55 Years of Woodstock
Woodstock festival: turned 55! 🌈 It’s now been 55 years since the legendary Woodstock festival took place in the village of Bethel, New York. As the culmination of the hippie movement, it was a wonderfully chaotic event and a magical moment for open-air live music. More than half a century later, it still seems like the spirit of Woodstock changed many things for the better.
Between Myth and Reality
There are many myths and half-truths surrounding the Woodstock festival, presumably also because some of those who attended can only remember fragments of what happened. For example, it is often said that the line-up featured the “biggest acts” of the time. However, greats such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Jeff Beck did not play at the festival. But that didn’t stop the event from becoming a huge success that resounded around the world. Many B-tier artists of the time went on to become megastars.
Ritchie Havens became a star after playing at Woodstock
Same couple but a few years after !
No curfews
Hundreds of thousands of people stormed the fields of dairy Farmer Max Yasgur, clogged up the roads, and went skinny dipping. Over half a million people – more than twice as many as expected – came together to listen to music for three days and protest the Vietnam War. Three days became four – while the legendary event began according to plan on August 15th, 1969, it didn’t end until the morning of August 18th.
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From commercialism to peaceful happening
Even today, Woodstock stands for the ideal of a peaceful, artistic, and “different” America. This makes it all the more surprising that the organizers Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld originally acted out of commercial interests. Initially, they’d only wanted to promote their new recording studio. To this day, contemporary witnesses are amazed at how peacefully the festival, which ultimately exceeded all dimensions, took place. The crowd simply ignored the mud and the difficult supply situation; many became friends for life, or just for the moment.
Aerial view – Woodstock 1969
The wizard delivers the anthem of Woodstock
Guitar wizard Jimi Hendrix played one of his most legendary concerts of all time. The crowd eagerly awaited his performance and he delivered a virtuoso show. Most famously, he interpreted the national anthem of the USA – “The Star-Spangled Banner” – on his Stratocaster. Although Hendrix never confirmed that this was intended as an appeal for peace to American politics and as criticism of the Vietnam War in particular, his version became the peace-loving anthem of the Woodstock festival.
Jimi Hendrix Woodstock Guitar
… And our guitar model 😉
Fender Jimi Hendrix Strat OWH
Lots of music from various genres
Despite several cancellations, the festivalgoers partied to plenty of good music by the likes of Santana, Joan Baez, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, CCR, and many others. With 32 bands and solo artists covering genres as diverse as folk, rock, psychedelic rock, blues, country, and more, chances are that not everyone liked everything, but that didn’t take away from the atmosphere. It was a celebration of diversity and unity – a party unlike anything the world had ever seen.
Jimi Hendrix playing at Woodstock festival
Gasfitter turns rock legend
The festival line-up was incredibly diverse. When a trained gasfitter with an instantly recognizable, raspy voice entered the stage, he delivered a performance that would be talked about for decades. His name: Joe Cocker. His rendition of the Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends“ was the beginning of a worldwide career. The weather gods answered with torrential rain, which began pouring down right after Cocker’s performance.
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Interruption during the first song
When Ten Years After – one of the many other highlights of the festival – began their set, they had to pause after having played for only a minute. Due to the extreme humidity, their guitars had gone out of tune and they had to re-tune in the middle of the first song. The band played “I’m Going Home” as an encore, and virtuoso guitarist Alvin Lee delivered a ten-minute solo that would become the ultimate goal of every up-and-coming guitarist. Often imitated, never duplicated: Alvin Lee later received his very own Music Man signature instrument.
Ten Years After – Woodstock
There’s a time and place for everything
The Who were already big stars at the time. At Woodstock, however, Pete Townshend wasn’t having any of it. He hated Woodstock and called it a “hypocritical event”. To make matters worse, his wife Karen had just given birth to their daughter while the band was on tour. The festival was merely an inconvenient extra date in the tour calendar. When a political activist entered the stage during the show and grabbed Townshend’s microphone to make a statement, a frustrated Pete responded by bonking him in the head with his guitar. So much for a peaceful atmosphere.
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Cream pies and seltzer bottles
The unique security concept seemingly helped to de-escalate before things got worse. A strong police presence with helicopters, batons, and pepper spray was deliberately avoided. Instead, the organizers relied on New York police officers with an affinity for hippie culture. In addition, they enlisted the Hog Farmers from the Californian hippie commune of the same name as security. When asked how he and his comrades intended to control the masses, their leader answered: “Cream pies and seltzer bottles”.
Why two people are exactly 55 years of age today
The numbers are impressive, to say the least. On their way to the festival, the nearly 500,000 visitors caused a traffic jam of almost 27 kilometres in length. At the event, they had to share only 600 porta-potties. The initial contingent of 18 doctors had to be expanded by another 50 physicians on the second day. And among the 6,000 medical emergencies during the festival were two childbirths. Happy birthday!
People waiting at Woodstock on a car
Kindness, compassion and respect
It’s true that the spirit of Woodstock was driven by Flower Power, free love, and lots of great performances – but also fueled by psychedelic substances. As they say: “If you can remember Woodstock, you weren’t really there.” Woodstock was imperfect, chaotic, and muddy, but above all, authentic. It was surrounded by a special spirit of unity, which helped make the festival a monumental event. A gigantic, albeit severely underequipped celebration of kindness, compassion, and respect: Love, Peace, and Rock’n’Roll.
Flower Power
Typical instruments of hippie culture
Besides the acoustic guitar, typical instruments in the spirit of Woodstock include the frame drum and the djembe, as well as the 4-hole ocarina with the English fingering system, which became a symbol of hippie culture.
Buffalo Drum
And to this day, guitarists can pay homage to the wizard with the Woodstock-themed Jimi Hendrix guitar strap.
Jimi Hendrix Strap – Woodstock style
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Will there ever be another Woodstock? That would be very cool! If you were to head to the festival today, which instrument would you bring for jamming between sets? 🌈
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Roger H says:
Not possible to repeat history. viet Nam, Nixon, moon landing, Chappaquiddick, the draft, etc. The country was split in two – today in a thousand different ways. There was in many ways an idealism that has been extinguished. The music played during the festival was 5 years out of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. it was experimental, still new, and unlike anything heard before. Drugs were relatively new and did not carry the same degree of dangers as today (fentanyl). It was tried in ’99 with spectacular results (great sarcasm intended). Commercial greed would kill it before it happened. I am 70 years old and remember it happening (not there, but a Junior in H.S.) The movie was great but should have been twice as long.
This will never happen again. The music today would never allow for the beautiful imperfections thar reigned during that time. No autotune, electronics that compresses the music today even existed then. Joe Cocker, Sha na na, Santana, Jim Hendrix, CSNY.
Come on. Really?