WoodStock



= Summary = Woodstock is considered to be the biggest music festival of all time. In 1969 nearly half a million young people gathered on a 600 acre dairy farm in Bethel New York. The Concert took place over a 3 day span from august 15 to the 18th. By wednesday august 13th nearly 60,000 people had already arrived to set up camp. By friday the roads into the festival were so clogged up that performers had to be flown in by helicopters. Hundreds of thousand of people did not make it to the concert because of the backed up roads. There was a 20 mile long traffic jam. Many people abandoned their cars and walked miles to get to the concert. The concert initially intended on selling tickets and sold over a 100,000 tickets in the weeks leading up to the concert. As hundreds of thousands of young people came swarming into the concert groups ticket sales ended, they ended sales because they could not handle the huge load of tickets that need to be sold. The concert had a all star lineup with Jefferson Airplane, Jimmy Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, the Who, Janis Joplin and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were just the start of the lineup. Many locals made sandwiches and gave blankets out for free to the concert goers. The concert was 3 days of peace and love, the concert demonstrated the coming together of a huge group of your people that showed their belief in counter culture. It showed how easily it was for groups of young people to come together with a united belief. The concert was full of drugs, including LSD, shrooms and Cannabis. The mass amount of people tripping on LSD and shrooms added to the huge amount of peace and love, because people tend to be more chill and happy when on psychedelic drugs. Threw out the concert zero fights broke out and the event remained very peaceful.

Who WHO: Many people gather on a dairy farm in New York to spread peace and love. The majority of the guests were hippies or middle class young people would wanted to stop violence and hate. The concert included a lot of famous bands, some started their careers from this concert. The concert basically included rock and roll, blues, and other uncategorized musicians. The bands came from all over the world. Many famous musicians came also. For example, Joan baez, Sly and the Family Stone, the Jefferson Airplane, the Who, the Grateful Dead and lots of others. The counterculture was to blame for this massive turnout and world wide revolution to spread peace and love.  The counterculture was made up of young people who were trying to establish a more equitable loving world. They refused to live normal lives because they wanted to prove a point. Some were involved with the end of the Vietnam war or civil rights. Other young people used LSD or meditation to study the Eastern religions to explore the inner depths of their own mind. Many of these peoples ideals were The Beatles and The Rolling Stones because they were expressing the same sort of stuff in there music lyrics. "Hippies and the Counterculture, 1960-1969 (Overview)." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 23 May 2012.

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= When = When: The concert took place from august 15th to the 18th in the summer of 1969. This was during the peak of counter and hippie culture. The concert took place during the peak of the vietnam war. Thousands of draft cards were burned during Woodstock, as people gathered around fires and convinced other to throw their cards in. This enormous gathering of young people amazed the older generation, they did believe half a million young people with the same views could all come together so easily and peacefully.

Rosenberg, Jennifer. "A history of Woodstock." //20th centry history//. about.com,

15 Aug. 1969. Web. 30 May 2012. .

**Where** Where: The concert took place on a 600 acre dairy farm in Bethel New York. Bethel is a small friendly town that had no clue what they were in for. When the town found out about the concert being held there they were not happy. As hundreds of thousands of people came swarming into town some locals were very pleased as their business we booming like local restaurants and hotels. Other locals were not happy as they were doing drugs and posting up everywhere. The locals were amazed though at how nice everyone was and how many please and thank you’s they received.  The owner of the farm was named Max Yasgur and was 49 at the time of the concert, he was paid 50,000 dollars for the use of the farm. Many locals were furious and he received threatening phone calls but the positive phone calls outweighed the negative. Some locals but up signs saying “ Stop Maxes 150,000 hippiefest BUY NO MILK”. Max proceeded on having the concert and started prepping food for the young people at little to no cost, he also gave away huge amounts of milk and dairy product. When he heard of locals trying to charge for water he freaked and put a huge sign up on the highway saying free water. He ordered all his employees to find every empty milk carton, fill it with water and give it away to the kids. Max was fighting against the “MAN” or locals and other people who were trying to sabetosh the peaceful festival. Max was surprised at the huge numbers of people that came to the festival but was none the less still happy as everything worked out in a peaceful order.

“I made a deal with (Woodstock Producer) [|Mike Lang] before the festival started. If anything went wrong I was going to give him a [|crew cut]; if everything was O.K. I was going to let my hair grow long. I guess he won the bet, but I'm so bald I'll never be able to pay it off.” —[|Life Magazine], Special Edition, Woodstock 1969

= Why = WHY: This huge gathering of young people was only possible because of one shared view on society and culture. This view was the thought of a peaceful life where people were united and lived together while not having to put in the normal 9-5 work day. There were four organizers of the concert who were all no older than 27 at the time. They created the event to raise money to open a recording studio in Woodstock. They originally intended on 50,000 people coming but obviously they turn out was way larger.  WHY FREE: One reason the concert became free was because by wednesday there were 50,000 people already camping around the stage. The reason they did not have to pay was because there were no legit fences up and people could just walk right in. Also the ticket booths has not been built in time, also there were not enough legit tickets printed to keep up with the demand. Lastly The line to buy tickets if the ticket booths were erected would be miles long, this is because only a few booths were proposed to be built. Once news of the concert being free hit the hippie gossip even more people headed to the concert grounds. = **Drugs ** =

Woodstock was a festival full of drugs like marijuana and LSD, these drugs were not necessarily bad as they created peace and brought thousands of people together. It was  estimated by the New York times that 99% of people at woodstock were smoking marijuana. The security and law enforcement could not, and did not try to arrest people for using the drugs, as they were far out number and did not have nearly enough holding cells. There were dope supermarkets in the woods as dealers would sit on stumps and sell their drugs. There were even PA announcements telling people to watch at for brown acid as it gave people bad trips. Most hippies saw LSD as a tool to help expand their mind. Steve Jobs said in an interview with the New York Times "Doing LSD was one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life." He also credited his use of LSD as a major reason for his success. MENDENHALL, Elizabeth. "Drugs and Woodstock." //Drugs and Woodstock//. ELIZABETH D. MENDENHALL, May 2000. Web. 30 May 2012. .

= How = did it impact American society: Woodstock affected American in several ways. For example, it brought many people together to help promote love and rock and roll. Secondly, it was the hippies and young people coming together to promote peace and love for the entire decade. They wanted to come together and show the country that what they believe in matters. They did this with non-violence and tried to use love and music to help people agree with them. After seeing the turn out at Woodstock it really helped many hippies and young people feel they had a purpose and people actually cared. The government started to realize that the subculture had a lot of power and that they were not going to give up on what they believed in. As you know the music industry profited greatly from this event. Many famous musicians were there and many others started their careers at Woodstock. Woodstock did not end in 1969, many people started to make movies around this amazing 3 days concert. Lots of people try to relive this event by watching the movie or listening to music from some of the artists that attended Woodstock. This event help people realize how to work together and help others in need. Woodstock over all help people realize that peace is good and we need to help people in need to live a good life. "How did Woodstock affect society for the better." //Your dictionary//. Your dictionary, 2012. Web. 30 May 2012. .





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