Hippie girls with woodstock guitar 1969. The history of Woodstock: how the music festival that became a legend appeared

The most famous rock festival Woodstock, held in August 1969 on a farm in the town of Bethel, New York, USA, gathered about half a million spectators, one and a half thousand of whom were journalists. The festival was attended by two Life magazine photographers John Dominis and Bill Eppridge, we will see their photos today. Here they are, the end of the “hippie era” and the beginning of the Sexual Revolution.

1. Woodstock Music & Art Fair (eng. Woodstock Music & Art Fair, colloquially Woodstock) - one of the most famous rock festivals.

3. Held August 15-18, 1969 at a farm in a rural town in Bethel, New York, USA.

5. The number of visitors is about 500 thousand, including 1500 journalists.

7. The festival has become a symbol of the end of the "hippie era".

9. Singers, singers, musicians and bands such as The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Ravi Shankar, Carlos Santana and many more have performed at the festival.

11. In his opening remarks, Max Yasgur, the owner of the farm where the festival was held, said: “I'm a farmer, I don't know how to perform in front of an audience, in front of such a large gathering of people like this. This is the largest group of people ever gathered in one place.< …>But other than that, the important thing that you proved to the world is that half a million kids - and I call you kids because I have kids that are older than you - half a million youngsters can get together and have three days of fun and music, and have nothing but fun and music, and God bless you for that!"

13. The festival was called "Woodstock" because it was originally planned to be held in the city of Woodstock (New York) (English), Ulster County; however, the city did not have a suitable site for such an event, for fear that more than a million spectators would arrive.

15. The place was found in the town of Wallkill.

17. The event almost fell apart, but Sam Yasgur persuaded his father, Max, to allow the concert to be held at the family-owned field in Sullivan County, about 40 miles southwest of Woodstock.

19. Although the show was planned for 200,000 visitors, more than 500,000 arrived, most of them without tickets.

21. Highways towards the festival site were crowded.

23. People left their cars and walked several miles to get to the show.

25. During the festival, 3 people died: one from a heroin overdose, the second was hit by a tractor, the third fell from high structures; There have been 2 unconfirmed births.

27. Also shortly after the festival, 200,000 illegitimate children were born.

29. The festival marked several significant events - the end of the hippie era, the beginning of the Sexual Revolution and the Sixties movement.

31. Among the stars invited to Woodstock were The Who and Jimi Hendrix.

33. Due to disagreements with the organizers over the issue of payment, The Who did not rise to the stage until 4 in the morning.

35. One of The Who's most memorable performances was "See Me, Feel Me": the sun rose as soon as lead singer Roger Daltrey began to sing.

37. Also while on the band's stage, political activist Abby Hoffman, taking advantage of a brief break in the performance, shouted into the microphone: "What, we are going to sit and listen to this shit while John Sinclair rots in prison? ..", but was kicked off the stage by the band's leader, Pete Townsend.

39. . At the end of the set, Townsend smashed his guitar on the stage and threw it into the crowd. This moment helped establish The Who as superstars and helped their album "Tommy" go multi-platinum.

41. Jimi Hendrix delivered a huge payoff, including an alternate version of the Stars and Stripes. The song was something incredible, the Vietnam War was in full swing, and the sound effects that Hendrix played from the guitar evoked parallels with the sounds of violence and conflict.

43. These two performances are recognized by fans as the greatest in the history of rock music.

45. In 1970, the documentary Woodstock was released. Three Days of Peace and Music, which received an Oscar in 1971.

47. Curiously, one of the editors of this documentary was Martin Scorsese.

49. Also in 2009, a fortieth anniversary edition was published with several additions.

51. Subsequently, commemorative festivals were held to coincide with the anniversaries of the 1969 Woodstock festival: Woodstock-79 Woodstock-89 Woodstock-94 (25th anniversary) Woodstock-99

53. The organization of the latter has been sharply criticized (high prices for drinks and foodstuffs and the ban on bringing food yourself, the lack of an adequate level of medical care).

55. In 2009, the next Woodstock was supposed to take place, but due to problems with the budget, the show never took place, but many things came out to coincide with the anniversary of the festival.

57. In mid-August '69, no one knew that later, endless rows of cultural scientists would dub the Woodstock festival one of the greatest moments in history that changed the image of modern culture.

59. The organizers were young people who only got permission for the event two weeks before it took place, but they had $2.5 million - a lot of money at the time. The most expensive Hollywood blockbuster then cost a million or two.

61. It was planned that 100-150 thousand people would gather, no one expected to sell 250 thousand tickets, and, moreover, no one thought that the same number would crawl onto that field without any tickets.

63. By the way, the cost of tickets for 3 scheduled days was only 18 dollars. Compared to Woodstock 89, the price was $150.

