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[crowd murmuring]
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It looks like we're
going to get a little bit of rain,
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so you better cover up.
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Everybody who's in the back,
please move back!
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Please move back.
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We have to get away from these towers.
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[wind blowing]
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Put the mike stands down on the floor.
Cover all the equipment.
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[Joel Rosenman]
We were all in our mid-20s.
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We had created something that was much
bigger than we had anticipated.
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I see it.
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[over speakers] All of you up
on the towers, please come down.
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You are making it very, very dangerous.
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[wind blowing]
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All right, everybody,
just sit down, wrap yourself up.
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We're going to have to ride it out.
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[John Morris] Everything that could
possibly go wrong was happening.
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I mean, it was all hell breaking loose.
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[inaudible]
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[Morris over speaker]
Hold on to your neighbor, man.
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And let's think hard
to get rid of it, please.
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[shouting] No rain!
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No rain!
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No rain!
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[crowd chanting] No rain!
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[Susan Reynolds] When you think about it,
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it could have been an absolute disaster.
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[thunder rumbling, rain pouring]
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[Baron Wolman] And I just kept thinking,
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"Which direction
is this thing going to go?"
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[man over speaker]
Try to keep yourself comfortable.
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It's gonna blow through.
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["Something in the Air"
by Thunderclap Newman playing]
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♪ Call out the instigator ♪
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♪ Because there's something in the air ♪
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♪ We got to get together sooner or later ♪
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♪ Because the revolution's here ♪
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♪ And you know it's right... ♪
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[Reynolds] We did not plan ahead,
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we did not plan
where we were going to stay,
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we didn't think about food.
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It was just, like,
"Hey, this sounds like fun.
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Let's get in the car and go."
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♪ We have got to get it together ♪
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♪ We have got to get it together now ♪
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[Peter Beren] We would pack as many
hitchhikers as we could in the car,
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sitting on top of each other.
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And as we got closer,
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there would be people
walking on foot like pilgrims.
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It looked like a pilgrimage.
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[Laureen Starobin]
We were looking for answers.
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We were looking for other people
that felt the same way as we did.
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♪ ...and houses ♪
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♪ Because there's something in the air ♪
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[Jon Jaboolian] No matter where
you looked, you saw people.
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It was like a field
with people growing in it.
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I had never, never seen
that many people in my life
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in one place at one time.
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♪ And you know it's right ♪
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[Paul George] My feeling was,
this is what we've been talking about,
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this is what we've been aiming for,
this kind of freedom.
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[Starobin] If 400,000 people
could get together
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and have absolutely no violence,
absolutely no conflict,
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I felt like if we could bring
all that love back into society,
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we could change the world.
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♪ We have got to get it together ♪
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[cheering]
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♪ We have got to get it together now ♪
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["I'll Take Manhattan"
by Bobby Hackett playing]
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[horns honking]
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[John Roberts] I grew up in New York City,
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and I came from a wealthy family.
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My mother died when I was young,
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so when I was 21,
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I inherited about
a quarter of a million dollars.
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That was quite
a bit of money in those days.
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I had a job down on Wall Street
doing research.
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[Rosenman] When I met John,
I had just gotten out of law school
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and was playing with a band
down in the Village
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and at the clubs
on Second and Third Avenue,
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but I was starting to get
a little frayed at the edges.
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Neither one of us, I think,
was really on a career path
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00:05:05,805 --> 00:05:08,683
that we knew was the right one.
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[Roberts] Joel and I met playing golf.
We hit it off.
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And we thought
we'd go into business together,
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00:05:17,984 --> 00:05:19,944
investing this money that I had.
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[announcer] The denture cleanser
you've hoped for is here at last.
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00:05:24,741 --> 00:05:28,578
Start using new effervescent
Polident tablets today.
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00:05:28,661 --> 00:05:31,706
[Joel Makower] John's grandfather
founded the Block Drug Company,
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00:05:31,789 --> 00:05:34,917
the maker of Poligrip and Polident.
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00:05:35,501 --> 00:05:38,504
That fortune was the source
of the seed money
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for a recording studio
in Midtown Manhattan,
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00:05:41,174 --> 00:05:43,634
Mediasound, which for John and Joel,
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00:05:43,718 --> 00:05:46,721
actually turned into
their first successful venture.
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It was because of Mediasound
that John and Joel
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met Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld.
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[man] How much do those matches sell for?
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Sixty-five cents for the roll.
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[Makower] Michael had a head shop
in Miami, in Coconut Grove,
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the center of the hippie culture
down there.
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[man] Right there, is that a pipe?
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00:06:03,613 --> 00:06:05,281
Yeah, it's a Turkish water pipe.
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With two hoses.
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[Makower] In 1968,
he moved to Woodstock, New York,
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about 100 miles north of New York City,
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and was introduced to Artie Kornfeld,
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who was a vice president
at Capitol Records.
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[Roberts] They called us in early 1969,
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and said, "We're very interested
in building a recording studio
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in Woodstock, New York.
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We know that you and Joel
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were involved in building one
in New York City.
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Would you meet with us?"
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We said, "Sure!"
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[Rosenman] When we met them,
they were quite different from us,
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meaning a lot of fringe,
a lot of buckskin,
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00:06:42,819 --> 00:06:44,403
and a great deal of hair.
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John and I were making an effort
to look like businessmen at the time.
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[laughing] So,
we couldn't have represented
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more distant ends of the spectrum.
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[Roberts] What Artie said was, basically,
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Woodstock was a center for artists,
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00:06:59,127 --> 00:07:03,339
and that a recording studio there
would have a natural constituency,
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00:07:04,090 --> 00:07:06,342
and it would be a success.
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00:07:08,302 --> 00:07:11,347
[Rosenman] As we were looking through
the proposal that they'd given us,
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00:07:11,431 --> 00:07:14,642
we noticed an idea
for an opening day party,
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where musicians who lived in the area,
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00:07:17,687 --> 00:07:21,065
Tim Hardin, John Sebastian, Bob Dylan,
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would perform.
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00:07:23,067 --> 00:07:27,613
I said, "The idea of having
a concert with those stars...
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00:07:28,156 --> 00:07:32,243
I mean, why don't we skip the studio idea
and just do a big concert?
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We could make a fortune."
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So, in late January, 1969,
the four of us shook hands,
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and started brainstorming
what Woodstock could be.
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[reporter] To the hippie youth of today,
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this is part of their real world.
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This is the atmosphere
at the Monterey Pop Festival.
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The music is frantic, the sounds are wild,
and the mind is free.
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[Bob Hite singing]
♪ I rolled and I tumbled ♪
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00:08:02,732 --> 00:08:04,984
♪ I cried the whole night long ♪
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00:08:06,110 --> 00:08:09,697
[Bob Spitz] Outdoor rock festivals
were a pretty new concept at the time.
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00:08:10,031 --> 00:08:13,576
They had begun in 1967 with Monterey Pop.
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00:08:15,036 --> 00:08:17,788
And by 1968, '69,
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there had been a few festivals
scattered around the country.
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Michael Lang was the only one of the four
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00:08:24,670 --> 00:08:27,131
that had any experience
in the concert business.
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In 1968, he had helped produce
a festival in Miami
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that was a huge disaster.
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It was held at a racetrack,
had very little atmosphere,
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it rained, there were a lot
of lawsuits afterwards.
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The festival never really came off.
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But Michael knew that
this is what he wanted to do.
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And he had this idea of taking
the festival out of the racetrack,
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and putting it in a bucolic place.
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[Lang] I had been thinking about doing
a series of concerts in Woodstock.
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00:09:00,289 --> 00:09:03,167
And I always thought if you could
dream it up, you could put it together.
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00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:07,255
And this was a chance to make,
you know, a dream come true.
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[Rosenman] Michael and Artie
had optioned a property in Woodstock,
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00:09:14,595 --> 00:09:17,390
but it was far too small,
it was just ten acres.
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00:09:17,473 --> 00:09:19,350
So, that didn't work out.
165
00:09:20,393 --> 00:09:23,521
A property in Saugerties didn't work out.
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00:09:24,188 --> 00:09:27,024
And then John and I
found a piece of property
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00:09:27,108 --> 00:09:28,401
that was in Wallkill
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00:09:28,484 --> 00:09:32,113
that was being turned
into an industrial park.
