Alexis Genevieve
Bob Dylan and John Sebastian – Woodstock 1964
If you can remember Woodstock, were you really there? Some say if you can remember the iconic 1969 festival then you did not really experience it, as drug use was rampant and wild. Little did they know, the children of Woodstock may remember it in full. Woodstock brought about half a million people to the town of Bethel, New York and of that half a million, the wildest ones brought their children. Here is to the beauty of Woodstock!
Road to Woodstock
“When they said there was gonna be about 100,000 people at Woodstock, and it went up to 200,000, I just blanked off and thought, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ If they’re filming it, it’s too nerve-racking.”- Jeff Beck
Heaps of Cars
That’s a lot of traffic! And it looks like it isn’t moving. The amount of people who showed up was way too big for the small town of Bethel to handle, which created probably one of the worst traffic jams this single lane town provided.
Beep beep! Hippies are coming! We doubt there was much road rage…
The Tiny Dancer
This little girl just wanted to dance! Was her Dad dancing behind her? Did she lose her parents? No one knew and no one cared, they just let her feel the music.
“Describing Woodstock as the “big bang,” I think that’s a great way to describe it, because the important thing about it wasn’t how many people were there or that it was a lot of truly wonderful music that got played.” – David Crosby
The Happy Campers
“But when I played Woodstock, I’ll never forget that moment looking out over the hundreds of thousands of people, the sea of humanity, seeing all those people united in such a unique way. It just touched me in a way that I’ll never forget.” – Edgar Winter
Krazy Dazies Are Here
We have no clue who these guys are but man oh man they look like they could read our palms! Cool kids of Woodstock for sure, tanned and toned and way to clean to actually be involved in the craziness we are wondering what the Krazy Dazies are hiding from on top of that van!
Love the paint job, love the love, this can could be placed in a Lucky Brand Jeans store and it would fit right in! We have a feeling this van didn’t stay clean for long.
The Outsiders
Where are these people sitting? How are they watching the festival from the top of this bus? Was the bus parked inside the venue?! To many questions and no answers.
“Just in time for Bob Dylan to recoil from the attention, leave the city for Woodstock, and turn his back on fame.” – Bob Dylan
Cool Kids
“Portrait of three unidentified and barefoot women, two of whom are seated on the hood of a Plymouth Barracuda parked on the side of a gravel road near the side of the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair.”
We want to be these cool kids of summer!
The Piggybacker
People were hungry, there was suppose to be a fence to keep the crowds down, they were protesting the man but the man was the only one who could save the chaos.
“But, what did happen is I went to Woodstock as a member of the audience. I did not show up there with a road manager and a couple of guitars. I showed up with a change of clothes and a toothbrush.” – John Sebastian
The Land Owner
Max and Miriam Yasgur on their land after the Woodstock Music & Art Fair.
“I opened the Woodstock Festival even though I was supposed to be fifth. I said, ‘What am I doing here? No, no, not me, not first!’ I had to go on stage because there was no one else to go on first – the concert was already two-and-a-half hours late.” – Richie Havens
The Lovers
“This isn’t the Democratic party of our fathers and grandfathers. This is the party of Woodstock hippies. I was at Woodstock–I built the stage. And when everything fell apart, and people were fighting for peanut butter sandwiches, it was the National Guard who came in and saved the same people who were protesting them. So when Hillary Clinton a few years ago wanted to build a Woodstock memorial, I said it should be a statue of a National Guardsman feeding a crying hippie.” – John Ratzenberger
Janis Joplin Needs a Drink
Get it, Girl!! Drink that champagne cause you are a star, Janis!!! Can you be our best friend?
This must have been backstage or in a section without the public because it looks way to calm. Remnants of tea cups and newspapers sit across the fellow tables, people smoke weed and tobacco and Janis Joplin is sippin on bubbles! Honestly, how cool would it have been the person who took this photo…. You know they must have cheersed!
The Watering Hole
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“And it may be that a crowd at a particular moment of history creates the object to justify its gathering, as it did at the first Human Be-In and Monterey Pop and Woodstock. Or it may be that two generations of war and surveillance had left people craving the embodiment of their own unease in the form of a lone, unsteady man on a slide guitar.” – Jennifer Egan
Bright Eyes
Hello Bright Eyes!
It’s been said that the Hells Angels biker gang road all the way from the west coast to deliver acid for the festival! I mean who else would have the guts in 1969 to traffic that much LSD across the country! Timothy Francis Leary is said to have been a big provider for this festival and it makes us wonder if he partnered with the bike gang to get it there! Peace, Love and drugs!
