Akgiray 1

Eren Akgiray
Cassandra Clark
HIST 1700
24 April 2016
Research Paper: Woodstock
The Woodstock Aquarian Arts & Music Festival of August 1969 was a festival held in Bethel,
New York that was not expected to, but ended up, becoming an icon of the 60s counterculture.
Over 400,000 people turned out to attend this three day music festival, the majority of them
young, white people who came for the wailing music and the peaceful, loving atmosphere. The
people who came to Woodstock were viewed mostly as hippies and senseless youth by the
public, though these youth would disagree in this regard. These young people wanted to unite
with others like themselves who shared their ideas of peace and love, especially during a time of
turmoil in the world. This festival, designed by young people for young people, showed that
despite all of the chaos of the festival and of the time in which these people were living in, the
crowd at Woodstock was well behaved and peaceful.
Woodstock took place in August 1969, only 24 years after the end of World War 2. Most of
the people at the festival were young and the average age was 20 years old, meaning that most
people were baby boomers and had grown up right after World War 2 and during the Cold War.
Having been raised in this time period and seeing the war going on in Vietnam must have given
these young people a great appreciation for peace and made them want to find likeminded
people. All this conflict turned these young people away from the establishment and made them

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want peace more than ever.1 World War 2 and the Vietnam War helped set the stage for
Woodstock and are some of the big reasons as to why this festival came to be seen as so
important and as a symbol for the counterculture at the time promoting peace and love.
Theres no doubt that Woodstock had its problems. Before the festival was even taking place,
it faced a ruling before the State Supreme Court to decide whether or not the festival could be
held in Bethel, New York; this move to block the festival came after the town of Wallkill stopped
the fair from being held there, saying that it might overwhelm the town's capacity.2 The motion to
block the fair was withdrawn, and the green light for the event was flashed after a long
afternoon of talks in the chambers of Justice George Cobb.2 The event got the go-ahead after
some differences were settled between the event's sponsors and a small group of objecting land
owners.2 This problem was just the first to come for the festival.
Another issue Woodstock encountered before the event even started was the lack of security
forces that were to be working at the fair. Just one day before its opening, 346 police officers,
who had been hired as ushers for the event, quit and left their positions empty3. In the words of
one of the security members working there, Were having the biggest collection of kids theres
ever been in this country without any police protection.3 This was a big issue for the events
sponsors, especially since people had speculated that things might get out of hand and there
might be violence or riots. It was also a problem because if any serious problems developed, then

1 Bennett, Andy. Remembering Woodstock. American Studies, 2005, Vol. 46, pp. 202-

203.

2 McCandlish Phillips, Rock Festival at Bethel Defeats New Challenge, New York
Times, August 13, 1969.
3 Lacey Fosburgh, 346 Policemen Quit Music Festival, New York Times, August 15,
1969.

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it would have discredited all the festival goers and made them seem even more like young
troublemakers.
Along with the lack of security, there were massive traffic jams. One New York Times article
discussing this problem says Parked cars jammed roadways in all directions for up to 20 miles,
and thousands of festival-goers, weary after long walks to get here, and had to spend the night
sleeping on the rain soaked ground.4 People were forced to walk for long distances to get to and
from the event because of how bad the traffic jams were. The traffic in the area of the fair was so
bad that The Short Line Bus Company, the only bus service that went to the fair, was forced to
cancel all buses going into the area.4 Claiming that with 65 buses going to the festival, the
average travel time was more than 4 hours.4 All of this traffic only fueled the madness of the
event and made it more chaotic.
Financially, the event had very big problems as well. The calculations and hiring of staff had
not been set up for such a large number of people, resulting in the entire ticket selling system
breaking and thousands of people pouring in to the fair without paying5. After the ticket selling
system stopped working, people were admitted for free to the fair. John P. Roberts, one of the
heads of the event was quoted as saying, Financially speaking, of course, the festival is a
disaster.5 Mr. Roberts explained how the total income for the event was less than $1.5 million
while the expenses were around $2 million in total.5 For one of the biggest, most iconic events in
Americas music and cultural history, its surprising that so much money was lost.

4 Barnard L. Collier, 300,000 at Folk-Rock Fair Camp Out in a Sea of Mud, New
York Times, August 17, 1969.
5 Promoter Baffled That Festival Drew Such a Big Crowd, New York Times, August
17, 1969.