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It didn't knock you out visually,
but it was available.
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[Makower] Michael hated it.
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00:09:42,039 --> 00:09:44,333
It was everything he didn't want.
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00:09:44,709 --> 00:09:48,129
Just a flat, barren piece of land
173
00:09:48,212 --> 00:09:51,048
that had no trees, no soul.
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00:09:52,091 --> 00:09:54,885
[Lang] You know how some
pastoral scenes are beautiful and calming
175
00:09:54,969 --> 00:09:57,513
and make you feel comfortable, at peace?
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This was completely the opposite.
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00:09:59,974 --> 00:10:01,934
But we needed to get going,
we needed a site,
178
00:10:02,018 --> 00:10:04,645
and I felt that we could
transform it into something
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00:10:04,729 --> 00:10:06,355
more spiritual and special.
180
00:10:08,482 --> 00:10:09,817
["Embryonic Journey"
by Jefferson Airplane playing]
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00:10:09,900 --> 00:10:12,945
[Spitz] The town signed off
on the festival as a...
182
00:10:13,029 --> 00:10:15,323
Kind of a music and arts fair
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00:10:15,406 --> 00:10:18,701
where kids would walk around
and look at art
184
00:10:18,784 --> 00:10:22,121
and hear some music in the background.
185
00:10:22,204 --> 00:10:25,791
And "An Aquarian Exposition,"
which is what they called Woodstock,
186
00:10:25,875 --> 00:10:28,544
had some kind of mystical feel to it.
187
00:10:34,008 --> 00:10:36,302
[Rosenman] Michael suggested that,
like Monterey,
188
00:10:36,385 --> 00:10:39,639
we should have a crafts village
and an art exhibition
189
00:10:39,722 --> 00:10:41,223
alongside the music.
190
00:10:41,807 --> 00:10:42,933
We all loved it!
191
00:10:43,017 --> 00:10:46,729
It was such a natural add-on
to what we were thinking about.
192
00:10:48,481 --> 00:10:51,776
We wanted to make it
like visiting another world,
193
00:10:52,443 --> 00:10:54,737
like visiting the world
you were dreaming about
194
00:10:54,820 --> 00:10:56,405
if you were a young person.
195
00:10:56,864 --> 00:11:00,034
This shining place that you could go to
196
00:11:00,117 --> 00:11:02,870
and feel that you weren't a misfit,
197
00:11:03,746 --> 00:11:06,624
or that you weren't
on the wrong side of a debate,
198
00:11:06,707 --> 00:11:10,920
or that you weren't under
the suspicious eye of the authorities.
199
00:11:13,089 --> 00:11:15,257
[Makower] For the generation
that was coming of age
200
00:11:15,341 --> 00:11:16,717
in the late '60s,
201
00:11:16,801 --> 00:11:18,761
everything was up for grabs.
202
00:11:19,345 --> 00:11:22,390
Young people
were rejecting the status quo,
203
00:11:23,224 --> 00:11:25,893
whether it was your parents
or whether it was your community
204
00:11:25,976 --> 00:11:28,187
or the business establishment.
205
00:11:29,105 --> 00:11:31,899
This counterculture, as it was called,
206
00:11:31,982 --> 00:11:34,860
influenced music, it influenced art,
207
00:11:34,944 --> 00:11:37,613
and it certainly influenced
the way people dressed.
208
00:11:38,406 --> 00:11:41,659
But clearly, politics was at the center
of the counterculture,
209
00:11:41,742 --> 00:11:44,620
because the one thing
that affected everybody
210
00:11:44,703 --> 00:11:46,288
was the war in Vietnam.
211
00:11:47,289 --> 00:11:50,918
Last week's casualty figures
in the Vietnam War, released today,
212
00:11:51,001 --> 00:11:54,588
showed 299 Americans killed, 355...
213
00:11:54,672 --> 00:11:58,175
[George] I remember watching
the news in, you know, 1968,
214
00:11:58,634 --> 00:12:01,470
and asking my father,
"Why are we fighting in Vietnam?"
215
00:12:01,554 --> 00:12:04,223
And his answer was always,
"Because they're communists."
216
00:12:05,307 --> 00:12:07,852
I didn't find that satisfactory.
217
00:12:08,394 --> 00:12:09,854
[artillery fires]
218
00:12:11,564 --> 00:12:14,692
[George] My father had been
in World War II in Europe,
219
00:12:14,775 --> 00:12:16,235
in the Signal Corps.
220
00:12:17,153 --> 00:12:20,030
He always made clear that he thought
the Army was a great experience,
221
00:12:20,114 --> 00:12:21,615
and everybody should do it.
222
00:12:22,575 --> 00:12:26,704
He just had a very positive view
of serving one's country that way.
223
00:12:27,455 --> 00:12:29,915
And he did support the war in Vietnam.
224
00:12:29,999 --> 00:12:32,084
["The Pusher" by Steppenwolf playing]
225
00:12:33,335 --> 00:12:35,671
-[gun firing]
-[people talking over radio]
226
00:12:40,968 --> 00:12:43,387
[Reynolds] The men of World War II
just assumed that their sons
227
00:12:43,471 --> 00:12:45,181
would also be soldiers.
228
00:12:45,264 --> 00:12:48,684
That's how you became a man.
You grew up, you served your country.
229
00:12:49,226 --> 00:12:52,563
So, my older brother Jim
signed up for the Naval Reserves.
230
00:12:53,689 --> 00:12:56,150
I remember the day
that he went to Vietnam,
231
00:12:56,442 --> 00:12:58,569
and being terrified.
232
00:13:00,863 --> 00:13:04,909
[Michael Lindsey] When I was 18,
I had to register for the draft.
233
00:13:05,534 --> 00:13:08,537
I was in college, so I got a deferment.
234
00:13:09,830 --> 00:13:12,791
But there was always that thing
in the back of your mind.
235
00:13:13,417 --> 00:13:16,754
You knew that they were
just one step behind you.
236
00:13:17,421 --> 00:13:18,547
If you were in college,
237
00:13:18,631 --> 00:13:21,175
you'd better hope that you had
all your money straightened out
238
00:13:21,258 --> 00:13:22,801
and grades were good and everything else,
239
00:13:22,885 --> 00:13:26,305
because if you dropped out,
you were going to Vietnam.
240
00:13:28,724 --> 00:13:34,021
[Beren] When I was 20 years old,
I was faced with a draft physical.
241
00:13:35,064 --> 00:13:37,191
I'm putting down that I'm a bedwetter,
242
00:13:37,274 --> 00:13:39,944
that I'm a homosexual,
that I'm a communist.
243
00:13:40,027 --> 00:13:44,031
I think there were 14 things in all
that I had written down.
244
00:13:46,242 --> 00:13:48,786
So they escorted me over
to the psychiatrist.
245
00:13:49,161 --> 00:13:52,790
He just said, "Kid,
I'm gonna give you one year
246
00:13:52,873 --> 00:13:54,792
to straighten yourself out,"
247
00:13:55,334 --> 00:13:57,836
and he gave me a deferment for 12 months.
248
00:14:01,131 --> 00:14:05,177
[Rick Dills] There's no way
to describe how terrifying it was
249
00:14:05,261 --> 00:14:07,763
to be a 17-year-old,
250
00:14:07,846 --> 00:14:10,683
knowing that the Vietnam War
was your fate.
251
00:14:11,976 --> 00:14:14,144
I wasn't alone in any way
252
00:14:14,228 --> 00:14:17,982
in transitioning from being
personally afraid of the war
253
00:14:18,524 --> 00:14:21,068
to being politically opposed to it.
254
00:14:21,527 --> 00:14:23,988
[crowd chanting] You kill people!
255
00:14:24,071 --> 00:14:27,116
You kill people! You kill people!
256
00:14:27,199 --> 00:14:28,951
[chanting continues]
257
00:14:29,034 --> 00:14:30,828
[shouting, clapping]
258
00:14:30,911 --> 00:14:34,290
[Beren] I participated in a couple
of marches on Washington,
259
00:14:34,373 --> 00:14:36,000
anti-war rallies.
260
00:14:36,834 --> 00:14:38,878
The war was insane.
261
00:14:38,961 --> 00:14:42,923
You know, an insane conflict that
made everybody crazy,
262
00:14:43,007 --> 00:14:45,926
whether you were fighting the war
or fighting against it.
