{"id":3134,"date":"2025-10-16T17:51:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/?p=3134"},"modified":"2025-10-14T10:01:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:01:00","slug":"hippies-legends-and-lots-of-drugs-the-crazy-story-of-historys-most-iconic-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/2025\/10\/16\/hippies-legends-and-lots-of-drugs-the-crazy-story-of-historys-most-iconic-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Hippies, legends and lots of drugs: The crazy story of history’s most iconic festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_code module_class=”custom-cat” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]
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\t\tMojo<\/pee>\t<\/div>\t
\t\tPresents<\/pee>\t<\/div><\/div>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text module_class=”article-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”||||||||” header_text_align=”center” header_text_color=”#111111″ header_font_size=”68px” custom_margin=”40px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

Heaven And Hell<\/h1>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”intro-text” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center” custom_padding=”||0px|||” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The Woodstock Festival<\/strong> has always been touted as the crystallising moment of the rock counterculture \u2013 an Eden with mud and acid and granola that gave its name to an era and a generation<\/strong>. But was it the event we think we remember? Was the music as good as history tells? And how did John Sebastian survive multiple electrocutions?\u00a0<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Words: Michael Simmons <\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-1250486492.jpg” alt=”People sleeping and relaxing in the messy field at the Woodstock Music Festival, 1969″ title_text=”Woodstock Music Festival, 1969″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

As soon as I saw the line-up, I knew I was going,\u201d remembers Fred Weis. \u201cIt was clear this was going to be phenomenal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

In 1969, Weis was a 16-year old high school student and devoted rock music fan with shoulder-length hair. These characteristics would earn him the then current handle of \u201chippy\u201d. The resident of suburban Philadelphia had already seen Jimi Hendrix and Cream live, but \u201cthe breadth\u201d of the line-up for the Woodstock Music & Art Fair was like a candy store for a kid with a deep sugar jones. It was billed as \u201cAn Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days Of Peace & Music\u201d on August 15-17 in the town of Bethel (listed as the community of White Lake on the poster), two hours north of Manhattan in upstate New York. The 30 acts included big-name rockers Hendrix, The Who, Country Joe And The Fish, Jefferson Airplane, The Band, Janis Joplin, Sly And The Family Stone, Grateful Dead, Ten Years After, Canned Heat, Johnny Winter and Creedence Clearwater Revival, veteran folkies Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Tim Hardin and newer minstrels Arlo Guthrie and Melanie. Also listed were names few had heard of: Santana, Joe Cocker and Mountain (this would be the latter\u2019s third gig). Even more green was a supergroup made up of former members of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies \u2013 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. This would be their second public appearance.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cI sent away $18 and bought tickets,\u201d recounts Weis. With parental approval secured, it was to be his first festival. \u201cThere was the Atlantic City Pop Festival a couple weeks earlier \u2013 I had friends who went to that. But as far as I knew, I was the only friend in my peer group that was going to Woodstock.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]

He travelled light. \u201cI had a little Boy Scout rucksack and I went by bus from Philadelphia to New York City. As soon as I got to the bus terminal in New York, I could see something was happening \u2019cos there were thousands of kids there.\u201d But that was a mere taste of things to come. Another bus proceeded north. \u201cWhen we got up to the two-lane roads upstate, cars were pulled up on the grassy sides and people were setting up camps \u2013 and we were still 20, 30 miles away. Our driver pulled into the lane of the opposing traffic, beeped his horn and barrelled through.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The traffic became so thick that the bus could no longer move forward and the young passengers disembarked. \u201cI started walking. I was completely astounded \u2019cos there were people setting up tents, playing guitars and I thought, Don\u2019t you wanna see the festival?\u201d Eventually he reached the site. \u201cIt was clear that things were not together. There were no ticket takers. There was a four-foot high plastic fence that was horizontal by that time. People were just walking over it. We went over a rise and then you could see a bowl and people extending out into the distance. I took a spot close to the stage \u2013 close enough that I could see everything. People were still working on the stage.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Although Weis had experience with drugs, he was going through an abstinence phase. \u201cI turned down passed joints, but there was a contact high, though not from second-hand smoke \u2013 it\u2019s just that everyone was\u2026 happy<\/em>. There was a shared consciousness. It was immediately clear this wasn\u2019t just a concert \u2013 it was a community.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

And the music hadn\u2019t even started yet.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

