Woodstock 1969: a shift in pop culture

The iconic music festival from August 15-18, 1969 was actually held some 95 kilometers (60 miles) from the town of Woodstock itself, on a farmland in Bethel, New York. The name came from Woodstock Ventures, the investment group behind the festival. Billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music," it became a pivotal event in cultural history.

"By the time we got to Woodstock, we were half a million strong," sang Joni Mitchell in tribute to the festival in 1970. Rather than buying tickets, the crowds tore down the fence on the first day. The festival attracted over 400,000 people — twice as many as the organizers had anticipated. As Mitchell later said, the participants could feel "they were part of a greater organism."

There was such a high volume of traffic that it took eight hours to drive the some 150 kilometers from New York City to Bethel. To reach the site, festival goers had to leave their cars behind and walk the last stretch — an average of 24 kilometers (15 miles) each on foot. Some of the performers had to be flown in by helicopter — as did over 500 kilos (1,100 pounds) of food.

It was folk singer Richie Havens who opened the festival on Friday, August 15. He improvised one of the most iconic songs of the event, "Freedom," right on the spot. With the other opening acts caught in the traffic, Havens played on for hours, weaving lyrics from old spirituals into his songs.

In the 1970 Oscar-winning documentary, Woodstock became world famous. Through film and recording rights, the promoters of the event, nearly bankrupt after the festival, were able to more than recoup their losses. The film includes Joe Cocker's memorable "With a Little Help from My Friends." After the singer's set, a thunderstorm disrupted the concerts for several hours.

Between acts, public announcements from the stage helped people in the crowd who'd lost each other meet again — or warned about bad drugs: "The brown acid that's circulating around is not specifically too good..." Fueled by the music, the feeling of community and psychedelic drugs, hippies found their trip rewarding, despite the chaos, shortage of food, the rain — and lots of mud.

Among the 32 acts that performed during the weekend, only three women took to the stage as solo artists: Joan Baez (picture), Janis Joplin and Melanie. Other female performers included Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane as well as Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson of the Incredible String Band. Baez was six months pregnant at the time.

Maybe not many festival participants were naked in the crowd of half a million, but the nudity of a few contributed to the festival's legendary status. Disrobing in public was nearly inconceivable in the prudish United States back then, but for those who were there, it was simply another way of expressing freedom and tolerance.

Jimi Hendrix had insisted on closing the festival and was also the highest-paid performer of the event. Scheduled to start at midnight, he ended up taking the stage on Monday at 9 am due to delays. By that time, most of the crowd had left. But those who stayed were rewarded with a legendary two-hour performance, which included the guitarist's distorted take on the "Star-Spangled Banner."