263
00:14:46,010 --> 00:14:48,429
[crowd chanting] Hell, no, we won't go!
264
00:14:48,512 --> 00:14:49,972
["Volunteers" by
Jefferson Airplane playing]
265
00:14:50,055 --> 00:14:52,266
♪ Look what's happening
Out in the streets ♪
266
00:14:52,349 --> 00:14:54,351
-♪ Got a revolution ♪
-♪ Got to revolution ♪
267
00:14:54,435 --> 00:14:56,896
♪ Hey, I'm dancing down the street ♪
268
00:14:56,979 --> 00:14:58,898
-♪ Got a revolution ♪
-♪ Got to revolution ♪
269
00:14:58,981 --> 00:15:01,233
♪ Oh, ain't it amazing
All the people that I meet? ♪
270
00:15:01,317 --> 00:15:02,359
♪ Got a revolution ♪
271
00:15:02,443 --> 00:15:04,278
[shouting]
272
00:15:04,361 --> 00:15:07,615
[reporter] This is
a CBS News Special Report...
273
00:15:07,698 --> 00:15:10,075
[Beren] And then,
on top of everything else,
274
00:15:10,159 --> 00:15:12,620
Martin Luther King was assassinated.
275
00:15:13,203 --> 00:15:14,872
The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.,
276
00:15:14,955 --> 00:15:17,583
was shot to death
by an assassin late today
277
00:15:17,666 --> 00:15:20,586
as he stood on a balcony
in Memphis, Tennessee.
278
00:15:22,922 --> 00:15:24,965
[Lindsey]
When Martin Luther King was killed,
279
00:15:25,049 --> 00:15:29,720
I knew a lot of people who just felt,
we have to do things differently,
280
00:15:30,137 --> 00:15:32,890
because the way
the establishment have done things
281
00:15:32,973 --> 00:15:34,850
has led to this.
282
00:15:37,478 --> 00:15:40,105
[George] By the time I got to be 16,
283
00:15:40,189 --> 00:15:43,484
I was really questioning
the way society is structured.
284
00:15:44,026 --> 00:15:46,236
I objected to racism.
285
00:15:46,904 --> 00:15:51,200
I objected to inequality,
consumerism, and poverty.
286
00:15:51,784 --> 00:15:54,244
I objected to the war in Vietnam.
287
00:15:55,162 --> 00:15:58,082
[Robert Kennedy] One thing is clear
in this year of 1968,
288
00:15:58,832 --> 00:16:02,878
and that is that the American people
want no more Vietnams.
289
00:16:03,087 --> 00:16:05,005
[audience applauds]
290
00:16:05,965 --> 00:16:07,841
[Lindsey] Of course, we had hope
for Bobby Kennedy.
291
00:16:08,634 --> 00:16:12,388
He seemed to be one of us
in a lot of ways.
292
00:16:13,555 --> 00:16:17,101
We really felt that
he was finally going to be able
293
00:16:17,184 --> 00:16:18,477
to change things.
294
00:16:20,020 --> 00:16:22,064
[Reynolds] I mean,
he was out there espousing peace,
295
00:16:22,147 --> 00:16:24,483
and, you know, fighting
against poverty and racism,
296
00:16:24,566 --> 00:16:28,654
and all the things that we believed in
and wanted so deeply.
297
00:16:29,405 --> 00:16:31,031
He was our voice.
298
00:16:35,202 --> 00:16:39,915
[Beren] In June of 1968,
I was leaving a bar in my hometown.
299
00:16:40,332 --> 00:16:41,959
I turned on the radio.
300
00:16:42,334 --> 00:16:45,045
[reporter on radio] The senator
is lying with his eyes closed,
301
00:16:45,129 --> 00:16:46,380
absolutely unmoving,
302
00:16:46,463 --> 00:16:48,257
blood underneath his head.
303
00:16:48,340 --> 00:16:51,135
[Beren] I heard the assassination
of Robert F. Kennedy
304
00:16:51,218 --> 00:16:54,304
as it unfolded in real time.
305
00:16:54,972 --> 00:16:57,850
And it just completely undid me.
306
00:16:58,851 --> 00:17:00,894
[Frank Mankiewicz]
Senator Robert Francis Kennedy
307
00:17:02,187 --> 00:17:07,067
died at 1:44 a.m. today,
308
00:17:08,777 --> 00:17:12,406
June 6, 1968.
309
00:17:15,451 --> 00:17:17,244
[Starobin] The shock of it was...
310
00:17:17,327 --> 00:17:21,874
It was just devastating,
absolutely devastating.
311
00:17:21,957 --> 00:17:25,252
Martin Luther King and then Bobby Kennedy.
312
00:17:25,335 --> 00:17:27,838
You know, all these peacemakers.
313
00:17:30,841 --> 00:17:32,926
[Jaboolian] It was like,
"Oh, this is what we do.
314
00:17:33,010 --> 00:17:34,136
This is what we do."
315
00:17:34,219 --> 00:17:37,014
You know, as soon as somebody
tries to speak out,
316
00:17:37,723 --> 00:17:39,391
and they're too forceful,
317
00:17:40,142 --> 00:17:43,353
this big machine, whatever the hell it is,
is gonna shut them up.
318
00:17:46,148 --> 00:17:49,234
The only thing
that we took solace in was music,
319
00:17:49,985 --> 00:17:52,362
and there was a lot
of politically conscious music
320
00:17:52,446 --> 00:17:53,864
that we were listening to.
321
00:17:54,656 --> 00:17:56,533
You know, like Buffalo Springfield.
322
00:17:57,034 --> 00:18:00,037
[singing]
♪ There's something happening here ♪
323
00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:04,958
♪ What it is ain't exactly clear ♪
324
00:18:05,876 --> 00:18:10,047
♪ There's a man with a gun over there ♪
325
00:18:10,798 --> 00:18:14,968
♪ Telling me I got to beware ♪
326
00:18:15,344 --> 00:18:16,720
♪ I think it's time we stop ♪
327
00:18:16,804 --> 00:18:18,722
♪ Children, what's that sound ♪
328
00:18:18,806 --> 00:18:21,475
♪ Everybody look what's going down ♪
329
00:18:22,851 --> 00:18:26,313
[Starobin] When I was so disillusioned
with everybody else's thinking,
330
00:18:26,396 --> 00:18:28,315
I could escape into my music.
331
00:18:28,816 --> 00:18:31,068
It was such a comfort to me.
332
00:18:31,151 --> 00:18:34,822
You know, I hadn't met
a lot of people at that time
333
00:18:34,905 --> 00:18:36,532
that felt like I did.
334
00:18:36,865 --> 00:18:40,369
But when I listened to music,
those people were there.
335
00:18:41,120 --> 00:18:43,789
♪ Young people speaking their minds ♪
336
00:18:45,082 --> 00:18:48,418
♪ Getting so much resistance from behind ♪
337
00:18:48,502 --> 00:18:49,878
[Reynolds] We couldn't wait for Saturdays,
338
00:18:49,962 --> 00:18:51,380
when we could go buy the latest record
339
00:18:51,463 --> 00:18:53,298
and then come home
and literally lay on the floor
340
00:18:53,382 --> 00:18:55,175
and play it over and over and over.
341
00:18:55,884 --> 00:18:57,719
My father hated the music.
342
00:18:57,803 --> 00:19:01,265
[laughing] He was always clamping
his hands over his ears and just...
343
00:19:01,890 --> 00:19:03,433
He'd say, "Damn hippies!"
344
00:19:03,517 --> 00:19:07,229
[singing] ♪ Come gather 'round, people
Wherever you roam ♪
345
00:19:07,563 --> 00:19:10,816
♪ And admit that the waters
around you have grown ♪
346
00:19:10,899 --> 00:19:12,067
♪ And accept it that soon... ♪
347
00:19:12,151 --> 00:19:14,444
[Lindsey] Dylan's song
"The Times They Are-A-Changin'"
348
00:19:14,528 --> 00:19:17,656
basically said to our parents' generation,
349
00:19:17,739 --> 00:19:20,534
"Get out of the new way
if you can't lend a hand."