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Shortages of food, water, and medical assistance didnt help to ease the chaos of the festival;
neither did the pouring rainstorms that turned the ground to ankle deep puddles of mud. All of
these problems were piling up, and, as one NY Times article puts it, Most of the adult world
concluded that clearly it was all an inevitable consequence of the mindlessness and rootlessness
of todays youth.6 The rest of the world started to see it as a disaster and were expecting the
festival-goers to go crazy. Fortunately, the crowd at Woodstock was extremely well behaved and
peaceful, proving to people that their generations message of peace was true. The same NY
Times article that said these youth were mindless and rootless also went on to say that They
were surprisingly well behaved for so great a crowd, at peace with themselves almost to the point
of ecstasy.6 The wording in this quote is particularly effective at portraying the kind of love and
peace that this crowd tried to embody, saying that they were so at peace they were close to the
point of ecstasy. This article strongly evidences how despite the problems of the festival, the
people were peaceful; it does this especially because of the two views it gives of the festivalgoers. Its so good at showing these youths good behavior because it starts off by saying that the
youth are mindless and rootless, but then after saying that, the author turns around and says
that they were so well behaved that they were close to ecstasy.
One state police official even made a remark to the NY Times about how well behaved these
young people were. This official was quoted as saying, I was dumbfounded by the size of the
crowd. I can hardly believe that there havent been even small incidents of misbehavior by the
young people.4 Even though these festival-goers were almost all using drugs, this police official
thought that they were so well behaved that he was willing to make this statement claiming there
werent any small incidents of misbehavior, despite the 80 or so arrests of people on narcotic
6 Woodstock: Like It Was, New York Times, August 25, 1969.

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charges and the vast number of people using recreational drugs. The fact that the crowd was nonviolent must have resonated with people and changed their way of seeing the crowd at
Woodstock since before the newspapers had seen these people as lost youth and after the
concert they were viewed as peaceful and kind .
Even with the huge shortages of food and water, people were so well behaved that sharing
became a common act. When asked if there was a lot of sharing, one festival-goer responded,
Everything was shared.6 One article by the NY Times said that The members of one commune
were passing out a free gruel of peanuts, oatmeal, raisins, and sunflower seeds.4 This is just
another way that the young people at Woodstock demonstrated their good behavior and
friendliness. In a time with shortages of food, people were willing to share to support other
people and to be friendly.
The sense of community was so strong that many people stayed at the concert despite not
being able to hear the music, just so they could stay around the people at the fair. In one article
by the NY Times, a festival goer was quoted as saying, I never made it to the concert. I never
heard any music at all.6 When asked if they regretted going to the fair they said Absolutely
not. Another NY Times article points out that most of the people listening to the music heard it
as distant and incomprehensible.4 Despite this the festival goers stood ankle deep in mud,
dancing to the music. This shows that despite the problems people were facing at the concert,
people felt so united and happy that they stayed at the fair even if the music was too far away to
hear it.
Although Woodstock faced a lot of problems, the crowd was well behaved and worked
together to peacefully overcome the issues. Even with the food and water shortages, the

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shortages of medical assistance, problems with transportation and shelter, the rain storms, the
rampant drug use, and lack of security, the festival-goers were there to come together with other
like-minded people to enjoy the music, and just as importantly, as a demonstration of peace and
love.

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Bibliography:
Primary Sources

Collier, Barnard. 300,000 at Folk-Rock Fair Camp Out in a Sea of Mud. New York City: The New
York Times, 1969. http://woodstockpreservation.org/Gallery/NYT-PDF/9_300000CampInSeaOfMud.pdf

Fosburgh, Lacey. 346 Policemen Quit Music Festival. New York City: The New York Times, 1969.
http://woodstockpreservation.org/Gallery/NYT-PDF/6_346PolicemenQuitFestival.pdf

Phillips, McCandlish. Rock Festival at Bethel Defeats New Challenge. New York City: The New York
Times, 1969.
http://woodstockpreservation.org/Gallery/NYTPDF/05_FestivalDefeatsNewChallenge.pdf

The New York Times. Promoter Baffled That Festival Drew Such a Big Crowd. New
York City: The New York Times, 1969.
http://woodstockpreservation.org/Gallery/NYT-PDF/10_PromoterBaffled.pdf

The New York Times. Woodstock: Like it was; Woodstock: Like it was in Words of Participants at
Musical Fair. New York City: The New York Times, 1969.
http://woodstockpreservation.org/Gallery/NYT-PDF/26_WoodstockLikeItWas.pdf

The New York Times. Bethel Pilgrims Smoke Grass and Take Some LSD to Groove. New York City:
The New York Times, 1969.
http://woodstockpreservation.org/Gallery/NYT-PDF/15_BethelPilgrimsSmokeGrass.pdf

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Secondary Sources

Bennett, Andy. Remembering Woodstock. American Studies, 2005, Vol. 46, pp. 202-

203.