My Dad Smells Like Patchouli Oil
How did that cat get to Woodstock and is that blonde women sleeping on the floor dead or alive? This Dad’s pants are so groovy, he had to dress his kid in a similar pair!
“When Woodstock ended on Monday morning, over 600 acres of garbage was left behind on Max Yasgur’s farm. It took over 400 volunteers and $100,000 to remove it all.” – Shawn Amos
We Are Sad and Cold
Hmm, well this couple really doesn’t look like they are enjoying themselves. I mean that dude looks like he straight up is about to cry! Whatever happened, hopefully their festival fun was not tarnished for the entire music event. Maybe they didn’t know they were truly living through history?
Best guess is that it must have just rained, they were freezing and hungry and possibly never made it into the venue due to the large crowds.
Jammin
Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, and Pete Townshend perform at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in Bethel, New York.
“Many teachers of the Sixties generation said “We will steal your children”, and they did. A significant part of America has converted to the ideas of the 1960s – hedonism, self-indulgence and consumerism. For half of all Americans today, the Woodstock culture of the Sixties is the culture they grew up with – their traditional culture. For them, Judeo-Christian culture is outside the mainstream now. The counter-culture has become the dominant culture, and the former culture a dissident culture – something that is far out, and ‘extreme’.” – Pat Buchanan
How Old is this Person?
Not sure if this person is old enough to smoke but they sure do look cool doing it! Not really but back then it was unknown how bad cigarettes were for you. Looks like someone may be dead behind her and the rest of the crowd looks completely beat!
One thing is that we totally love this chicks hair! We still think she looks like a teenager who 100% shouldn’t be puffing on a cancer stick but she is rocking that sandy blonde beach hair perfectly!
Santana
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Carlos Santana performs at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival.
“At the time of Woodstock, I was just 13, but I used to see these exotic hippy creatures and I did look on with envy. How could you not? In an ideal world, I would have loved to have been a hippy – but I might have been a bit strait-laced. It was my fantasy.” – Imelda Staunton
Jimi Plays “The Star Spangled Banner”
Jimi Hendrix playing “The Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock, NY 1969 by Henry Diltz
Talk about an outfit! I know we have stated that line through this article but come on! This outfit may take the cake. Look at that fringe jacket!!!! Also, peep those velvet bell bottoms…. I know one to many 20 somethings who would love to be wearing those today.
Mr. Hendrix surely never disappoints and this shows he had a patriarchal side to him! As he spouts off the star spangled banner, it makes us wonder if this was the start of Woodstock! Did Jimi kick it off with an American anthem?
Groovy Way or Gentle Path?
If you don’t know, now you know…. Woodstock was a complete trip! Metaphorically and physically we are pretty sure no one had any idea what was going on. The festival was hectic, the producers of it were wildly unprepared and a ton of people showed up that they did not expect!
The best part of it though is that the audience they were catering to was totally ok with the lack of preparedness and they were just there to find the groovy way or the gentle path!
It Rained!
Woodstock would have not been what it was without the rain! On top of all the problems that happened a true storm thundered down on the festival making concert goers extremely capable of catching a cold or getting electrocuted but they didn’t care!
The rain came, the rain created a ton of mud, the festival kept going! No one cared, I mean we are sure they did care but everyone still seemed to highly enjoy themselves during a tremendous downpour.
The Camera Man
To think this dude was on the job… wowsers! They did film the festival, they do have live concert footage… it is truly epic… you should take a peek at it below!
That Dude Looks Like Matthew McConaughey
100% a real photo of a random couple at Woodstock but for real that dude looks like Matthew McConaughey! Maybe it’s the smile? Maybe he has been in a movie about Woodstock?…. Maybe it’s just not him! This couple though does look to be enjoying themselves on a lovely sunny afternoon during the festival. We envy that dudes tie dye shirt in the background.
Straight Chillin
No shoes, no shirt, no problem!
“Too much shit has been written about Gypsies, mostly by American women who’ve never even talked to a Gypsy, let alone spent time in their company, but whose claim to fame is that their parents were at Woodstock.” – Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet – Searching for your Tribe
Dance, Dance, Dance!
“We were ready to rock out and we waited and waited and finally it was our turn … there were a half million people asleep. These people were out. It was sort of like a painting of a Dante scene, just bodies from hell, all intertwined and asleep, covered with mud. And this is the moment I will never forget as long as I live: A quarter mile away in the darkness, on the other edge of this bowl, there was some guy flicking his Bic, and in the night I hear, “Don’t worry about it, John. We’re with you.” I played the rest of the show for that guy. — John Fogerty recalling Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 3:30 a.m. start time at Woodstock.”
Slip and Slide!