350
00:19:20,617 --> 00:19:23,203
[singing] ♪ You better start swimming
Or you'll sink like a stone ♪
351
00:19:23,287 --> 00:19:27,207
♪ For the times
They are a-changin' ♪
352
00:19:27,624 --> 00:19:29,626
[Lindsey] Music had our ideas.
353
00:19:30,294 --> 00:19:32,838
For my generation, that was the thing.
354
00:19:33,589 --> 00:19:36,091
Especially our political views.
355
00:19:36,175 --> 00:19:39,178
[singing] ♪ It ain't me, it ain't me ♪
356
00:19:39,261 --> 00:19:41,638
♪ I ain't no military son ♪
357
00:19:42,639 --> 00:19:45,559
♪ It ain't me, it ain't me ♪
358
00:19:45,642 --> 00:19:47,728
♪ I ain't no fortunate one ♪
359
00:19:49,479 --> 00:19:51,982
[Donald Goldmacher]
Music was terribly important to us.
360
00:19:52,482 --> 00:19:56,361
I came to the San Francisco
Bay Area in June '67,
361
00:19:56,445 --> 00:19:59,072
and there was music everywhere.
362
00:19:59,489 --> 00:20:02,492
There were free concerts
going on in Golden Gate Park,
363
00:20:02,576 --> 00:20:04,411
with all of these bands.
364
00:20:04,494 --> 00:20:08,248
I got to see Janis Joplin,
the Jefferson Airplane,
365
00:20:08,332 --> 00:20:10,334
and the Dead, free.
366
00:20:11,168 --> 00:20:12,961
It really was amazing.
367
00:20:13,045 --> 00:20:14,546
[music playing in background]
368
00:20:15,547 --> 00:20:18,383
[Beren] Music and lyrics
became our tribal drum.
369
00:20:19,051 --> 00:20:22,554
So, we had a kind of
a secret communication going
370
00:20:22,638 --> 00:20:24,890
in the river of music
that flowed through us.
371
00:20:24,973 --> 00:20:26,225
["Dear Mr. Fantasy" playing]
372
00:20:26,308 --> 00:20:30,020
[Beren] You know, it was a...
wild liberation.
373
00:20:30,687 --> 00:20:32,648
It was Dionysian.
374
00:20:34,274 --> 00:20:35,943
And drugs played a big part in that.
375
00:20:36,026 --> 00:20:40,197
[Steve Winwood singing]
♪ Something to make us all happy ♪
376
00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:44,243
[George] We smoked a lot of pot
and did a fair amount of acid.
377
00:20:45,202 --> 00:20:48,538
You know, the society
that we're rebelling against,
378
00:20:48,622 --> 00:20:50,582
they don't want us smoking pot.
379
00:20:50,666 --> 00:20:53,335
[laughing] Must be a good reason
to smoke pot.
380
00:20:55,003 --> 00:20:57,756
[Katherine Daye]
The more that we as a generation
381
00:20:57,839 --> 00:21:03,053
saw that what had been
rammed down our throats was false,
382
00:21:03,637 --> 00:21:06,014
it was false, it was a lie,
383
00:21:06,556 --> 00:21:09,393
the more it freed us up to experiment.
384
00:21:11,603 --> 00:21:13,647
I mean, we had free love.
385
00:21:15,941 --> 00:21:21,113
The pill allowed us to just go to a party
and be with somebody.
386
00:21:22,322 --> 00:21:25,450
We just reveled in having
that much freedom
387
00:21:26,660 --> 00:21:30,289
and that much ability
to piss off your old man.
388
00:21:30,831 --> 00:21:33,166
[Ronald Reagan]
Movies were shown on two screens
389
00:21:33,250 --> 00:21:35,585
at the opposite ends of the gymnasium.
390
00:21:35,669 --> 00:21:37,421
They consisted of color sequences
391
00:21:37,504 --> 00:21:39,548
that gave the appearance
of different-colored liquids
392
00:21:39,631 --> 00:21:41,341
spreading across the screen.
393
00:21:41,425 --> 00:21:43,969
Sexual misconduct was blatant.
394
00:21:44,052 --> 00:21:47,097
The smell of marijuana was prevalent
all over the entire building.
395
00:21:48,265 --> 00:21:49,975
["Dear Mr. Fantasy" continues]
396
00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:54,563
[Lindsey] By 1969, it really did feel
like we were finally winning
397
00:21:54,896 --> 00:21:59,818
some kind of cultural war
against the establishment.
398
00:22:00,277 --> 00:22:02,070
You know, this is how we lived,
399
00:22:02,404 --> 00:22:04,614
and if you didn't like it, too bad.
400
00:22:05,615 --> 00:22:09,286
We were seeing that America
wasn't what we were taught it was,
401
00:22:09,995 --> 00:22:12,706
and when you stop looking at it that way
402
00:22:12,789 --> 00:22:15,667
and you start trying
to figure it out for yourself,
403
00:22:15,751 --> 00:22:19,546
then... it changes your life forever.
404
00:22:26,970 --> 00:22:29,306
["Grazing in the Grass"
by Willie Mitchell playing]
405
00:22:36,605 --> 00:22:39,608
[Makower] Once they got the permits
they needed from the town of Wallkill,
406
00:22:39,691 --> 00:22:42,319
the first thing that John
and Joel and Michael and Artie did
407
00:22:42,402 --> 00:22:45,489
was to assemble a core team
to help produce the festival.
408
00:22:46,156 --> 00:22:50,118
There was Stan Goldstein
who had worked with Michael on Miami Pop.
409
00:22:50,577 --> 00:22:53,663
There was John Morris
who had experience booking acts,
410
00:22:54,164 --> 00:22:57,292
Chip Monck,
whose role was stage design and lighting,
411
00:22:57,709 --> 00:23:01,880
Bill Hanley, one of the pioneers
of event production sound.
412
00:23:02,422 --> 00:23:05,300
These were guys who knew
how to put together an event.
413
00:23:06,635 --> 00:23:10,639
Stan called his friend Mel Lawrence
to be the director of operations.
414
00:23:12,015 --> 00:23:14,935
[Mel Lawrence] My mission was to plan
415
00:23:15,018 --> 00:23:18,855
for all of the functions of the festival
416
00:23:18,939 --> 00:23:21,066
aside from the actual show.
417
00:23:23,193 --> 00:23:27,239
Everything from fences
to food to transportation
418
00:23:27,322 --> 00:23:32,285
to fire access, lines of communication,
419
00:23:32,369 --> 00:23:37,290
security, water, sewerage...
You know this, that.
420
00:23:38,667 --> 00:23:42,587
I made a checklist
that blew everybody's minds.
421
00:23:45,590 --> 00:23:48,343
[Stan Goldstein]
One specific thing was toilets.
422
00:23:48,969 --> 00:23:50,929
We knew we'd have to have a lot of them.
423
00:23:51,179 --> 00:23:52,514
No one knew how many.
424
00:23:53,765 --> 00:23:59,104
So, I began going to events
with a stopwatch and clipboard.
425
00:23:59,563 --> 00:24:02,607
Madison Square Garden,
baseball stadiums...
426
00:24:02,983 --> 00:24:05,110
Any place that there were a lot of people.
427
00:24:05,777 --> 00:24:09,781
And I timed them, going in and coming out,
and going in and coming out.
428
00:24:10,407 --> 00:24:12,450
And I took all the information I gathered,
429
00:24:12,534 --> 00:24:16,413
multiplied by the size of the crowd
we thought we might have,
430
00:24:16,788 --> 00:24:20,458
and came up with outrageous
numbers of johns.
431
00:24:20,709 --> 00:24:22,586
Tens of thousands, just...
432
00:24:23,253 --> 00:24:24,671
Impossible numbers.
433
00:24:26,047 --> 00:24:29,301
So, we lined up as many as we could get.
434
00:24:34,222 --> 00:24:35,849
[Morris] I was in charge of the booking,
435
00:24:35,932 --> 00:24:38,768
and Creedence was the first band
that we booked.
436
00:24:39,269 --> 00:24:43,607
And then we got Jefferson Airplane,
Joe Cocker, and Ten Years After.
437
00:24:44,524 --> 00:24:47,652
We didn't get the Stones
or Dylan or The Doors,
438
00:24:47,944 --> 00:24:50,655
but we booked
a lot of the acts we wanted to,
439
00:24:50,739 --> 00:24:52,866
including The Who and Jimi Hendrix.
