(EDITOR'S NOTE: The Woodstock concert scheduled for this year was canceled in April). The 50th anniversary of the historic Woodstock Festival is being scheduled for a run in August with some very big names among contemporary young artists, plus a few old timers. But it wasn’t the first Woodstock revival. In fact, it will be the fifth time Woodstock will show up in New York.
While the 1960s saw other historic concerts such as the Monterey Pop Festival and the tragic Altamont Motor Speedway concert, Woodstock was the biggest by far. Taking place in the summer of 1969, it was considered to be one of the closing chapters of the era. About 400,000 music fans were in attendance, with most of them having snuck in without buying tickets. Many of them abandoned their cars out on a state highway and walked in, backing up traffic for miles.
The new version is scheduled to run Aug. 15-18, 2019, at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in New York. There will be a few big names — Jay-Z, Robert Plant, The Black Keys, Miley Cyrus, Imagine Dragons, The Killers, Chance the Rapper, Santana and Arlo Guthrie (who also played in 1969), Ringo Starr, Edgar Winters Band, the Doobie Bothers and Greta Van Fleet, among others — have committed to performing.
A screening of the documentary “Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music” will be held on Aug. 15. The music festival, dubbed Woodstock 50, has original Woodstock founder Michael Lang playing a big part in organizing the event.
You can view an extended director’s cut of “Woodstock” on DVD from the main director, Michael Wadleigh, that runs about three and a half hours. Martin Scorsese, fresh out of film school, served as assistant director and editor of the original documentary.
For those of us had just turned six years old when the Woodstock festival rocked the world, we later learned a few truths from the movie, such as…… Don’t take the brown LSD. Borrow some soap to get naked and take a bath out in the pond. Youngsters were more into partying and being wiser than their peers than they were in staging a global revolution. Jimi Hendrix was a lefty and could do some outrageous things on his Fender Stratocaster. He jammed out a lot more than a wild, extended version of the national anthem.
The playlist featured some of the biggest names of the day: Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Sly & the Family Stone, The Who, Joan Baez, Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Paul Butterfield Blues Band. You could also watch Sha Na Na start the 1950s/early 1960s revival that would help pave the way for “American Graffiti” and its soundtrack and “Happy Days.”
The first significant reunion concert took place on Sept. 8, 1979, at Parr Meadows racetrack in Suffolk County, Long Island, NY. The 10th anniversary concert had a much smaller audience, with estimates varying from 18,000 to 40,000 people. It was one of several Woodstock reunions that year, but it did feature some of the originals including Paul Butterfield, Canned Heat, Richie Havens, Country Joe McDonald, John Sebastian, Stephen Stills, and Johnny Winter.
The 1994 version commemorating the 25th anniversary has come the closest to recreating the size of the original audience. Taking place Aug. 12-13, 1994, on Winston Farm in Saugerties, NY, the event saw about 350,000 attendees who got to view more than 50 bands. It did see even more mud than the ’69 show, with incessant rain turning it into what was called “Mudstock.”
Fans paid this time and paid big — $135 each. You could also watch it on pay-per-view for $49. There were a few corporate sponsors — Haagen-Dazs, Apple, and Pepsi. Artists included Traffic, Metallica, Aerosmith, Peter Gabriel, the Allman Brothers Band, Green Day, Blues Traveler, and Blind Melon. Bob Dylan stole the show, after having turned down performing in ’69 even though he lived close by.
Woodstock ’99 didn’t go well at all. The Rome, NY, festival held in late July of 1999 featured a long list of big names in music, including Kid Rock, Counting Crows, Dave Matthews Band, Alanis Morissette, Limp Bizkit, and Rage Against the Machine. But music fans complained about exorbitant ticket prices and costly water bottles and food, and some of the crowd trashing the festival site and committing sexual assaults.