“Every now and then, even though your eyes were open, you\u2019d see black \u2013 one of the symptoms of being electrocuted.”<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]

John Sebastian<\/h3>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Fred Weis\u2019s memories chime with the classic version of the Woodstock story, passed down from generation to generation: the encapsulation of the \u201960s promise; a gathering of seekers looking, in the words of Joni Mitchell\u2019s song, written in the festival\u2019s immediate wake, to get themselves \u201cback to the garden\u201d. But there was more than one Woodstock 1969. Competing narratives are provided by attendees, musicians, subsequent soundtrack albums and Michael Wadleigh\u2019s 1970 documentary film. The latter won the 1971 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, and fundamentally shaped perceptions of the event. \u201cFar more people saw the Woodstock movie than were at the festival,\u201d notes Woodstock attendee and music business veteran Danny Goldberg. \u201cThe movie was a much more influential thing. It\u2019s still the most successful concert film by a lot.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Ex-Lovin\u2019 Spoonful singer-songwriter John Sebastian was there \u2013 in tie-dyed denim, he\u2019s one of the stars of Wadleigh\u2019s film \u2013 and his experience embodies many of Woodstock\u2019s contradictions: literal and metaphorical highs balanced by chaotic planning and technical gaffes that could easily have turned tragic. Sebastian wasn\u2019t even scheduled to play. He\u2019d been touring the East Coast solo when producer Paul Rothchild suggested he visit the festival as a spectator. On August 15 he went to the Albany, New York airport to see if he could hitch a ride to Bethel. It was there he spotted ex-Spoonful roadie Walter Gundy, by then working for The Incredible String Band, loading a helicopter.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cI start gesticulating,\u201d Sebastian recalls today. \u201cLo and behold, he turns around, sees me and gestures for me to join him. I walked onto the tarmac and he goes, \u2018You\u2019re trying to get to the festival.\u2019 I say that\u2019s right. He says, \u2018I\u2019m your only chance. Everything\u2019s jammed for miles and miles. Get in the helicopter.\u2019 I have no guitar, no suitcase \u2013 I don\u2019t have anything<\/em>. (laughs<\/em>) But I get in the helicopter because I\u2019ve done this before with Walter Gundy \u2013 I trust him.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Guaranteed backstage privileges due to his VIP status, Sebastian found himself talking to lighting designer\/technical director\/MC Chip Monck and noticed a tent near the stage where musicians were storing expensive instruments. \u201cI say to Chip, \u2018You know that tent in front of the stage is gonna get totally soaked with mud, so you oughta put a cardboard box outside with a sign that says SHOES HERE \u2013 that\u2019ll solve that.\u2019 Chip turns around and says, \u2018OK \u2013 you\u2019re in charge of the tent.\u2019\u201d Becoming a Woodstock tent custodian brought extra benefits: \u201cIt also gave me a chance to get out of the rain for three days. I never left the site for a cute little hotel room.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The next day was Saturday. That, remembers Sebastian, was when the rainstorms began. \u201cI\u2019m on-stage with [promoters] Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld,\u201d recalls Sebastian. \u201cThey\u2019re saying \u2018We gotta do something \u2013 there\u2019s water all over the stage \u2013 we can\u2019t bring the amplifiers on \u2013 we\u2019ve gotta have somebody sweepin\u2019 off the stage.\u2019\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Lang and Kornfeld had another bright idea. \u201cThey say, \u2018What we need now is one guy that can hold them with one acoustic guitar that doesn\u2019t need electricity,\u2019\u201d says Sebastian. \u201cAnd I\u2019m nodding my head: Yeah that sure is what we need all right! And it\u2019s like a Laurel And Hardy take. I realise, Oh! You guys are lookin\u2019 at me! (laughs<\/em>) I say, Guys, I may have a thumb pick in my pocket, but I don\u2019t have a guitar \u2013 or anything! And Michael says, \u2018You have five minutes to find one.\u2019\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Sebastian borrowed Tim Hardin\u2019s and stepped in front of the crowd. But an acoustic guitar didn\u2019t fully insulate against the interaction of water and electricity \u2013 he was still singing into a live microphone. \u201cEvery now and then, even though your eyes were open, you\u2019d see black \u2013 one of the symptoms of being electrocuted.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