440
00:24:58,455 --> 00:25:02,250
[David Crosby] We had just started
planning our first tour
441
00:25:02,584 --> 00:25:05,128
as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young,
442
00:25:05,212 --> 00:25:07,589
when we heard that Hendrix
was going to play it,
443
00:25:07,672 --> 00:25:12,636
and The Who, and Sly, and Airplane,
The Band, the Grateful Dead...
444
00:25:12,844 --> 00:25:14,846
You know,
everybody that we thought was cool.
445
00:25:20,393 --> 00:25:22,354
[Spitz] They needed to get
the word out about the festival.
446
00:25:23,521 --> 00:25:27,400
They had a channel to do that,
through the alternative press.
447
00:25:28,026 --> 00:25:31,571
There was the Berkeley Barb and the Rat
and The Village Voice,
448
00:25:31,655 --> 00:25:35,700
and word about the festival poured out,
not just to New York,
449
00:25:35,784 --> 00:25:37,953
where they thought they would draw
the most people from,
450
00:25:38,036 --> 00:25:40,997
but all across the United States.
451
00:25:41,623 --> 00:25:44,042
Woodstock was on everybody's lips.
452
00:25:56,513 --> 00:26:00,267
[Daye] Tom and I subscribed
to Rolling Stone magazine,
453
00:26:00,767 --> 00:26:03,728
and long about, oh, early May,
454
00:26:03,812 --> 00:26:07,983
I started seeing these ads
for a three-day festival
455
00:26:08,066 --> 00:26:10,735
with all these bands that we loved.
456
00:26:11,444 --> 00:26:14,072
And I said, "Tom! You wanna go to this?"
457
00:26:14,322 --> 00:26:16,324
[radio announcer]
For tickets and information,
458
00:26:16,408 --> 00:26:19,577
write to Woodstock Music and Art Fair...
459
00:26:20,036 --> 00:26:22,038
[Goldmacher] We heard it on the radio.
460
00:26:22,122 --> 00:26:25,083
They were describing this happening-to-be
461
00:26:25,333 --> 00:26:29,504
and that people were coming
from all corners of the United States,
462
00:26:29,587 --> 00:26:31,381
and, apparently, abroad as well.
463
00:26:34,301 --> 00:26:36,678
[Susie Kaufman]
I was hanging out at the fountain
464
00:26:36,761 --> 00:26:39,848
in Washington Square, with my guys,
465
00:26:39,931 --> 00:26:41,558
who were all musicians,
466
00:26:41,891 --> 00:26:45,228
and then all of a sudden,
tickets were being made available.
467
00:26:45,729 --> 00:26:49,858
You could buy one day, two days, or three.
468
00:26:50,150 --> 00:26:51,776
And jeez, three days!
469
00:26:51,860 --> 00:26:53,945
"Wow! That means staying there over...
470
00:26:54,029 --> 00:26:56,406
Wow, what an adventure that would be!
471
00:26:56,865 --> 00:26:58,325
We gotta do this!"
472
00:27:02,871 --> 00:27:04,289
[Spitz] It was early June,
473
00:27:05,165 --> 00:27:07,584
so they started to build
at the Wallkill site.
474
00:27:07,959 --> 00:27:10,045
They brought in electricity,
475
00:27:10,628 --> 00:27:13,840
they started to lay
the groundwork for a stage,
476
00:27:14,466 --> 00:27:17,552
and they hired a couple
of hundred kids to help out.
477
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,182
And these kids, they didn't look
like anybody else in this town.
478
00:27:23,558 --> 00:27:25,518
[Rosenman]
They were a little suspicious about us,
479
00:27:25,602 --> 00:27:27,395
but we just forged ahead.
480
00:27:27,771 --> 00:27:30,899
All that did was, I guess,
sound the rallying cry
481
00:27:30,982 --> 00:27:33,318
for what called itself
482
00:27:33,401 --> 00:27:36,488
the Concerned Citizens Committee
of Wallkill.
483
00:27:37,697 --> 00:27:39,783
[Roberts] They didn't like
the looks of the people
484
00:27:39,866 --> 00:27:41,576
who were working on the site.
485
00:27:42,035 --> 00:27:44,371
They didn't like long hair, rock music,
486
00:27:44,454 --> 00:27:46,289
and all that that implied to them.
487
00:27:47,374 --> 00:27:49,959
We really tried to practice
good community relations,
488
00:27:50,043 --> 00:27:52,545
but the Concerned Citizens
had the wind up.
489
00:27:54,130 --> 00:27:57,217
[Spitz] Wallkill was
a pretty conservative place.
490
00:27:57,675 --> 00:28:00,845
The way they saw it,
these were kids who smoked dope,
491
00:28:00,929 --> 00:28:02,764
who had casual sex...
492
00:28:03,139 --> 00:28:05,600
They didn't want these hippies
in their town.
493
00:28:07,811 --> 00:28:11,231
[Rosenman] John and I
were having dinner in New York City
494
00:28:11,314 --> 00:28:14,067
when the town of Wallkill
passed an ordinance
495
00:28:14,150 --> 00:28:17,946
saying you can't have a gathering
of more than 5,000 people.
496
00:28:18,029 --> 00:28:19,864
Essentially, it just legislated
497
00:28:19,948 --> 00:28:22,659
the possibility of a festival
on this property
498
00:28:22,742 --> 00:28:24,202
out of existence.
499
00:28:25,161 --> 00:28:27,872
But we had already sold so many tickets,
500
00:28:27,956 --> 00:28:30,208
and hired so many bands,
501
00:28:30,291 --> 00:28:32,293
we couldn't turn back at that point.
502
00:28:34,045 --> 00:28:35,463
[Roberts] It was like being
on a rollercoaster
503
00:28:35,547 --> 00:28:37,215
that had just crested the rise,
504
00:28:37,590 --> 00:28:40,051
you know, before that first
enormous plunge.
505
00:28:40,635 --> 00:28:42,804
I contemplated the abyss
506
00:28:42,887 --> 00:28:46,766
of a total wipeout and thought,
507
00:28:46,850 --> 00:28:49,394
"Let's not declare bankruptcy,
let's throw this festival."
508
00:28:50,228 --> 00:28:54,858
♪ I'm going up the country
Baby, don't you wanna go? ♪
509
00:28:56,276 --> 00:29:00,613
♪ I'm going up the country
Baby, don't you wanna go? ♪
510
00:29:02,157 --> 00:29:03,783
♪ I'm going to some place... ♪
511
00:29:03,867 --> 00:29:07,871
[Makower] It was the first week of July,
about five weeks out,
512
00:29:08,538 --> 00:29:11,833
so there was a mad scramble
to find a new site.
513
00:29:12,459 --> 00:29:14,419
They drove around Upstate New York
514
00:29:14,502 --> 00:29:16,963
talking to local people,
real estate brokers,
515
00:29:17,046 --> 00:29:18,548
anyone who would listen.
516
00:29:19,507 --> 00:29:20,425
[Lawrence] Michael and I,
517
00:29:20,508 --> 00:29:23,511
we must have looked for a week
or maybe ten days,
518
00:29:24,179 --> 00:29:27,891
renting helicopters
and going here and going there.
519
00:29:28,433 --> 00:29:30,894
And then we meet Max Yasgur.
520
00:29:31,811 --> 00:29:35,899
[Spitz] Max was a farmer.
And he was very successful.
521
00:29:36,191 --> 00:29:40,904
His dairy supplied
almost everybody in that area with milk.
522
00:29:41,446 --> 00:29:43,531
Everybody knew Max Yasgur.
523
00:29:44,657 --> 00:29:48,203
[John Conway] Yasgur was a, you know...
He was a law-and-order Republican,
524
00:29:48,536 --> 00:29:50,121
but, you know, he also believed
525
00:29:50,205 --> 00:29:52,665
in personal freedom
and freedom of expression,
526
00:29:52,749 --> 00:29:55,210
and that's what he hung his hat on.
527
00:29:56,252 --> 00:29:59,005
[Lang] We went to see Max,
and we just hit it off.
528
00:29:59,214 --> 00:30:01,716
I think he liked the fact
that we were doing something
529
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:05,428
in the face of a lot of adversity
and that we believed in.
530
00:30:06,888 --> 00:30:10,767
[Lawrence] Max takes us to the top
of this hill, and there it is!
