WOODSTOCK legends

August 15 to August 18, 1969.

• The organizers once again told Bethel authorities they expected no more than 50,000 people...

• The crowd was arriving in greater numbers and earlier than anticipated ...

• The fence was cut the night before the concert: it was free!

• The influx of attendees to the rural concert site in Bethel created a massive traffic jam ...

• To add to the problems and difficulty in dealing with the large crowds, recent rains had caused muddy roads and fields. The facilities were not equipped to provide sanitation or first aid for the number of people attending; hundreds of thousands found themselves in a struggle against bad weather, food shortages, and poor sanitation

• On the morning of Sunday, August 17, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller called festival organizer John Roberts and told him he was thinking of ordering 10,000 New York State National Guard troops to the festival. Roberts was successful in persuading Rockefeller not to do this.  

• A state of emergency was declared ..

• The festival was remarkably peaceful given the number of people (c. 500.000) and the conditions involved.

After the concert, Max Yasgur, who owned the site of the event, saw it as a victory of peace and love. He spoke of how nearly half a million people filled with possibilities of disaster, riot, looting, and catastrophe spent the three days with music and peace on their minds. He states that "if we join them, we can turn those adversities that are the problems of America today into a hope for a brighter and more peaceful future..."

Declined invitations:

Bob Dylan

The Beatles

Led Zeppelin

The Moody Blues

The Byrds

Joni Mitchell

The Doors canceled at the last moment; according to guitarist Robby Krieger, they turned it down because they thought it would be a "second class repeat of Monterey Pop Festival", and later regretted that decision.

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On this day in 1969, The Woodstock Festival, the most famous rock festival of its era, opened in upstate New York... the three-day rock music celebration, which was held on Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm, in Bethel, NY, near Woodstock... featured Joan Baez, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Arlo Guthrie, Joe Cocker, Richie havens, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Canned Heat, Santana and many more...

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Half a million people attended Woodstock Festival in 1969, the significance of which goes beyond the music played and recorded there. The documentary made about the massive gathering (edited by a youngster named Martin Scorsese) is in the history book, because it not only captures the 60s zeitgeist beautifully but also preserves in perpetuity quite a few magnificent performances by rock legends such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

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and.. last but not least ..
the unique, the fantastic,  JANIS JOPLIN!

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