It must be said, not all of Woodstock\u2019s participants remember rain on the Saturday. But whenever it came, it was inadequately planned-for and caused multiple problems. \u201cOur equipment got rained on \u2013 we lost some part of our equipment,\u201d recounts lead guitarist Barry Melton of Country Joe And The Fish. \u201cBut,\u201d he adds with a shrug, \u201cwe had a good<\/em> time.\u201d Melton is seen in the Woodstock documentary spontaneously leading the crowd in chanting \u201cNO RAIN! NO RAIN!\u201d Ten Years After followed Country Joe, and drummer Ric Lee noticed that the lack of weather preparations were perilous. \u201cThe towers that supported the PA were totally inadequate. There was no [solid] stage cover, just a piece of tarpaulin that had been hastily strung up and was flapping in the breeze.\u201d They faced the same danger Sebastian experienced \u2013 and they were a fully electric band. \u201cThe stage was soaking wet and became live. But to his credit, Michael Lang refused to let anyone go on-stage until it was made safe.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

At least the musicians had shelter \u2013 the Holiday Inn motel in nearby Liberty. The crowd had no such refuge. Rock critic Ellen Sander covered the festival for the Saturday Review. \u201cThere was no shelter from the rain and the audience just got wet. But they worked with that. And they were complimented on it by the MCs.\u201d Back at the motel, the players were having a party. Barry Melton recalls a hallway jam session with him and Jerry Garcia of the Dead and hotshot picker David Bromberg. \u201cAnd Janis fell by \u2013 it was like an off-stage section of the concert. It was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Sander recalls another scene at the motel bar where Garcia, Joplin, Country Joe McDonald, Richie Havens, Tim Hardin and members of Jefferson Airplane all linked arms, \u201cswaying from side to side and laughing\u201d while singing along with Hey Jude after someone fed enough coins into the jukebox for it to play \u201c60 times end to end.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-3248901.jpg” alt=”Carlos Santana (right) and bassist David Brown perform with the group Santana at the Woodstock Music Festival” title_text=”Dueling Guitars” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Carlos Santana and David Brown perform with the group Santana<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

There\u2019s no doubt that good luck conspired with the tenor of the times to prevent Woodstock from being a catastrophe. In that respect, Fred Weis was a perfect Woodstock citizen. In addition to digging the music (he cites Hendrix, the Airplane, The Who and CSN&Y as highlights), he got into the communal spirit. \u201cThere were makeshift buildings where the bad trip tent was, that\u2019s where the Hog Farm [commune] was cooking food and ladling out big dishes of goulash food to everyone in line. Everyone was very courteous, I asked \u2018Do you need a hand?\u2019 They said, \u2018Yeah,\u2019 gave me a ladle and then I was dishing out the food.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Along with the Grateful Dead, San Francisco\u2019s Jefferson Airplane personified what we think of as Woodstock\u2019s spirit. The band lived communally and their lyrics advocated radical politics and celebrated tribal hippy culture. \u201cThe Gestalt consciousness of people that were at the festival \u2013 the we\u2019re-all-in-this-together mentality \u2013 you don\u2019t get that at festivals most of the time,\u201d noted Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. \u201cYou get people pushing you out of the way so they can see better. A lot of it had to do with the times. At that moment, the so-called counterculture \u2013 the them-us dichotomy \u2013 became apparent. That sense of cultural identity separated Woodstock.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