531
00:30:10,892 --> 00:30:12,977
A natural amphitheater.
532
00:30:13,645 --> 00:30:16,940
Michael and I looked at each other,
"This is it!"
533
00:30:18,483 --> 00:30:20,860
[Spitz] This was exactly
what they were looking for,
534
00:30:21,194 --> 00:30:24,405
and they made a deal with Max
right there on the spot.
535
00:30:37,877 --> 00:30:40,046
[Roberts] Joel and I went up
to get some kind of a handle
536
00:30:40,129 --> 00:30:41,798
on the town politics.
537
00:30:42,048 --> 00:30:44,259
[chuckles] We sure didn't want to
get into the same problem there
538
00:30:44,342 --> 00:30:45,760
as we had in Wallkill.
539
00:30:48,346 --> 00:30:52,016
[Rosenman] We were asked to fill out
our attendance expectations
540
00:30:52,100 --> 00:30:53,810
on the permit application.
541
00:30:54,352 --> 00:30:56,771
We used Monterey Pop's record,
542
00:30:56,855 --> 00:31:00,191
28,000 people a day,
or something like that,
543
00:31:00,275 --> 00:31:02,527
as the baseline.
544
00:31:03,361 --> 00:31:05,655
We multiplied it times two,
and said, you know,
545
00:31:05,738 --> 00:31:08,616
"In our wildest dreams,
this is what we're hoping for."
546
00:31:09,659 --> 00:31:12,954
And within a couple of days,
we got our permits.
547
00:31:15,081 --> 00:31:17,584
[Miriam Yasgur]
A sign was erected near our house,
548
00:31:17,667 --> 00:31:19,294
and it said something like,
549
00:31:19,377 --> 00:31:22,380
"Don't buy Yasgur's milk,
he loves the hippies."
550
00:31:22,463 --> 00:31:25,550
And I thought to myself,
"You don't know Max,
551
00:31:25,633 --> 00:31:27,635
because we're going to have a festival."
552
00:31:28,636 --> 00:31:30,805
[radio announcer]
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair,
553
00:31:30,889 --> 00:31:33,433
the three-day Aquarian Exposition,
554
00:31:33,516 --> 00:31:35,727
will be held at White Lake,
555
00:31:35,810 --> 00:31:38,479
in the town of Bethel,
Sullivan County, New York.
556
00:31:38,563 --> 00:31:41,774
And on Friday, August 15,
you'll hear and see...
557
00:31:41,858 --> 00:31:44,027
Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie,
558
00:31:44,110 --> 00:31:48,031
Tim Hardin, Richie Havens,
the Incredible String Band...
559
00:31:48,114 --> 00:31:50,283
["Wasn't Born to Follow"
by the Byrds playing]
560
00:31:51,993 --> 00:31:54,537
[Roberts] Everyone felt excited
561
00:31:54,621 --> 00:31:56,122
about the possibilities of the new site,
562
00:31:56,831 --> 00:31:58,291
but there was a lot to be done.
563
00:32:00,460 --> 00:32:02,253
[Rosenman] We had to start all over again
564
00:32:02,337 --> 00:32:06,382
to construct what we had built
in several months in Wallkill
565
00:32:06,466 --> 00:32:08,009
in less than four weeks.
566
00:32:09,093 --> 00:32:10,428
[Roberts] The half a million
at the old site
567
00:32:10,511 --> 00:32:12,180
was all down the drain, right?
568
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:15,266
And we have to put
another $800,000 into this one.
569
00:32:15,808 --> 00:32:19,896
Building a stage, getting the lights
and the sound system up, fences.
570
00:32:19,979 --> 00:32:21,105
Food concessions.
571
00:32:21,189 --> 00:32:23,733
Portable toilets...
I mean, it was extraordinary.
572
00:32:24,275 --> 00:32:27,236
And Joel and I
had never done any of this before.
573
00:32:29,072 --> 00:32:31,282
[Rosenman] But because of ticket sales,
574
00:32:31,366 --> 00:32:34,202
we actually felt that we were
gonna turn a profit.
575
00:32:35,244 --> 00:32:37,705
[Spitz] They knew by this time
that there were going to be
576
00:32:37,789 --> 00:32:40,124
more than just 50,000 people.
577
00:32:40,917 --> 00:32:44,212
Ticket sales looked like it was
going to be closer to 100,000.
578
00:32:44,295 --> 00:32:46,965
And with 100,000 stoned-out kids,
579
00:32:47,048 --> 00:32:49,509
they knew that there
could be some difficulties.
580
00:32:51,970 --> 00:32:55,515
[reporter] There's been some trouble
at a few of the pop festivals.
581
00:32:55,598 --> 00:32:57,725
What do you think brings that about?
582
00:32:57,809 --> 00:32:59,852
Why will it happen at one place
and not another?
583
00:33:00,311 --> 00:33:01,813
[Paul Butterfield] You know,
I really don't know.
584
00:33:01,896 --> 00:33:04,482
Like, in Miami, they broke down the fence,
585
00:33:04,565 --> 00:33:07,402
and they had a lot of fights.
586
00:33:07,485 --> 00:33:09,529
[reporter] Do you think it has anything
to do with the size of the audience?
587
00:33:09,612 --> 00:33:12,115
I think it has to do
a little bit with the size.
588
00:33:12,198 --> 00:33:15,952
It has more to do with the way
the festival is organized.
589
00:33:17,245 --> 00:33:19,122
[Wes Pomeroy]
To see what was really happening,
590
00:33:19,205 --> 00:33:22,375
we sent people to almost
all the major rock festivals that summer.
591
00:33:23,042 --> 00:33:24,335
They went to Atlanta,
592
00:33:25,211 --> 00:33:26,754
they went to Denver,
593
00:33:28,089 --> 00:33:29,882
and they went to Newport.
594
00:33:31,009 --> 00:33:33,011
And every one, there were problems.
595
00:33:33,553 --> 00:33:35,304
They had tear gas used in Denver,
596
00:33:35,388 --> 00:33:38,599
they had violence in Los Angeles County.
597
00:33:39,559 --> 00:33:42,061
So, back in New York, they kept insisting
598
00:33:42,145 --> 00:33:45,189
that they needed
to have security people for safety.
599
00:33:46,441 --> 00:33:50,319
I told John that all the cops in the world
weren't going to prevent violence.
600
00:33:50,903 --> 00:33:54,032
It had to depend upon building
the kind of expectation
601
00:33:54,115 --> 00:33:56,784
and the feeling of this event
we're gonna have
602
00:33:56,868 --> 00:33:58,953
so that people didn't want
to hurt each other.
603
00:34:00,621 --> 00:34:04,042
[Goldstein] We also knew that
there would be a lot of drugs around
604
00:34:04,375 --> 00:34:07,920
and there would be a lot of people
who couldn't handle whatever it was
605
00:34:08,004 --> 00:34:09,964
that they were going to take,
606
00:34:10,048 --> 00:34:13,176
and that that had
to be dealt with as well.
607
00:34:13,718 --> 00:34:15,928
-[gong rings]
-Hi, there.
608
00:34:16,012 --> 00:34:17,764
My name is Hugh Romney
609
00:34:17,847 --> 00:34:19,390
and I'm going through a series of changes
610
00:34:19,474 --> 00:34:22,769
in this fur room
at the Electric Circus store.
611
00:34:23,269 --> 00:34:26,064
What is essentially
on the front of my brain
612
00:34:26,147 --> 00:34:28,191
is this Hog Farm poster,
613
00:34:28,274 --> 00:34:30,526
which we're gonna be moving
all around the country.
614
00:34:30,610 --> 00:34:32,820
"We" being a commune.
615
00:34:33,946 --> 00:34:38,117
[Rosenman] Stanley Goldstein
suggested that we look to this...
616
00:34:38,743 --> 00:34:41,954
[laughing] This commune
called the Hog Farm,
617
00:34:42,038 --> 00:34:43,748
and that we should bring
618
00:34:43,831 --> 00:34:46,751
as many of these folks
to the festival as we can,
619
00:34:46,834 --> 00:34:49,462
and have them handle our security.
620
00:34:50,922 --> 00:34:54,258
So, he went and met
with a fellow named Hugh Romney,
621
00:34:54,342 --> 00:34:56,469
also known as Wavy Gravy.