65. Exactly two days before the start of the festival, Warner Brothers paid $100,000 to shoot a film that became a cult hit.

67. Most of the famous artists came to Woodstock. Only Led Zeppelin and Jet Rotall refused. The groups Moody Blues, Doors and Bob Dylan agreed, but for various reasons they did not make it. The Beatles were in the process of disintegration - McCartney refused, Lennon wanted to come with Yoko Ono, but they refused him.

71. The average fee of a top artist at that time was somewhere around 12-13 thousand dollars, even the famous team The Who agreed to such a price, they had just released an unforgettable rock opera Tommy at the beginning of the festival summer.

80. Be that as it may, despite dozens of various problems, the festival nevertheless took place, became legendary and had a huge impact on culture.

It is wrong to call Woodstock 1969 the first, because the three-day rock festival became a unique event, the only, special, inimitable, unique, no matter how hard the organizers try to repeat the success of the debut event. It was also impossible for the reason that the headliners of the festival, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, will no longer be alive next year. However, the legend of Woodstock-1969 will live forever, will become a symbol of the end of the hippie era and a signal for the beginning of the sexual revolution - where in the history of human civilization half a million people gathered in one place and were absolutely happy, despite the constant rain, slush, dirt and unsanitary conditions.

How was the first Woodstock

The Woodstock Music & Art Fair actually took place on a farm near the town of Bethel, because Woodstock itself did not find a suitable place for a crowd of 50,000 people. Such a number of spectators were expected by the producers of the rock festival, who decided to remove all fences, cordons and guards, when in mid-August, not tens, but hundreds of thousands of people began to move towards Bethel. Experts estimate the total number of visitors to the festival at 500,000. The balance was maintained, even despite the death of three hippie fans (heroin and two accidents), because during the festival, pregnant women managed to give birth to several children right in the field. At least that's what the urban legends say.

The three-day rock festival actually lasted four days. Due to the rains, the performances were delayed and the musicians took the stage with huge delays. For example, the rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival, which was the first to sign a contract to participate, thereby setting an example for other rock stars, was supposed to perform at ten in the evening, but took the stage after midnight, when the audience was sleeping. According to John Fogerty, the band's frontman, in the half-million crowd, only one sleepless fan listened to them, whose burning lighter flickered somewhere far, far away in the midst of a pile of sleeping bodies.

Another story happened to Hendrix, who was supposed to close Woodstock on Sunday evening, but it turned out at nine in the morning on Monday. By this time, the number of viewers had dropped to 30-40 thousand, because hippies also have to earn money somewhere, and the working week has already come. The great rock artist delivered one of the best performances of his career, performing 18 songs in two hours, including an alternate version of the US national anthem and an improvisation never heard anywhere else. With an encore of the iconic song "Hey Joe", Jimi ended the festival. It's time to return to normal life.

Photographs of people from Woodstock 1969

Interesting articles

Almost 47 years have passed since that iconic rock festival, which took place on a farm town in rural Bethel, New York, USA. However, his influence on modern fashion is still felt. In 2013, many designers began to turn to the trends of that time and transfer them to the fashion of the 21st century, and this fascination with the 60s can now be seen everywhere. Then, in 1969, at the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, there were several thousand professional photojournalists who left the stories behind these shots, which we offer in our selection.

Woodstock Music and Arts Fair - one of the most famous rock festivals, held from 15 to 18 August 1969 on a farm town in the countryside of Bethel, New York, USA. The event was attended by about 500 thousand people, and among the speakers were such performers as The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Ravi Shankar, Carlos Santana and many others.

During the festival, 3 people died: one from a heroin overdose, the second was hit by a tractor, the third fell from high structures; There have been 2 unconfirmed births. In 1970, the documentary film Woodstock was released. Three Days of Peace and Music” won an Oscar in 1971. Woodstock has become a symbol of the end of the "hippie era" and the beginning of the sexual revolution.

The influx of visitors to the festival site caused heavy traffic jams. People left their cars and walked several kilometers to participate in Woodstock. Messages on WNEW-FM radio stations in Manhattan and TV reports discouraged people from attending the festival.

Arlo Guthrie, during his half-hour set on the first day, jokingly said, “The New York freeway is closed, man! Too many freaks!" In addition to the difficulties due to the large number of people, the past rain washed out roads and fields. Most visitors did not have access to sanitation and first aid; hundreds of thousands of people faced bad weather, food shortages and unsanitary conditions.

During the beginning of the festival, the media focused on the problems, with headlines on the front page of the Daily News reporting "big traffic jams at the hippyfest" and "hippies mired in a sea of ​​mud". By the end of Woodstock, reviews had become more positive, in part as parents of festival-goers turned to the tabloids and, based on their children's phone calls, said the press claims were grossly untrue.

