The course of rock history and the peace and love centered counterculture movement changed forever, 53 years ago when Woodstock began on August 1, 1969. This photo by Elliott Landy shows the crowd at the original Woodstock festival Woodstock in Bethel, New York in August 1969. The music festival was held August 15-18, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York. AFP PHOTO/ELLIOTT LANDY/MORRISON HOTEL GALLERY/NEWSCOM/HO/Getty
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On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair began at Max Yasgur’s farm near Woodstock, New York. The festival became a turning point in how rock music was viewed, how a generation of make love not war counterculture defined itself, and how people came together in massive music festivals.
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Woodstock by the numbers:
19: Rolling Stone magazine named the Woodstock moment number 19, in a list of moments that changed rock and roll history.
400,000+: The number of people who attended Woodstock.
50,000: The number of people the organizers originally thought would attend.
3: The number of days the festival was scheduled to last; however, it was extended until the morning of the fourth day, August 18.
32: The number of acts that were performed at the festival.
742: The number of recorded drug overdoses in Woodstock.
10,000: The dollar amount paid to the first act to sign up for the event: Creedence Clearwater Revival.
18: The dollar amount it costs for an advance ticket to attend the festival; The cost of the ticket at the door was $24. However, as the venue was changed around the time of the festival, difficulties regarding the installation of billboards and ticketing areas increased, and thus Woodstock became vacant.
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6: Joan Baez’s number of months pregnant when she performed at Woodstock. Other artists included Santana, the Grateful Dead, The Who, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, The Band, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, and Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Estimates of how many people were at Woodstock range from 400,000 to 450,000, with some media reports suggesting the number was closer to half a million. AP photo, Postmedia files. The slope of a farmer’s field in the festival area provided a natural concert bowl. postmedia files.SunMedia Here, festival goers take a dip in “the pond” at the Woodstock Music Festival. The festival site, a farm in upstate New York, was transformed by young idealists into a mid-sized city in a celebration of rock music and utopian ideals. photo by Annie Birch; AFP/Getty Images.AFP/Getty Images Jimi Hendrix was one of the most anticipated acts at Woodstock, but delays over the weekend meant he would close the festival at 9am. on Monday instead of performing on Sunday night. While many in the crowd had left by then, Hendrix’s performance became a memorable highlight of Woodstock, especially when he gave a heavily reworked performance of Star Spangled Banner. Photo by Henry Diltz/AFP/Getty Images. In this Aug. 16, 1969, file photo, rock music fans relax during a break from entertainment at the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair in Bethel, N.Y. Woodstock was many things, but one thing is clear: It is revered by many as the cultural touchstone. of a generation AP Photo, Postmedia files.photo per file /The Associated Press In this Aug. 15, 1969, file photo, rock music fans sit on a tree sculpture as one leaps into the air on a haystack during Woodstock. For some, the seminal “peace and music” festival 53 years ago was an inspiring moment of countercultural community and youthful freethinking. To others, it was an outrageous display of wartime indulgence and moral decadence. AP photo, Postmedia files.Photo by Anonymous /The Associated Press This combination of images created on August 16, 2019 shows the live album (left) of Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More, with couple Bobbi and Nick Ercoline on the cover and Bobbi and Nick Ercoline themselves , posing 50 years later at Bethel Woods. Center for the Arts in 2019 in Bethel, New York. Nick and Bobbi Ercoline, captured in this iconic photo, had only been dating for three months when they joined throngs of their peers for the 1969 Woodstock explosion that would become emblematic of their generation. Photo by Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images.
From the Ottawa Citizen of August 16, 1969:
Citizen of Ottawa, August 16, 1969
From the Montreal Gazette, August 18, 1969
Montreal Gazette, August 18, 1969
From the Ottawa Citizen, August 18, 1969
Citizen of Ottawa, August 18, 1969
Today, the festival site is part of the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, which includes an outdoor amphitheater, museum, and arts education conservatory. In 2017, the Woodstock Festival Historic Site was listed on the United States National Register as being of national importance in the category of “Social History and Performing Arts/Music.”
A monument at the site of the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, next to the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, in 2009. Photo by Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images. The site of the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair in modern times. The original stage was on the bare ground to the left. Stan HondaAFP/Getty Images.
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