Woodstock founder Lang promises that this year’s show won’t be a rerun of Woodstock ’99, and that he’ll be playing a big role in making this one work. “Woodstock ’99 was just a musical experience with no social significance,” he said. “It was just a big party. With this one, we’re going back to our roots and our original intent. And this time around, we’ll have control of everything.”
While the 1960s saw other historic concerts such as the Monterey Pop Festival and the tragic Altamont Motor Speedway concert, Woodstock was the biggest by far. Taking place in the summer of 1969, it was considered to be one of the closing chapters of the era. About 400,000 music fans were in attendance, with most of them having snuck in without buying tickets. Many of them abandoned their cars out on a state highway and walked in, backing up traffic for miles.
The new version is scheduled to run Aug. 15-18, 2019, at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in New York. There will be a few big names — Jay-Z, Robert Plant, The Black Keys, Miley Cyrus, Imagine Dragons, The Killers, Chance the Rapper, Santana and Arlo Guthrie (who also played in 1969), Ringo Starr, Edgar Winters Band, the Doobie Bothers and Greta Van Fleet, among others — have committed to performing.A screening of the documentary “Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music” will be held on Aug. 15. The music festival, dubbed Woodstock 50, has original Woodstock founder Michael Lang playing a big part in organizing the event.
You can view an extended director’s cut of “Woodstock” on DVD from the main director, Michael Wadleigh, that runs about three and a half hours. Martin Scorsese, fresh out of film school, served as assistant director and editor of the original documentary.
For those of us had just turned six years old when the Woodstock festival rocked the world, we later learned a few truths from the movie, such as…… Don’t take the brown LSD. Borrow some soap to get naked and take a bath out in the pond. Youngsters were more into partying and being wiser than their peers than they were in staging a global revolution. Jimi Hendrix was a lefty and could do some outrageous things on his Fender Stratocaster. He jammed out a lot more than a wild, extended version of the national anthem.
The playlist featured some of the biggest names of the day: Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Sly & the Family Stone, The Who, Joan Baez, Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Paul Butterfield Blues Band. You could also watch Sha Na Na start the 1950s/early 1960s revival that would help pave the way for “American Graffiti” and its soundtrack and “Happy Days.”
The first significant reunion concert took place on Sept. 8, 1979, at Parr Meadows racetrack in Suffolk County, Long Island, NY. The 10th anniversary concert had a much smaller audience, with estimates varying from 18,000 to 40,000 people. It was one of several Woodstock reunions that year, but it did feature some of the originals including Paul Butterfield, Canned Heat, Richie Havens, Country Joe McDonald, John Sebastian, Stephen Stills, and Johnny Winter.
The 1994 version commemorating the 25th anniversary has come the closest to recreating the size of the original audience. Taking place Aug. 12-13, 1994, on Winston Farm in Saugerties, NY, the event saw about 350,000 attendees who got to view more than 50 bands. It did see even more mud than the ’69 show, with incessant rain turning it into what was called “Mudstock.”
Fans paid this time and paid big — $135 each. You could also watch it on pay-per-view for $49. There were a few corporate sponsors — Haagen-Dazs, Apple, and Pepsi. Artists included Traffic, Metallica, Aerosmith, Peter Gabriel, the Allman Brothers Band, Green Day, Blues Traveler, and Blind Melon. Bob Dylan stole the show, after having turned down performing in ’69 even though he lived close by.
Woodstock ’99 didn’t go well at all. The Rome, NY, festival held in late July of 1999 featured a long list of big names in music, including Kid Rock, Counting Crows, Dave Matthews Band, Alanis Morissette, Limp Bizkit, and Rage Against the Machine. But music fans complained about exorbitant ticket prices and costly water bottles and food, and some of the crowd trashing the festival site and committing sexual assaults.
Woodstock founder Lang promises that this year’s show won’t be a rerun of Woodstock ’99, and that he’ll be playing a big role in making this one work. “Woodstock ’99 was just a musical experience with no social significance,” he said. “It was just a big party. With this one, we’re going back to our roots and our original intent. And this time around, we’ll have control of everything.”
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