Anyone went to Woodstock 1969? I could use your help!

MikasGirl

Songster
10 Years
Apr 17, 2009
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Coos Bay, OR
Hey BYCers! I am writing a research paper on Woodstock '69 and have to include an interview. I haven't been able to find anyone who has had the awesome honor of attending the festival and was hoping someone on here has.. anyway, if you have, I have some questions.

1. If you could describe your experience at Woodstock in three words, what would they be?
2. Did you ever get lost in the hundreds, of thousands of people?
3. What is your most vivid memory?
4. What was you favorite band/act during the three days?
5. How was the food/bathroom/sleeping situation?
6. Did you go alone?
7. How old were you?
8. Before the festival, what was it like culture-wise? (Basically, what was the counter-culture of the 60's like?)
9. What was the crowd like?
10. What was the wildest thing you remember about the festival?
11. Would you do it again?
12. Do you think Woodstock changed America? If so, why?
13. How and why did you decide to go to Woodstock? How did you get there?

I might think of more questions later..I really hope someone can help me!
 
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I didn't go, being only in the eighth grade then. :)
But I did buy the record album as soon as it was released, and I still have it. It has loads of great photos of the crowds, and everything. And the recording is not edited at all. I need to buy a record player (they make retro ones now) so I can listen again.

I remember all of the publicity, the TV shows, the magazine articles. It was such a groundbreaking event, nothing like it ever before in the U.S., that it ruled every iota of the mass media before, during and after. It was the first-ever event where so many people gathered in one location. It wasn't just for the music, but a symbol for the whole socio-political series of issues of the late '60s -- the peace, love, hippie, Black Pride, Women's Lib, freedom of sexuality, "Get-out-of-Vietnam" revolution against the Establishment. For one brief moment, thousands of people representative of a generation, were able to express both their anger and their joy at the state of the country and the world, and of just coming together and living in the moment.

Some of the greatest rock stars of the generation got their names and their start @ Woodstock, and up-and-coming ones got their breakout moment. It was the equivalent of getting your music video out on YouTube. But remember this was before YouTube, before the Internet. Before cell phones. Before personal computers.

On the other hand, it was a huge mess. It rained and the ground turned to mud. People did drugs, got drunk, got into fights. Women got pregnant by men they didn't know. Outhouses and food suppliers were inadequate for the number of people. And the traffic was horrendous. I remember the news tapes of the traffic jams.

I guess the biggest thing about Woodstock, was Woodstock itself. Just that it happened. Nothing like it has ever really happened again. Not on that scale, and anything that is even vaguely like Woodstock really is not comparable -- but more contrived and commercial.
 
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I was only 13, and my parents would have had the state police track me down and drag me home... if I even could have snuck out in the first place!
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Being born in the 50s was no guarantee that anyone got to go to Woodstock. lol
 
Don't get too nostalgic about Woodstock. Most were there because they were out of reach of the law and could get on with things not possible otherwise. As for their interest in music, Hendrix was playing his heart out on stage and the crowd was leaving right in front of him.

You shouldn't ignore the illegal activities and squalor if you want to write a balanced research paper.

Here's Hendrix dubbed over images of what the crowd left, other than the stashes buried in the ground which were still being found years later.
 
My reminiscenses weren't particularly nostalgic! Like I said, it was a mess. Fighting, drunkeness and drugs, public sex, mud and filth. And you're right - a lot of the music was blown off by the crowds, much of the reason being that they were stoned, drunk or miserable from days in the mud and pouring rain. Or just plain self-centered kids who were doing their own thing. There was a core of true "hippies" there and then, but the vast majority were just mimics, poseurs, wannabes or just along for the free drugs and sex. lol

I just remember hearing about it, reading about it and seeing it on TV for months, and that's what I came away with. But when I got the record album, I listened to Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Country Joe and the Fish, and the rest over and over and never got tired of their performances. If I'd been at Woodstock in person, I probably would also have been too physically miserable to really enjoy it, after the first day or so.
 
You need to add a question 14: What was your drug of choice?
 
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My reminiscenses weren't particularly nostalgic! Like I said, it was a mess. Fighting, drunkeness and drugs, public sex, mud and filth. And you're right - a lot of the music was blown off by the crowds, much of the reason being that they were stoned, drunk or miserable from days in the mud and pouring rain. Or just plain self-centered kids who were doing their own thing. There was a core of true "hippies" there and then, but the vast majority were just mimics, poseurs, wannabes or just along for the free drugs and sex. lol

I just remember hearing about it, reading about it and seeing it on TV for months, and that's what I came away with. But when I got the record album, I listened to Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Country Joe and the Fish, and the rest over and over and never got tired of their performances. If I'd been at Woodstock in person, I probably would also have been too physically miserable to really enjoy it, after the first day or so.
I'm afraid I have to agree with GardenerGal. It really wasn't that much fun. Hearing the music was nearly impossible. Food and water in short supply.
 
I'm not saying it was the greatest festival ever..but I am doing a research paper on it. Unfortunately it's due tomorrow and I'm short the interview which IS part of the grade.
 

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