I remember seeing a full page ad in a Chicago newspaper for Woodstock…the ad made it sound like a pleasant little county fair…booths with art and food, some workshops and, of course, many of the greatest groups in the world, but the list wasn’t even complete.
I remember wanting to go, but I was living near Chicago and was in a summer theater group, and the idea of driving all the way to NY was a bit much. Only after it started and I saw what was happening did I kick myself in the ass for not going.
But again, I vividly recall reading the ad and thinking it was going to be a “quaint” little gathering of about 1000 people or so…I guess a lot of other people read the ad and decided to go.
I did watch the film Woodstock in the movie theater when it first came out and remember people smoking joints in the theater and dancing in the aisles. Ah yes…a different era.
Would this be like the ad you saw? It gives the festival it’s fulll name “Woodstock Music and Art Fair,” and in the fine print at the bottom (undecipherable in this picture, but I’ve seen larger versions of the poster before), mentions the craft booths, the free stage, and so on.
I didn’t get to Woodstock. I wanted to go to hear the music, but since I was still in elementary school, my parents vetoed the idea.
My mother, who was 16 or 17 at the time, didn’t go to Woodstock but she did see Canned Heat and Janis Joplin in… 1967? 1968? Somewhere in there. It was so hot her flipflops melted to the concrete when she walked across the parking lot, and people were passing out and being carried out of the concert. Canned Heat came onstage buck ass nekkid (my mother’s exact words) and Janis appeared wearing a full-length purple velour costume. But as my mother put it, “that bitch could sing.”
I have a couple of those posters that I bought at the concert, or rather fragments of them, since they’ve fallen apart (not being printed on archival cardboard). I also have my set of tickets for the three days, which cost $27, because nobody was collecting tickets by the time I got there.
I wandered about among the craft booths for a bit. I also got some granola from the free kitchen set up by the Hog Farm, which they called Hog Hash. (As far as I know, there wasn’t any hashish in it.)
I was 10 and got a similar reaction from my mom when my older cousin offered to take me. I got even by going on Dead tour for years when I was older and doing all of the things that she was terrified of. She should have let me get it out of my system at 10.
Wow, that’s surprisingly high - over $50 per day adjusted for inflation; more than a lot of concerts would cost now. I’ve always heard that concert admission cost beans until Ticketmaster took over the racket.
Are you kidding? It was three days, with more than thirty groups, including some of the biggest names of the day (or any day): Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Santana, Canned Heat, Joplin, the Dead, Creedence, Sly Stone, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, The Band, Blood Sweat and Tears, Johnny Winter, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Paul Butterfield, and Hendrix. It boiled down to less than a dollar each, which even in those days was a great deal. I could easily afford it on my summer job pay, and so could my friends.
Concerts were cheap, though. I saw a couple of concerts the previous summer at the Singer Bowl in NYC. One bill included The Who and The Doors; another, The Chambers Brothers, Janis Joplin, and Hendrix. Tickets were $2.50. On a per act basis, prices were comparable, but the Singer Bowl was relatively cheap even then.
I’ve been to Woodstock to the Photography workshop, but I was there in the late '90s so that probably doesn’t count. Anyway, I didn’t get to Yazger’s farm.
Oh believe me, I’m not saying it wasn’t worth it - if I was alive then I would’ve given a toe to go. I’m just surprised it was so expensive considering: -the “free love”/“hippie” aura, -Ticketmaster didn’t exist yet, -Not sure, maybe someone can confirm this, but I’ve heard a lot of the bands there were relatively unknown up to that point?
And, I think I remember paying $18 to get into Ozzfest '97.
Well, like I said, while the total amount for a concert was large for those days, on a per-act basis it was pretty much comparable to a fairly cheap venue like the Singer Bowl.
Of course, most of the people who attended didn’t pay, since they stopped taking tickets early on.
Absolutely not true. All of the ones I mentioned, and many of the others, were top acts at the time, any one of which would be top of the bill at another concert. I had seen some of them previously, and had albums from quite a few. There were a few lesser known acts, but scanning the list, I would say at least 80% were headliners. Some are nearly forgotten today, but in 1969 they were at the peak of their fame.
Do you really consider that line up comparable?
Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Pantera, Marilyn Manson, Type-O-Negative, Machine Head, Fear Factory, Powerman 5000, and Coal Chamber
There were at least a dozen acts at Woodstock that, for that time, would have been of similar stature to Black Sabbath, the best known group on that list.
Well, no, not comparable. I was comparing $18 per day at a festival show in 1997 vs. > $50 per day at a festival show in 1969. My biggest surprise here is that I’ve heard all my life that concert tickets were dirt cheap until Ticketmaster cornered the market.
And the Ozzfest lineup may not compare to Woodstock, but it was nothing to scoff at. Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Pantera, and Marilyn Manson were all multi-platinum groups, and the others were all big radio hits at the time (with the possible exception of Type-O who had a huge following but I’m not sure if they got much radio play.)
All I can say is that, based on my personal perception as a teenager at the time, it did not seem to be very expensive considering the line up compared to other concerts at the time. (Also, factoring in inflation since 1997, your $18 would be $25 today.)
There was a pit thread in the last few months bemoaning the high prices for concert tickets today. It seems to me that you must have gotten a bit of a bargain even in 1997.
You know, it might not have been $18. I bet the ticket stub is in a box somewhere at my parents’ house, so I’ll have to look next time I’m over there. That does seem awful cheap because I wanted to see 311 recently and after all the service fees and everything one ticket was pushing 60 bucks. Screw that.
I didn’t go to woodstock (too young). But I did pay $20 for a Zepplin ticket in '72, I believe, and I thought the world had come to an end. And that was scalper prices!!!
Crosby Stills and Nash had already had a hit album in May of 1969, with two songs making the top 40. Adding Young after that just raised their profile. Based on the reputation of their original groups, Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies, they were already well known. CSNY was essentially a super group, like the Cream. They were headliners from their inception. They were a highly anticipated act at Woodstock.