There were other factors. The connection between the name \u201cWoodstock\u201d and Bob Dylan can\u2019t be overestimated. The festival was originally planned for Dylan\u2019s then-hometown and the magnetic pull of his name \u2013 even though he wasn\u2019t there \u2013 was powerful. Kaukonen also mentions the mystical X-factor of the area. The Catskill Mountains had been home to Native American tribes and longtime residents tell of encounters with the spirits of dead Indians, among other supernatural tales. \u201cThere\u2019s a feeling in those woods \u2013 could it be Rip Van Winkle or ley lines?\u201d Kaukonen says. \u201cWho knows? Maybe that had something to do with Woodstock.\u201d He\u2019s not the only musician of the era who would later choose to live in the area.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Others at the festival have described moments of strange synchronicity. Weis experienced his own. \u201cAround early evening Saturday, I was in a perfectly good position, but I suddenly had the urge to change where I was. I\u2019m a quiet guy \u2013 I\u2019m not aggressive \u2013 and I just suddenly got aggressive and started forcing my way through the crowd in this random pattern. It wasn\u2019t a beeline \u2013 I just wanted to go somewhere. I did this for 10 minutes and suddenly I stopped and realised I was looking at the back of my best friend\u2019s head. I didn\u2019t even know he was there!\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Danny Goldberg was a 19-year-old clerk at music biz trade mag Billboard. When no one else wanted to cover the festival, he volunteered. \u201cWalking around seeing all these faces, hippies, these stoned people, the sweetness and sense of community. We showed we could get together and not kill each other. It was part of the continuum of the period.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Activist and Yippie co-founder Abbie Hoffman had been doing yeoman\u2019s work, comforting kids in the bad trips tent who\u2019d flipped out on psychedelics, alongside the Hog Farm commune, including Woodstock MC Hugh Romney (later known as Wavy Gravy). But when he hopped on-stage during The Who\u2019s set to chastise the crowd for having fun while MC5 manager\/political organiser John Sinclair was doing serious prison time for a pedestrian pot rap, Pete Townshend whacked him with his guitar and sent Hoffman flying into the crowd.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cFrom the age of 18 months I was brought up side of stage in my father\u2019s swing band,\u201d says Townshend now. \u201cThe idea of walking out and interrupting a show is not in my genes. It\u2019s a sacred space.\u201d And yet in hindsight, he thinks Hoffman had a point. \u201cHe was excited and wanted to call the entire chaotic love fest to order. In that respect we were the same. It all felt hypocritical.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Woodstock ended at 11.10am Monday morning, August 18, with Jimi Hendrix. Andy Zax \u2013 producer of Rhino\u2019s new Woodstock box set \u2013 didn\u2019t attend, but he has pored over the minutiae of the event. \u201cBy the time Hendrix got on-stage,\u201d says Zax, \u201cthere was a small cadre of diehards. Most of the audience had gone home, people had to go to school or work. They were wet, covered in mud, starving, miserable. If you look at photos of Hendrix playing, you can see it\u2019s thinned out. Its presence in the movie gave it a totemic significance that it may not have had at the moment.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Fred Weis returned home by thumb. \u201cI was standing on the back bumper of a VW Bug, the tips of our fingers holding onto the rain gutter for about 30 miles \u2013 not going very fast \u2019cos of all the other cars. Then I hitchhiked back to Philly.\u201d Jorma Kaukonen drove the Airplane\u2019s station wagon to New York City: \u201cWe had to go do [chat show] The Dick Cavett Show [their performance is on YouTube]. The roads were blocked by parked cars on either side, so we had to squeeze our way through. At this point I say, Anybody who had their car parked on the back road to Woodstock who lost trim that day \u2013 I apologise.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cThe film is a spectacular piece of film-making, but it isn\u2019t completely congruent with reality.\u201d<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Andy Zax<\/h3>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

There were initially two Woodstock soundtrack albums: one in 1970 and its 1971 sequel. Andy Zax produced the revamped 2009 box set, as well as this year\u2019s 3-CD, 5-LP, 10-CD and 38-CD offerings. (The latter contains each act\u2019s entire set. Listeners can finally decide for themselves how good the event\u2019s music really was.) What many people don\u2019t know is how many post-production tricks went into the film and records. \u201cThe original triple album is stuff that was in the movie \u2013 theoretically,\u201d says Zax. \u201cThe film is a spectacular piece of film-making, but it isn\u2019t completely congruent with reality.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