622
00:34:57,220 --> 00:35:00,014
[Wavy Gravy] We'd been driving around
the country, putting on these shows.
623
00:35:00,098 --> 00:35:04,143
We had a certain skill
with working with large crowds.
624
00:35:05,228 --> 00:35:06,771
We were a-happening.
625
00:35:06,854 --> 00:35:08,815
[guitar playing, bell clanging]
626
00:35:09,273 --> 00:35:11,651
So, Stan Goldstein showed up and says,
627
00:35:11,734 --> 00:35:15,822
"How would you guys like to do this
music festival in New York State?"
628
00:35:15,905 --> 00:35:17,740
And we said, "Well,
629
00:35:18,116 --> 00:35:19,700
it sounds like a good time,
630
00:35:19,784 --> 00:35:22,411
but we're gonna be in New Mexico."
631
00:35:22,829 --> 00:35:28,251
And he says, "That's all right,
we'll fly you in in an Astrojet."
632
00:35:29,210 --> 00:35:33,881
And indeed, 85 of us boarded
this American Airlines Astrojet
633
00:35:33,965 --> 00:35:35,466
going to Woodstock.
634
00:35:36,968 --> 00:35:39,095
[Tom Law] We all arrived
at the Albuquerque airport
635
00:35:39,178 --> 00:35:41,806
and loaded up
a couple of sets of teepee poles
636
00:35:41,889 --> 00:35:44,559
and flew off to New York.
637
00:35:46,102 --> 00:35:50,189
[Wavy Gravy laughing] The stewardesses
locked themselves in a little room,
638
00:35:50,273 --> 00:35:52,316
and we just took over the plane.
639
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:53,985
["Apricot Brandy" by Rhinoceros playing]
640
00:35:56,571 --> 00:35:59,991
[Wavy Gravy] We got to New York City,
piled off the aircraft,
641
00:36:00,366 --> 00:36:02,451
and there was the press.
642
00:36:04,287 --> 00:36:06,706
What is the Hog Farm
going to be doing in Woodstock?
643
00:36:06,789 --> 00:36:11,294
Well, the Hog Farm
is a many-sided, multi...
644
00:36:11,377 --> 00:36:14,630
We're a kind of a family,
a huge expanded family.
645
00:36:14,714 --> 00:36:16,174
And we could do any number of things,
646
00:36:16,257 --> 00:36:18,384
because each one of us
is gonna do a different thing.
647
00:36:18,467 --> 00:36:20,636
But mostly we're just
gonna try and be groovy,
648
00:36:20,720 --> 00:36:23,014
and spread that grooviness
through everybody.
649
00:36:23,097 --> 00:36:25,308
Well, the Hog Farm has been
hassled by security people,
650
00:36:25,391 --> 00:36:26,934
and they're calling you security people,
651
00:36:27,018 --> 00:36:29,770
so how do you feel
about the, you know, the name?
652
00:36:29,854 --> 00:36:32,690
Well, I feel secure.
I don't know what "security people" means.
653
00:36:32,773 --> 00:36:34,984
I never was called
a security person before.
654
00:36:35,067 --> 00:36:36,152
In fact, you're the first person
655
00:36:36,235 --> 00:36:39,280
that's ever called me that.
How do you feel? [laughs]
656
00:36:39,363 --> 00:36:40,990
Well, I feel...
657
00:36:41,073 --> 00:36:43,534
-Do you feel secure?
-[all laughing]
658
00:36:44,327 --> 00:36:46,704
[Roberts] There was a picture
in the Post the next day.
659
00:36:46,787 --> 00:36:50,208
My father called and said,
"Nice cops you've hired."
660
00:36:50,291 --> 00:36:52,460
He thought that I was
really out of my mind,
661
00:36:52,543 --> 00:36:53,920
to be involved in this thing.
662
00:37:04,639 --> 00:37:06,307
[kids shouting]
663
00:37:16,359 --> 00:37:18,778
[Marion Vassmer] We're a small town,
we'll never have all those people here.
664
00:37:18,861 --> 00:37:21,447
They'll never...
They'll never be here, you know.
665
00:37:21,530 --> 00:37:22,949
I didn't believe it.
666
00:37:27,411 --> 00:37:28,996
[Arthur Vassmer]
That's all you heard on the radio.
667
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:31,749
"Woodstock, town of Bethel, Woodstock..."
You know?
668
00:37:31,832 --> 00:37:33,376
And ha-ha, we're all laughing, you know?
669
00:37:33,459 --> 00:37:34,752
And a guy come to me, he says, "Look out,
670
00:37:34,835 --> 00:37:36,587
this might be something bigger
than you thought."
671
00:37:37,630 --> 00:37:38,923
I've been here all my life, you know?
672
00:37:39,006 --> 00:37:40,967
They're talking about
hundreds of thousands of people,
673
00:37:41,050 --> 00:37:43,469
and so on and so forth.
We never saw that in this town.
674
00:37:54,605 --> 00:37:56,857
[Debra Conway]
There was a certain backlash,
675
00:37:56,941 --> 00:38:00,319
but mostly, you know,
it was kind of a daily little buzz
676
00:38:00,403 --> 00:38:01,862
from the locals.
677
00:38:05,116 --> 00:38:06,450
[Louis Ratner] We started to hear rumors
678
00:38:06,534 --> 00:38:08,327
that this thing
was more or less out of hand
679
00:38:08,411 --> 00:38:11,622
because no one knew
the amount of tickets that were sold.
680
00:38:12,665 --> 00:38:18,087
One time they said 25,000,
and then it was... It was 150,000,
681
00:38:18,170 --> 00:38:20,047
and then they don't know,
682
00:38:20,131 --> 00:38:22,425
and it got to a point where...
683
00:38:22,508 --> 00:38:24,635
you started to get
a little worried about it.
684
00:38:45,239 --> 00:38:46,824
[Morris] It was early August
685
00:38:46,907 --> 00:38:50,703
and we were about a week out
from the beginning of the festival,
686
00:38:52,038 --> 00:38:54,457
when, all of a sudden,
people started showing up.
687
00:38:55,082 --> 00:38:57,168
[people chattering]
688
00:39:02,131 --> 00:39:03,257
[Miriam Yasgur] About a week before,
689
00:39:03,341 --> 00:39:06,844
they started showing up in small groups
and camping and so on,
690
00:39:06,927 --> 00:39:09,722
and the thing that Max and I
were trying to figure out is,
691
00:39:09,805 --> 00:39:12,350
they hadn't gotten the fence
around the field.
692
00:39:14,310 --> 00:39:16,771
And we thought, "Boy,
they'd better rush and do that
693
00:39:16,854 --> 00:39:18,981
if they want to sell tickets
to this thing."
694
00:39:30,284 --> 00:39:31,285
[Rosenman] In that last week,
695
00:39:31,369 --> 00:39:34,830
if you saw what was going on,
you were immediately aware
696
00:39:34,914 --> 00:39:37,416
that it couldn't possibly
be finished in time.
697
00:39:38,417 --> 00:39:42,380
On Monday, everything was
in a state of preparation
698
00:39:42,463 --> 00:39:44,423
roughly on target for a festival
699
00:39:44,507 --> 00:39:46,175
to be thrown some time in November,
700
00:39:46,801 --> 00:39:50,262
and not for one that was
supposed to begin in four days.
701
00:39:51,472 --> 00:39:53,516
Let's clear the road, please!
702
00:39:54,433 --> 00:39:57,520
[Beren] We showed up three days
before the festival opened,
703
00:39:57,603 --> 00:40:00,564
because that's what we were
supposed to do as food handlers.
704
00:40:01,190 --> 00:40:03,234
It was thrown together at the last minute,
705
00:40:03,317 --> 00:40:06,445
so we had to build our own food stands
before we manned them.
706
00:40:08,072 --> 00:40:11,992
[Roberts] We had spoken to a lot
of different food concession people,
707
00:40:12,076 --> 00:40:14,453
and all of them, the legitimate guys,
708
00:40:14,537 --> 00:40:17,289
went by the wayside when we lost Wallkill.
709
00:40:18,082 --> 00:40:21,168
What was left was an outfit
called Food for Love.
710
00:40:22,586 --> 00:40:24,713
There were three of them, three guys.
