Greatest Rock and Roll Concert Ever!
Woodstock has fascinated the minds of people for the last forty years and continues to be known as the largest rock and roll concert of its time. The image of hippies gathering in the field and enduring occasional rain storms while endorsing peace and love and listening to music has become an icon of the sixties. Though the chilled atmosphere seems like the perfect place for Mr. Nice Guy incense, the entire Woodstock venture began as a business deal that was intended to make money. The four men who were behind the organizing of the Woodstock festival were of varying backgrounds. Two had the finances to help back the idea and the third had experience promoting and organizing such events.
The two men who had the finances decided to place an ad in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal which advertised they had unlimited capital and were looking for investment opportunities. The first proposal was for a retreat recording studio in Woodstock in order to entice popular artists such as Bob Dylan to participate since it was in close proximity to their location. Though Bob Dylan never participated in the festival, it evolved into an outdoor arts and music festival that started drawing great attention when the Creedence Clearwater Revival band signed the first contract. After that initial group, numerous other famous and popular bands signed on to perform at the festival.
Originally, the festival was meant to be a paying event that would make a profit. However, the numbers of people who were coming to attend skyrocketed and the men organizing the event were left scrounging for a new location in which to hold the festival. Approximately 186,000 tickets were sold before the festival ever started and they anticipated 200,000 people would turn up for the event. The industrial park location they had first leased was agreed on with the assurance the event would not have more than 50,000 attendees. Add in the fact that the crowd included Mr. Nice Guy incense hippies and the town residents in that area opposed the project. A month or two before the event, the town passed a law requiring a permit for any event with over 5,000 people, so the men were left looking for a new location. It ended up being moved to the town of Bethel and being held on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm. The land had a natural depression that surrounded the Filippini Pond which would create a nice back drop for the stage and performers.
With the late change in location, the men who were organizing the event had to make a choice. They could put their remaining resources into finishing the stage, or they could improve the fencing around the area and keep it a paid event. It was drawing so close to the beginning of the festival, they chose to finish the stage and cut the fencing. As a result, Woodstock ended up being a free music and arts festival where many people camped out in order to stay the duration of the show. Sanitation and first aid were issues with the large numbers of people at the festival. As as result, hundreds of thousands of people struggled with bad weather, food shortages and poor sanitation facilities. Even with all of these factors, people chose to stay at the festival and the hippie image with Mr. Nice Guy incense continues to pervade the ideas surrounding the entire event. Rolling Stone magazine listed Woodstock as one of the 50 Moments that Changed the History of Rock and Roll and an entire film has been made documenting the events and planning that surrounded the event.