3 Days of Peace and Music

3 Days of Peace and Music: By Joseph Weekley

Woodstock Festival 1969 

Woodstock, one little word that even today sums up a decade, a generation and its culture. Of course the Woodstock music festival 1969 in Bethel New York State is what springs to mind when one thinks of the 1960s, conjuring up images of long haired teenagers in baggy clothes and enjoying the hazy pastimes of the day. This festival was in the opinion of many people the culmination of the protest era and reflection of the ever-growing power of the young generation but most importantly served as a metaphor for what measure of happiness could be achieved in life… with a little help from your friends.                                        

                                                                                                                                                                  

Richie Havens at Woodstock 1969

Most people would think of Woodstock as the era-defining moment however what is generally not thought about is the actual execution of the festival itself. Its creation was fraught with disaster, a late change of venue, the late decision to make it a free festival, the mud and rain, the extreme traffic in the local area and the difficulty of actually getting the acts onto the stage. For every person that made it to the festival it is estimated that another three people attempted to get there, causing the surrounding area into a quagmire of traffic. Acts had to be flown in to avoid the traffic and the delays caused the festival to run behind schedule. This being the sixties with rioting and protest seemingly everywhere, organisers feared what an angry crowd might do, so to combat this they asked every act to play a double set and therefore leading the concerts all night and finishing over schedule with  Jimi Hendrix on the Monday morning. Despite completely bankrupting the organisers  Woodstock avoided total disaster and delivered exactly what it promised on the bill, 3 days of a peaceful, loving atmosphere filled with some of the best music every produced.

Some of the highest paid and most loved acts of the day play the festival such as Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez but for me the most influential acts that defined Woodstock as a moment were Richie Havens, Santana and Country JoeMcDonald. Havens, the opening act walked out in front of hundreds of thousands and played every song he knew until he had to invent one onstage. After being asked by organisers to keep playing 6 times, dressed in an orange robe that was drenched in sweat he walked back out and began singing the word freedom. To get 400,000 people on their feet clapping along to a song you’re making up, is a wonderful thing and symbolises the euphoric idea of Woodstock we now see. Even in that bubble of euphoria that was the festival, Hendrix and Country Joe showed political messages through protest against the Vietnam War, both subtle and obvious. Country Joe with his famous ‘Fixin to die rag’, arguably the most famous Vietnam protest song and Hendrix with his screeching rendition of the Star Spangled Banner[1] in which he recreates the sound of bombs and gunfire. A subtle but very poignant message reflecting the reasons people were gathered there happiness in the face of an older generation’s way of life, the divisions of society and the troubles they were facing.

References

 [1] Inglis, Ian. 2006. Performance And Popular Music. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.pp.57

Bennett, Andy. 2017. Remembering Woodstock. Routledge.