The Woodstock 1969 festival was an unprecedented event in the world of music, which attracted a record 500,000 spectators. These four days at the dairy farm of Max Yasgur became a real celebration of peace, love and music, for a short time turning all the guests into one huge colorful family. There were long-haired hippies, Ken Kesey's "Merry Pranksters", and even Yippie rebels, led by their revolutionary leader Abbie Hoffman.

It seemed that nothing could destroy the fantastic atmosphere of the festival: people were ready to stand in many kilometers of traffic jams to come to the farm, demolished fences for unhindered passage and shared food with each other, erecting field kitchens. The spirit of unity reigned at Woodstock - unity with nature, people around and, of course, with music. Of course, there were some banned substances, promiscuous relationships and provocative antics of rebels, but this did not interfere with the general euphoria, but rather was even part of it. At the end of the hippie era, the "flower children" got their own festival. A festival that no one has yet been able to repeat (not even the organizers of the legendary Woodstock 1969).

Fantastic Four

Today it is hard to believe, but the festival was created by four young people, the oldest of whom at the time of Woodstock was only 27 years old. It all started with the fact that Michael Lang - who in those days fully corresponded to the image of a barefoot hippie with a mop of curly hair and without a penny in his pocket - began to dream of a commune away from big cities, where musicians could create for their own pleasure. He was very interested in music himself and was even the manager of the band Tgain from San Francisco. In his dreams, Michael already imagined this “hippie paradise” in all colors, but there was one problem. He did not have the money to implement an ambitious project.

Some time later, Michael met Artie Kornfield, vice president of repertoire at Capitol, and was surprised to find in him his like-minded person. Young people got excited about the idea of ​​creating a music studio at Woodstock, which will open its doors to all talented performers of good music. It remains to find sponsors.

Meanwhile, in New York, John Roberts, the heir to a pharmaceutical company, and his friend Joel Rosenman were puzzling over the opposite question - where would it be profitable to invest Roberts' money. Lacking any ideas of their own, they ran an ad in the New York Times that read, “Young people with unlimited capital are looking for exciting, legitimate investment opportunities and business opportunities.” Needless to say, in the first days after publication, a bunch of offers from poor seekers of happiness and easy money literally fell on them. But, by some miracle, among this heap of crazy and charlatan ideas, Roberts and Rosenman caught the eye of Lang and Kornfield's proposal. "Why not?" they decided. After a meeting of four young people in February 1969, the idea of ​​making a music studio grew into an even more ambitious and coherent plan: to organize a three-day rock festival for 50,000 people, and with the proceeds from it to build a large cultural center with recording studios and a retreat for musicians. Then Michael, Artie, John and Joel had no idea what difficulties they had to face, and what this idea would lead to at all.

Problems, problems, problems...

So, four young people started organizing a music festival. They immediately found the perfect location for it, an industrial park near Wallkill, New York. With their own money, they also printed tickets ($7 for one day; $13 for two and $18 for three days), which were sold in small local shops and post offices. In a word, each of these “fantastic four” became a man-orchestra for several months: it was necessary to resolve all issues with the owners of the territory, arrange food delivery, find musicians and persuade them to perform at an unknown festival, and also hire all the necessary employees - from service personnel to security services. Today, such events are organized by huge teams, which can include more than 100 people. But in the 1960s, the culture of big festivals had not yet formed, Michael, Artie, John and Joel were actually pioneers, whose level of enthusiasm went through the roof.

However, it was not possible to leave on enthusiasm alone. Almost immediately, problems began with the venue for the festival. As soon as the people of Wallkill learned that thousands of dirty hippies would soon descend on their city, they were horrified. They were ready to defend their city to the last. Perhaps if "Woodstock" did take place in the vicinity of Wallkill, the angry residents of the city and local farmers would come out at midnight with pitchforks and torches and staged a real "massacre" against strangers. But the authorities took action in time, releasing a law on July 2, 1969, effectively prohibiting concerts in this area.

Panic broke out among those involved in organizing the festival: stores refused to sell tickets to Woodstock, and negotiations with most of the musicians came to a standstill. There was a month and a half left before the festival. To top it all off, the people who bought the tickets began to demand a refund of their cost. Woodstock was on the brink of collapse.

Luckily, in mid-July, Max Yasgur offered his 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel as a venue for the festival. It was a real success for the organizers. However, the change of location at the last moment still made them pretty nervous: they had to conclude new contracts for the lease of the dairy farm and surrounding areas, as well as obtain permission to hold the festival in the city. The construction of a stage and a pavilion for performers, car parks, concession stands and a children's playground - all this had very little time left. The preparatory work was supposed to end literally on the day the Woodstock began. But, of course, they didn’t manage to finish something - the ticket offices and gates remained unfinished.