Woodstock concert goers sliding down a muddy hill, 1969. Photograph by Peter Menzel.
“Despite the promises of utopian hedonism, many youth and middle-aged adults quickly enticed by these did not escape from their addictions easily, if at all. And, to the shock of their fans, the lives of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and numerous other acid trippin’ rock musicians also ended quickly like the closing blues beats from one of their most popular songs. Even Max Yasgur himself died just 19 months after the Woodstock Festival of a heart attack at the age of 53.” ― Philip Alajajian, The 1960’s Social Movements – Pathways to the Final Apostasy
Shop ‘Til You Drop
“He dreamed of amassing musicians from all over the world in Woodstock and they would sit in a field in a circle and play and play. It didn’t matter what key or tempo or what melody, they would keep on playing through their discordance until they found a common language.” – Patti Smith
Security is Here!
“Far from being freaks, the Hell’s Angels are a logical product of the culture that now claims to be shocked at their existence. The generation represented by the editors of Time has lived so long in a world full of Celluloid outlaws hustling toothpaste and hair oil that it is no longer capable of confronting the real thing. For twenty years they have sat with their children and watched yesterday’s outlaws raise hell with yesterday’s world … and now they are bringing up children who think Jesse James is a television character. This is the generation that went to war for Mom, God and Apple Butter, the American Way of Life. When they came back, they crowned Eisenhower and then retired to the giddy comfort of their TV parlors, to cultivate the subtleties of American history as seen by Hollywood.” ― Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga
Love Bug
“Over the years Woodstock got glorified and romanticized and became the event that symbolized Utopia. It’s the last page of our collective memory of the age of innocence. Then things turned ugly and would never be the same again.” – Ang Lee
Vegans
“People say Altamont was the ‘end of the ’60s.’ It was unfortunate, but at the time we didn’t think of it as signaling anything. The fact that nobody got killed at Woodstock is amazing because that was half a million people. We only had 300,000 at Altamont.” – Grace Slick
Vibing
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A man smiles from the inside of his Ford Mustang, which has been tagged with various peace and antiwar messages in Bethel, New York on his way to the Woodstock music festival.
“My mom had me at 16 and took me every place she went. I remember going on peace marches. She tried to take me to Woodstock – it was pouring rain. It was on my birthday, and I was crying so much in the car they turned the car around and dumped me at my grandmother’s house… I had a little attitude.” – Debi Mazar
Party Time
“At the time of Woodstock, I was just 13, but I used to see these exotic hippy creatures and I did look on with envy. How could you not? In an ideal world, I would have loved to have been a hippy – but I might have been a bit strait-laced. It was my fantasy.” – Imelda Staunton
Chicks Rule
“Woodstock happened in August 1969, long before the Internet and mobile phones made it possible to communicate instantly with anyone, anywhere. It was a time when we weren’t able to witness world events or the horrors of war live on 24-hour news channels.”- Richie Havens
Happy People Happy Dancing
“I played Woodstock in ’69, and it really changed my life. Without a doubt, it was the single event that really changed the way I felt about music. Up to that point, I hadn’t really thought of myself as more serious musician, and I didn’t really have that much interest in pop music.”- Edgar Winter
The Crazy Flute Lady
Do you know how it feels when the music makes you feel good? We are guessing this woman with her flute really loved the music at Woodstock!
“Woodstock had a tremendous impact on American artistic life.” – P. J. O’Rourke
Mooo!
Did you know that Woodstock was held on a cattle farm?
“When Woodstock ended on Monday morning, over 600 acres of garbage was left behind on Max Yasgur’s farm. It took over 400 volunteers and $100,000 to remove it all.” Shawn Amos
Summer of Love
“Though it’s frequently portrayed as this crazy, unbridled festival of rain-soaked, stoned hippies dancing in the mud, Woodstock was obviously much more than that – or we wouldn’t still be talking about it in 2009. People of all ages and colors came together in the fields of Max Yasgur’s farm.” – Richie Havens
Flying Hippie
“I opened the Woodstock Festival even though I was supposed to be fifth. I said, ‘What am I doing here? No, no, not me, not first!’ I had to go on stage because there was no one else to go on first – the concert was already two-and-a-half hours late.” – Richie Havens
The End
“The Boston Globe: The Woodstock Music and Art Festival will surely go down in history as a mass event of great and positive significance in the life of the country … That this many young people could assemble so peaceably and with such good humor in a mile-square area … speaks volumes about their dedication to the ideal of respect for the dignity of the individual … In a nation beset with a crescendo of violence, this is a vibrantly hopeful sign. If violence is infectious, so, happily, is nonviolence.” – Michael Lang