Woodstock began 53 years ago and is still considered the most important music festival of all time – musically brilliant, characterized by a peaceful and non-commercial spirit. The truth, of course, looks a little different.
It was an era when everything seemed possible: On July 20, 1969, a human walked on the moon for the first time. Barely four weeks later, the world public again reached images that seemed to be from another planet – or at least announced the founding of a new nation – the Woodstock nation. The political activist Abbie Hoffman created this term with his book of the same name, and linked it to the hope of a new, peaceful era in human history. The famous poet Allen Ginsberg even spoke of a “great planetary event”.
Although the great expectations for a renewal of humanity were not fulfilled, a utopia of what is socially possible shimmered briefly in Woodstock. Much of what was to become an integral part of alternative culture in the 1970s and 1980s came into play here for the first time – from skinny dipping to eating muesli to relaxation techniques from the Far East. The “Zeit” called this the “long way from Janis Joplin to Claudia Roth”.
To this day there is a lot of transfiguration when talking about Woodstock – numerous myths have persisted. The ten biggest myths.
1. The festival took place in Woodstock
Originally, the festival was actually supposed to take place directly in Woodstock, a town in upstate New York. After protests from residents, the organizers had to look for a new area – and found it in Walkill, 30 kilometers south of Woodstock. But here, too, the residents successfully defended themselves – so they finally ended up in the community of White Lake, Bethel, 76 kilometers away. The organizers rented a piece of land from the farmer Max Yasgur for $50,000. Here, too, the residents were anything but happy about the expected onslaught of hippies – some citizens even called for a boycott of Max Yasgur’s milk. Ultimately, however, the administration of the town with 2366 inhabitants gave the green light.
2. The biggest stars of the 1960s performed in Woodstock
The real top stars of the era stayed at home: The Beatles no longer gave public concerts, Bob Dylan didn’t want to, and the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Beach Boys, The Doors or Elvis weren’t there either. Even Led Zeppelin, who started their world career shortly afterwards, canceled. The biggest stars at Woodstock were Jimi Hendrix and The Who. For Santana, the performance was the starting signal for a career that continues to this day.
3. Jimi Hendrix’ performance was the wildly celebrated highlight of the festival
Saving the best for last: Jimi Hendrix had signed a contract to headline the festival at the very end. But the program was delayed due to the storm, which meant that Hendrix’s appearance was pushed back further and further. When he entered the stage, it was already daylight. Monday morning, 8:30 a.m. Only a fraction of the spectators were there – an estimated 40,000 of the half a million festival visitors.
4. There was a non-commercial spirit
Even then, a festival was above all a gigantic economic undertaking. Most of the better-known musicians only performed for a fee that was lavish for the time. Some artists didn’t even try to hide the fact that they were here purely for commercial reasons. The Who’s performance almost fell through because the promoter didn’t have enough cash. The British band only wanted to play against payment in advance – with great effort and the use of a helicopter, the organizers managed to get the money on a Saturday evening.
The impression that Woodstock was planned as a free festival is also wrong. Three-day tickets were offered in advance for 18 dollars – not little money by the standards of the time. A total of 186,000 tickets were sold. Only when the rush of visitors was so great that the stewards could no longer cope with the masses did the organizers declare the event a free festival: “It’s a free concert from now on”.
5. Woodstock was the most important music festival of its time
That is of course a matter of taste. But the fact is: The Monterey Pop Festival from 1967 was far more influential for the musical development of the 1960s. The British band The Who celebrated their triumphant breakthrough in the USA, and Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin’s star also rose here. At the same time, Monterey was the impressive showcase of West Coast sound: with Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, Grateful Dead, Scott McKenzie and The Mamas and the Papas, almost all Californian bands were there of rank on site. Laura Nyro, Simon & Garfunkel came from New York. And the black music scene was also addressed: with Booker T. & the MG’s, Otis Redding and Lou Rawls, some promising soul musicians were there.
In Woodstock, on the other hand, there were – in addition to some musical highlights – numerous disappointments: musicians like Tim Hardin or John Sebastian had gotten high on LSD or other drugs, the Grateful Dead played their worst concert according to their own assessment. Janis Joplin also fell short of her potential: she performed with a completely new backing band, the Kozmic Blues Band, which was barely recorded. She’d also been drinking far too much – even that was better in Monterey!
