Volume 12 , Issue 33

Three Days of Peace & Music - August 1969

It was on this day in 1969, August 17, forty-one years ago, that the grooviest so-called event in music history took place and drew to a close after three days of peace, love and rock-n-roll in upstate New York.

Do you remember the Woodstock Music festival? Were you a part of it? Where were you August 17, 1969? David and I had been newly married for eighteen days, living in Alva, Woods county, Oklahoma.

It was conceived as "Three Days of Peace and Music." Woodstock was a product of a partnership between John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfield and Michael Lang. Their idea was to make enough money from the event to build a recording studio near the arty New York town of Woodstock. When they couldn't find an appropriate venue in the town itself, the promoters decided to hold the festival on a 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York--some 50 miles from Woodstock -- owned by Max Yasgur.

By the time the weekend of the festival arrived, the group had sold a total of 186,000 tickets and expected no more than 200,000 people to show up. By Friday night, however, thousands of eager early arrivals were pushing against the entrance gates. Fearing they could not control the crowds, the promoters made the decision to open the concert to everyone, free of charge. Close to half a million people attended Woodstock, jamming the roads around Bethel with eight miles of traffic.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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