WOODSTOCK VISION
The Spirit of a Generation
by: Elliot Landy
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On August 15, 16, and 17, 1969, nearly 500,000 people gathered together to celebrate life. They came looking for music and new ways. They found a hard path - there were miles to walk; rain and mud; not much food to eat, nor shelter to sleep beneath; life was not as they usually knew it.
But something happened. There was peace and harmony despite conditions that might have set off riots. Most everyone lived in consideration and enjoyment with everyone else. Woodstock became a symbol to the world of a better way of life - of freedom, of love, of spiritual union between many. There was hope....
...A few excerpts from Woodstock Vision...
John Morris (page 138)
Twenty-five years ago, in the age of accidents, in the time of free-flowing thought, unbridled energy, and expanding love, a curly-headed kid persuaded a group of supposedly sane people that it would be fun to put together thirty bands, sixty Hog Farmers, twenty-five Indians, and three hundred workers in a field in upstate New York and have a festival and invite the world - who came.
For three days and three nights Chris, Mel, Stan, Lee, Joel, Penny, John, Chip, Wavy, and many, many others kept the water running, the food arriving, the communications functioning, and the medical tents supplied and the music flowing.
For three days and three nights the hundreds of thousands that flooded Max's farm hills shared, laughed, got wet, shared some more, listened, napped, ate, talked, sang, and shared some more, and with not one act of physical violence showed the world what a generation was made of, what peace, love, and music were really all about.
It was fun, it was magic. It was also understood that it was important, it was a risk, it was unique. It was entertainment at its best.
It was responsibility with flowers in its hair. It was the garden, it was Woodstock. It was something every face in this book carries in his or her heart and is proud of.
Dodee Giebas - Dancing Spirit in the Audience (pg 187)
I feel fortunate to have been part of that experience. A movement, started in the sixties, crystallized at that time and place. I will carry it in my heart and soul forever.
It was advertised as three days of peace and music - and it was. People came from all over North America, from the East Coast to the West Coast. I went with a group of thirty people from Pittsburgh..."
Tara Roberts - Long Time Resident of Woodstock, NY (pg 182)
It seems to me that the festival idea started from Saturday-night sound-ins that were held at Pam Copeland's field. We'd go and see all of those rock greats jamming and playing, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Richie Havens. I remember Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin most because their music was so intense. Michael Lang wanted to do the festival in Woodstock but the local noise ordinance stopped it from happening here.
Even though Woodstock had not been known before the sixties as a place where music was coming from, it was a well-known arts colony, home to many alternative lifestyles. In 1903 the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony was founded here with the intention of creating a Utopian society. They built houses for artists who lived and worked communally. Classical musicians and composers would come to Woodstock in the summer to perform at The Maverick, a second arts community. So you had this group of artists, musicians, poets, and composers. I think that the festival was a natural metamorphosis of all Woodstock's history - an accumulation of free and progressive thinkers and creative people.
Rob Freeman - Shirtless Man ( pg 202)
At one point I took a nearly six-hour "freak tour," an extended and surreal journey through the strange land that was Woodstock. My goal in leaving my buddies in the crowd and setting out on my own was to acquire food and drinks for us and to locate a proper bathroom. Yeah, sure! Along the way I encountered people bathing in rivers, communes serving gree food, yoga practitioners, magicians and jugglers, all kinds of goings-on. Each scene had its own unique soundtrack wafting in from the stage somewhere beyond as if seeping through from another dimension...
Being immersed in that exciting procession of great musical acts and reveling in the feeling of solidarity among the crowd surely made an indelible impact on anyone who attended Woodstock. But I think it also made a significant impact on those who weren't there. From August 15 to August 17 in 1969, the world stopped to observe a diverse collection of seemingly aimless counter-culture misfits rise up and proclaim themselves the "Woodstock Nation," a utopian community based on Peace and Love and their expression through music. There were no reported crimes at Woodstock. Compare that to what happened at Woodstock '99!
Could there ever be another true Woodstock?
Max Yasgur - Dairy Farmer - Owner of the Festival Site (pg 171)
"I'm a farmer. [audience cheers] I don't know how to speak to twenty people at one time, let alone a crowd like this, but I think you people have proven something to the world - not only to the Town of Bethel or Sullivan County or New York State; you've proven something to the world. This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place. We have ad no idea that there would be this size group and because of that you had quite a few inconveniences as far as water and food and so forth. Your producers have done a mammoth job to see that you're taken care of - they'd enjoy a vote of thanks. [applause] But, above that, the important thing that you've proven to the world is that half a million kids - and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you are - a half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and I God Bless You for it!"
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