It also unexpectedly turned out that the expected number of guests (50,000 people) had quadrupled. It would seem that this is good news. But not for the organizers, who already have a lot of problems. It became clear that the amount of food supplies that were ordered initially would not be enough.

And literally on the eve of the start of the festival, it became clear that there would also be big problems with security. On the morning of August 15, 1969, three large busloads of police officers arrived at the dairy farm, each promised $50 for their work at Woodstock. And when they were ready to begin their duties, the authorities announced to them that everyone who remained at the festival would subsequently face trouble in the service. The police officers calmly turned around, climbed back into the buses and left. However, some still remained - but under fictitious names, in order to avoid unnecessary problems. “We had eight or nine Mickeys or something like that,” said a waiter at a local hotel.

Four Days America Will Never Forget

On Wednesday (two days before the start of the festival), about 50,000 people had already camped near the stage. These first guests entered Woodstock for free, climbing through a hole in the fence where they had not yet installed a gate. The organizers were not ready for such a turn of events. How to get fifty thousand people to leave the fenced area, buy tickets and go back in a civilized way? Obviously, this was not possible. But it was only half the trouble. A precedent was set, and rumors that Woodstock was completely free to enter spread like lightning in neighboring cities. As a result, tens of thousands of people rushed to Max Yasgur's farm, and many kilometers of traffic jams formed on the access roads to the festival. People abandoned their cars and walked. Soon the fence separating the festival area was knocked down. And along with it, the organizers' dreams of making money were destroyed. However, the “flower children” were delighted: the commodity-money relations they hated disappeared from the concept of “Woodstock-1969”.

“On Friday morning, there was a feeling of blockade: if it was very difficult to get into the festival, then it was completely impossible to go back,” said E. Kopkind. Blocked roads created difficulties in getting artists to Woodstock. The organizers had to rent helicopters to help them get to the stage. In the following days, the missions of these aircraft only expanded. The police, like kind angels, dropped food, drinks and waterproof raincoats from the cockpits of helicopters, because it was completely unrealistic to break through the crowd on the ground.

And yet, despite the difficulties that arose, "Woodstock" began almost on time. On Friday evening, August 15, Richie Havens took the stage and announced the beginning of the festival, and in his parting word he asked the "children of flowers" that there be nothing but "fun and music" for these three days. Sweetwater, Joan Baez and other famous performers of the time delighted guests with their music at sunset.

Musical performances resumed shortly after noon on Saturday and continued until the break at 9 am on Sunday. And in the afternoon, such stars as Santana, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and, of course, The Who took to the stage. Despite the fact that the officially planned three-day festival came to an end, the performances of the musicians went on until the morning of the next day. Jimi Hendrix played his songs at dawn on Monday, ending the story of Woodstock 1969. This legendary performance has gone down in rock and roll history forever.

Despite the sheer unsanitary conditions, hour-long lines to the toilets, lack of food and pouring rain, all visitors to Woodstock felt truly happy. “When you talk to people who have been there, as they get to the seventh heaven of their memory, where Woodstock is located, they are inspired as if they are retelling a mystical event,” Gene Young wrote.

The police later said that about 450,000 people visited Woodstock in 1969, but the festival guests themselves call the figure almost twice as high - 800,000. One way or another, Woodstock became a real sensation of that time. Within nine months of its completion, about 200,000 illegitimate children were born. It was the beginning of the sexual revolution and the end of the "hippie era".

Of course, it was a sin not to repeat such a cult festival. Therefore, several attempts have been made to revive Woodstock and its phenomenal atmosphere. But none of them can be called truly successful. In 1999, Michael Lang himself, the mastermind behind the original Woodstock, took part in the organization of the festival, which also had "peace, love and music" as its slogan. However, the spirit of the first Woodstock had already been irretrievably lost - ticket prices jumped one and a half times, food and drinks could now only be bought on the festival grounds (at the same time, a bottle of water cost $4, and a hamburger - as much as $10). And the tightening of control, oddly enough, had the opposite effect. The guests, being in conditions of terrible heat, without access to a sufficient number of drinking sources, began to behave inappropriately, and the festival ended in a terrible massacre, the photo chronicle of which hit the front pages of American newspapers.

Woodstock 1969 is a legend gone down in history. And forever she will remain.

Woodstock Music and Arts Fair ( Woodstock Music & Art Fair) has become one of the landmark events in the world of music. It marked a departure from rock and roll and the advent of a new era of rock. Almost 47 years have passed since the festival, but that music still influences contemporary performers. Plus, glossy magazines do not stop comparing the fashion trends of that time and the style of dressing today.