versions; these four are other recordings of festival songs. Begin with Oh Happy Day, which Baez used to open; then Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and The Star-Spangled Banner beside Hendrix's closing solo; finally The House of the Rising Sun.
Related
This turn belongs to Contemporary and connects Electric Guitar, Electric guitar and Popular singing and the microphone.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Woodstock" — programme and dates checked, not quoted
- Michael Lang, The Road to Woodstock (Ecco, 2009) — organisation and attendance checked, not quoted
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.