In the movie, the original studio recording of Going Up The Country by Canned Heat is used, while the soundtrack is live from Woodstock, albeit abbreviated. At the festival, Arlo Guthrie\u2019s vocal mike dropped out for the first 90 seconds of Coming Into Los Angeles \u2013 the version heard was recorded at the Troubadour in LA in December 1969. The audience recording level was too low during Country Joe\u2019s infamous Fish\/Fuck Cheer. So it was augmented in the studio during post-production. CSNY\u2019s Marrakesh Express on the original Woodstock Two<\/em> soundtrack has overdubs and their Sea Of Madness and Wooden Ships were recorded at the Fillmore East in September 1969. The original Mountain tracks on \u2026Two<\/em> are post-event as well.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Zax and engineer Brian Kehew restored all the original recordings for the 50th anniversary sets. \u201cWe\u2019ve tried to make it as naturalistic as we can. We\u2019ve ruthlessly expunged anything fake. None of our mixes have overdubs, sweetening, edits. There are one or two exceptions where we made things more listenable.\u201d Because of the heat, moisture and equipment issues, the Blood, Sweat & Tears horns were out of tune, a problem that\u2019s been fixed via a relatively new technology called polyphonic tuning. The multitrack of sitar master Ravi Shankar\u2019s set had vanished \u2013 only a mono tape was available. An engineer at Abbey Road studios in London was able to isolate and extract the tracks through another new technique called de-mixing, from which a stereo mix was created. It\u2019s another version of Woodstock to add to all the others.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-96213771.jpg” alt=”Near the ‘Free Stage’ at the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, several men, two with cameras around their necks, lean against a decorated school bus used by the Hog Farmers” title_text=”Hog Farm Bus At Woodstock” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Hog Farm commune members<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The 50 years that followed Woodstock were not the utopia its boosters hoped for. Woodstock\u2019s \u201cgood vibes\u201d didn\u2019t even last a year: that December was Altamont \u2013 a Rolling Stones mini-fest that ended in violence and murder. \u201cIf you look at the Isle Of Wight Festival the next year, 1970, it was nothing like Woodstock,\u201d says Ric Lee. \u201cThe money men had moved in. They saw they could make lots of money by having lots of people at big festivals. When the kids at the Isle Of Wight tried to turn it into a free festival, they turned the dogs on them and beat them with sticks.\u201d Danny Goldberg: \u201cThere was this brief period where things changed fast and there was this illusion everything could change fast. That was not realistic.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Original Woodstock promoter Michael Lang co-produced follow-up festivals in 1994 and 1999. The latter was the opposite of its peaceful predecessor 30 years earlier. Water and food was confiscated from attendees in an effort to force them to purchase overpriced staples onsite. Four gang rapes were reported and random violence was so harrowing that video channel MTV evacuated its crew after providing live coverage. For Woodstock\u2019s 50th anniversary, Lang planned yet another gathering with generational bookends Dead & Company and Jay Z billed, but it\u2019s been plagued by site difficulties and the withdrawal of a key financier. As MOJO went to press, a new site had been chosen and Lang insisted that Woodstock 50 would happen.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Yet despite the ticking clock of climate change and other looming disasters, the human race has made progress. Country Joe and other interviewees point to the popularity of yoga and health food (granola was, in the immortal words of Wavy Gravy, the \u201cbreakfast in bed for 400,000\u201d), the acceptance of and respect for racial and gender differences, and the decriminalisation of cannabis in several US states as examples of Woodstock Nation values and lifestyle. Even psychedelics have made a recent comeback, with the popularisation of micro-dosing and Oakland CA\u2019s decriminalisation of magic mushrooms and peyote. (\u201c\u2018Don\u2019t eat the brown acid\u2019 implied that there was good<\/em> acid,\u201d quips Danny Goldberg.)<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cThe world is blending,\u201d says Country Joe in response to cynics who view Abbie Hoffman\u2019s \u2018Woodstock Nation\u2019 as a myth of boomer nostalgia. \u201cI realise young people today hear \u2018hippy, hippy, hippy\u2019 and they\u2019re sick of hearing about it. Well, in a way I\u2019m sick of hearing it too (laughs<\/em>), but it was an honour to be part of that generation.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Critics have noted that Woodstock also inspired corporate exploitation of the vast youth demographic. Plus \u00e7a change<\/em>, says McDonald: \u201cThe music business has always been what it is. It makes money from music.\u201d His bandmate Barry Melton insists on a positive effect the event and the culture that spawned it had on a society that refused to examine its flaws. \u201cWoodstock was not mainstream America \u2013 which looked very different back then. Quite a different picture of what society was about was created at Woodstock and seemed to have stuck to some degree. It was a generation coming of age that was quite different than the ones that preceded it.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Meanwhile, Rhino\u2019s box spotlights what kids like Fred Weis and Danny Goldberg went to Woodstock for in the first place. \u201cIt was mostly a music festival,\u201d says the latter. \u201cPeople were there for the music. Music has its own value \u2013 it\u2019s not just a means to an end to make people change their politics. It\u2019s about honouring the music itself as one of the things that makes life worth living.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

This article first appeared in issue 310 of Mojo<\/em><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Images: Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Was it the event we think we remember? Was the music as good as history tells? And how did John Sebastian survive multiple electrocutions?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mojo-presents"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3134"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3255,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134\/revisions\/3255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}