6. Joni Mitchell wrote the later festival anthem “Woodstock” based on her own experiences.
Joni Mitchell was on her way to Woodstock with her manager David Geffen, but returned to New York after learning of the mess and mud. She watched the further course of the festival in front of the television at home. Strongly impressed by the events, she wrote a song: “It was remarkable how well this mass of people got along with each other, there was enormous optimism. I wrote the song ‘Woodstock’ out of these feelings,” the artist later recalled.
Mitchell justified her cancellation by saying that traffic conditions would make it impossible for her to return to New York in time and appear on the acclaimed “Dick Cavett Show”. It took place the day after it ended, on Tuesday, August 19, 1969. However, Mitchell would have made it on time despite attending Woodstock – after all, Crosby, Stills and Nash made it on the show, as did Jefferson Airplane.
7. The organizers made a fortune at Woodstock
At first it looked as if the festival would turn into a total financial disaster for the organisers. Income of $1.4 million versus expenses of $2.7 million. The organizer, Woodstock Ventures Inc., was sitting on a mountain of debt of 1.3 million dollars. Because Woodstock Ventures only had a small share of the royalties from the film and albums, it wasn’t until 1980 before the company got out of the red. Others did the big business: In just a few weeks, the “Woodstock” movie brought more than five million dollars into the coffers of the media group Warner Brothers – by 1999 it had been more than 100 million dollars. Add to that the income from the sale of the triple album, which sold six million copies, bringing in another $100 million.
8. The festival-goers had a casual relationship with their bodies and nudity
In addition to the music, Woodstock became famous primarily for its bathing scenes: hundreds of hippies jumped naked into the lake. This gave the impression that the visitors had a completely relaxed attitude towards their naked bodies. In fact, the sense of shame must have been very strong. It was only through the impulse of one individual that people shed their inhibitions. Photographer Barry Levine recalls: “It was excruciatingly hot and people were standing around the pond. Everyone was waiting – you could tell they wanted to go in but didn’t dare – what do you do when there are so many people? David and I took off our pants and jumped in. We didn’t think anything of it. That was official permission for everyone to strip naked and jump in the water.”
9. The Woodstock Festival was a political event
“3 Days of Peace & Music” was the motto of the Woodstock Festival – and that’s exactly what it was supposed to be: the peaceful get-together of a huge number of people, accompanied by beautiful music. No less, but no more. Of course, the vast majority of people were critical of the US establishment and opposed the war. But there was no room for political agitation in Woodstock. This is documented by an incident at The Who’s performance: while the band was playing, political activist Abbie Hoffman pushed his way to the microphone and lamented the arrest of his friend, the anarchist John Sinclair. With the words “Get off my stage”, Who guitarist Pete Townshend hit the speaker with his guitar and pushed him off the stage – to thunderous applause from the audience. Townsend also resolutely opposed the idea that Woodstock was the birth of an alternative way of life: “Everywhere these hippies who thought the world would change today. (…) What they thought was an alternative society was basically just a field where you sank knee-deep in mud and LSD was taken everywhere. If that was the world they wanted to live in, then they could kiss my ass,” the musician later said. The US magazine “Newsweek” summarized on August 25, 1969: “For political activists, the festival was a disappointment (…). Woodstock, on the other hand, can be classified in a different, parallel tradition, which arose in San Francisco at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 (…). Woodstock stands for (…) the retreat of youth from the world of politics into the sanctuary of their youth and their senses.” And Bob Dylan, who lived in Woodstock at the time, summed it up: “The generation of flower children – was that it? I didn’t have anything to do with it. To me it was just a lot of children with flowers in their hair who swallowed a lot of acid. What are you supposed to think of that?”
10. The whole festival was completely peaceful
Considering that half a million people spent three days in a confined space, it’s remarkable how little happened. However, not everything went smoothly – there were even fatalities. On Saturday morning, a 17-year-old visitor was run over in his sleeping bag by a tractor carrying a sewage truck. Not everything else went smoothly: the musicologist and radio editor Volkmar Kramarz, who attended the festival at the age of 15, remembers in an interview with the “Kölner Express”: “There were violent arguments between hippies and Vietnam veterans there were fights.” Of course, there is nothing of that in the Woodstock film – and so Woodstock has gone down in history as an event of peace.
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