Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (not counting the fact that I am on PDT) marks the 27th anniversary of Woodstock.
I was not there but I am curious as to how many Dopers may have been there and who did you see and what are your memories?
OMG - I can’t subtract - it’s the 37th Anniversary and now I feel even older.
I would appreciate it if one of the mods would be kind enough to change the title to reflect the correct number of years.
That’s what you get when you take the brown acid, man.
mm
Nowadays, at my age, the acids I eat are not brown - they are white or colorless and have names like ascorbic, acetic, etc. 
So, where were you 37 years ago?
I was only 7, but have done a lot of studying on it. 
You can find a lot of clips on youtube from Woodstock. Like this one. Carlos on FIRE!
Why would someone watch clips on YouTube, when you can rent the movie?
How many read the title and thought, “Wow! So that’s the oldest thread on the Dope!”
I can remember seeing ads for Woodstock in one of the Chicago newspapers…the ads were all pretty with lists of the (amazing) groups on the roster, with promises of lots and lots of booths for food and drink and t-shirts and the like. The full page ad made it seem like it was going to be a county fair with some nice bands in the background. I remember thinking how cool it would be to go, and gave it some brief thought, but I was in a summer theater production and would not be able to get away…plus it was quite a schlep from Illinois to NY so the drive alone sort of put me off. At any rate, I was fully aware that Woodstock was going to happen (although I seem to remember it was originally supposed to be elsewhere and the full page ad didn’t mention “Woodstock” as the title of the event - don’t remember what they called it before the fact.)
So, when the first newscasts started showing thousands and thousands of cars headed to “some music festival” in NY, I knew exactly where they were all headed. Then the newscasts started pouring in (must have been a slow news day) and they showed people abandoning cars and just walking several miles towards the festival. Then it became the big story and helicopters were flying overhead showing the masses of people and at one point, they finally gave up on the lame attempt to keep non-ticket holders out (pity the ticket taker yelling to 200,000 people, “ok, line to the left please!”). Then the rains came and suddenly it was a huge media event/borderline disaster in the making. There wasn’t enough food or water, despite the rains, and I believe even the Governor of NY got involved and shipped supplies up to Woodstock. However, the press was actually pretty fair about the whole thing…they seemed amazed that with 100’s of thousands of people more or less stranded in the middle of nowhere, everything was extremely peaceful. Interviews with some of the people there were interesting, to say the least, and you could see smiling (aka stoned) folks just wandering the grounds, looking for someone they lost about a day earlier, but not exactly panicking about the fact.
The more the press covered it, more people actually got in cars and continued to show up! I was kicking my ass that I had not gone and knew it was missing out on one hell of an event.
Well, to wrap up this jaunt down memory lane, when the film “Woodstock” finally came out, even in my small Illinois hometown, the shows were sold out, you could smell weed in the theater, and people were dancing in the aisles. I had one friend see every showing of the film that first weekend. Woodstock was the culmination of the hippy/freelove/peace movement, and just a glance of the performers should give you a hint as to the quality of acts…hell, even the “B” and “C” performers would later ride this wave to make a good career in touring concerts.
So, while the rest of my generation was happily wallowing naked in mud, stoned out of their minds listening to Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and dozens of other top acts of the world, I was in the summer theater production of Brigadoon, doing the Highland Fling in a kilt in 90 degree weather. Bitter…nah…just pissed off beyond belief.
I remember it happening – I was in high school. It was too far for us to go. I don’t think I had my license yet.
Besides, the New York State Thruway was closed.
My brother works at AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences–the Oscar folks). They’re going to have a symposium-type-thingy celebrating the movie in late September. Invitations have been sent out to almost everyone–Country Joe is the only confirmed guest at the moment, AFAIK. My brother is really hoping that Martin Scorsese will make an appearance. I’ve been promised a back-stage pass if Townshend or Daltrey decide to show up–highly unlikely, but you never know…
I went to college with a guy who clearly shows up in the movie. He was a good friend of my hubby. Rats, that’s as close as I get, I was a little too young for it.
Meh, ultimately Woodstock was just a big party with live music followed by a neat movie documenting same, no? What did it actually accomplish beyond that? Why the cultural significance hullaballoo? Got Sha Na Na tv show?
I think that Woodstock represents one of those “you had to have been living in the time” sort of thing. I, fashioning myself as a rebellious psuedo-hippy at the time, was a student at a very conservative college (University of Missouri at Rolla) and the coverage itself made it seem like one of those “wish I was there” events. At the time, Woodstock represented the continuing struggle between generations, the anti-war movement, etc.
I’m not as eloquent as DMark in characterizing the mood but watching the DVD of Hendrix’s Woodstock appearance (including his famous rendition of the National Anthem - which now seems pretty tame) the other night prompted me to start this posting.