711
00:40:25,214 --> 00:40:27,800
I think one of them
had some kind of food catering experience.
712
00:40:28,717 --> 00:40:30,344
I don't think the other two did.
713
00:40:31,887 --> 00:40:34,390
But we didn't have any alternative.
714
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:38,894
[Rosenman] I think it was Tuesday,
715
00:40:38,978 --> 00:40:40,771
the construction foreman tells us,
716
00:40:40,855 --> 00:40:43,399
"We just don't have enough time
to finish everything.
717
00:40:43,482 --> 00:40:45,860
So, which would you like
to have us finish,
718
00:40:45,943 --> 00:40:49,697
the gates and the fences, or the stage?
719
00:40:50,281 --> 00:40:53,451
We don't have enough men
and material to do both."
720
00:40:54,827 --> 00:40:58,414
I remember thinking, "If we
don't have gates and fences,
721
00:40:58,914 --> 00:41:01,542
then we're not gonna collect tickets.
722
00:41:01,625 --> 00:41:03,711
We'll be bankrupt.
723
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:07,506
And if we don't have a stage,
we'll be in jail.
724
00:41:07,590 --> 00:41:11,260
[laughing] Because there will be
100,000 kids running around
725
00:41:11,343 --> 00:41:13,888
with nothing to do, for three days."
726
00:41:14,805 --> 00:41:16,307
So, that was the answer.
727
00:41:16,390 --> 00:41:18,225
The answer was, "Build the stage."
728
00:41:20,853 --> 00:41:22,521
[welding torch buzzing]
729
00:41:23,189 --> 00:41:24,899
[Ticia Agri]
I'd go there in the middle of the night
730
00:41:24,982 --> 00:41:26,984
and people were building the stage.
731
00:41:27,776 --> 00:41:30,029
It was going 24 hours.
732
00:41:31,447 --> 00:41:33,073
[Monck] There was obviously so much to do,
733
00:41:33,157 --> 00:41:35,826
and so little time in which to do it,
734
00:41:36,535 --> 00:41:40,247
we had all come to realize
that all of our individual jobs
735
00:41:40,331 --> 00:41:42,166
were going to be left somewhat undone.
736
00:41:43,042 --> 00:41:44,502
So, we all kind of banded together
737
00:41:44,585 --> 00:41:48,547
into one, sort of, SWAT team
trying to run around and finish.
738
00:41:55,721 --> 00:41:57,848
["You Ain't Goin' Nowhere"
by the Byrds playing]
739
00:41:57,932 --> 00:42:03,020
[George] I quit my job at the restaurant
in Ocean City with no notice. [laughs]
740
00:42:03,103 --> 00:42:05,898
I just told them
that I wouldn't be in anymore.
741
00:42:06,482 --> 00:42:07,483
And they said, "Why?"
742
00:42:07,566 --> 00:42:09,652
And I said,
"Well, I'm going to Woodstock."
743
00:42:12,196 --> 00:42:14,573
[Daye] We didn't get on the road
till around noon,
744
00:42:15,241 --> 00:42:17,910
and by the time we got to within,
745
00:42:17,993 --> 00:42:21,330
I don't know, miles of Bethel,
746
00:42:22,414 --> 00:42:25,501
the traffic was just, you know, crawling.
747
00:42:26,293 --> 00:42:30,339
The folks on the road,
the people who lived there,
748
00:42:30,422 --> 00:42:33,092
one would think that they
would throw things at us.
749
00:42:33,175 --> 00:42:36,345
No! They just welcomed us.
750
00:42:41,058 --> 00:42:44,562
[Kaufman] Never before in my life
751
00:42:45,187 --> 00:42:49,775
did I feel so much anticipation.
752
00:42:50,609 --> 00:42:52,903
[laughing] This is going to be so cool!
753
00:42:53,279 --> 00:42:54,947
♪ My bride's gonna come ♪
754
00:42:55,030 --> 00:42:58,659
♪ Oh, ho, are we gonna fly ♪
755
00:42:58,742 --> 00:43:01,620
♪ Down in the easy chair? ♪
756
00:43:03,330 --> 00:43:06,834
[Starobin] We were at
a dead standstill for hours.
757
00:43:07,209 --> 00:43:09,253
People just got out and sat on their cars
758
00:43:09,336 --> 00:43:12,673
and started talking to each other,
getting to know each other.
759
00:43:13,424 --> 00:43:18,846
You know, starting long conversations
about politics and about music.
760
00:43:19,305 --> 00:43:22,850
Before long, we felt like we had
hundreds of best friends.
761
00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:28,022
[Arthur Vassmer]
We were sitting on the back porch
762
00:43:28,105 --> 00:43:30,858
and, my God, the traffic,
all of a sudden, it started.
763
00:43:30,941 --> 00:43:32,776
And I'm telling you, it never let up.
764
00:43:33,485 --> 00:43:36,155
We just opened the one door.
But you couldn't let them in.
765
00:43:36,238 --> 00:43:37,531
It was impossible.
766
00:43:37,615 --> 00:43:40,326
And we let 40 or 50 people at a time,
767
00:43:40,409 --> 00:43:42,411
they'd get their groceries
or whatever they needed,
768
00:43:42,494 --> 00:43:43,829
let them out the back,
769
00:43:44,330 --> 00:43:47,082
and then open up the door,
let another 50 in.
770
00:43:47,541 --> 00:43:50,294
And these people, some of them
walked four and five, six miles.
771
00:43:50,377 --> 00:43:52,713
"Where's the Woodstock?
Where's the Woodstock?"
772
00:43:55,549 --> 00:43:58,218
[reporter] This sight is hard to believe.
773
00:43:58,302 --> 00:43:59,970
We're over White Lake,
774
00:44:00,054 --> 00:44:02,931
in the midst of this
music festival encampment.
775
00:44:03,307 --> 00:44:05,976
We're up over the trees now,
we're coming in over...
776
00:44:06,060 --> 00:44:09,647
[Joe Tinkelman] We were on
the state highway, and cars were stopping.
777
00:44:09,730 --> 00:44:12,775
And we realized that this was
parking for the concert,
778
00:44:13,192 --> 00:44:15,486
so we got out of the car
and started walking,
779
00:44:15,569 --> 00:44:20,366
and we saw people setting up lawn chairs
to watch this spectacle.
780
00:44:21,408 --> 00:44:24,662
[laughing] It looked like
this whole part of New York State
781
00:44:24,745 --> 00:44:27,873
was just being
turned upside down by this event.
782
00:44:28,999 --> 00:44:31,377
[reporter] The traffic is terrible.
783
00:44:31,460 --> 00:44:33,212
It is backed up from White Lake
784
00:44:33,295 --> 00:44:35,839
right back through
on the Quickway past Monticello,
785
00:44:35,923 --> 00:44:39,927
and there's no place to park,
everything is full.
786
00:44:41,845 --> 00:44:43,222
[Reynolds] They were announcing
on the radio
787
00:44:43,305 --> 00:44:47,476
that you couldn't get there,
and, you know, "Don't go."
788
00:44:47,559 --> 00:44:49,853
[laughing] They were saying,
"Don't go, don't go!
789
00:44:49,937 --> 00:44:52,481
You can't get in,
it's already overcrowded,
790
00:44:52,564 --> 00:44:55,567
and they're shutting it down,
and turn around and go home."
791
00:44:56,485 --> 00:44:58,779
[laughing] Nobody was turning around.
792
00:44:59,822 --> 00:45:02,991
It sort of increased our desire,
more than anything.
793
00:45:03,325 --> 00:45:05,953
Like, one way or another, we'll get there.
794
00:45:09,957 --> 00:45:12,709
["Get Together"
by the Youngbloods playing]
795
00:45:17,965 --> 00:45:19,883
[people chattering]
796
00:45:25,097 --> 00:45:28,225
♪ Love is but a song to sing ♪
797
00:45:29,852 --> 00:45:31,645
♪ Fear's the way we die... ♪
798
00:45:31,728 --> 00:45:34,398
[Lindsey] As you walked in, it hit you.
799
00:45:34,481 --> 00:45:36,900
Suddenly, it just all
came into view at once.
800
00:45:39,653 --> 00:45:43,907
This whole enormous bowl full of people.
801
00:45:45,117 --> 00:45:46,535
It was mind-boggling.
802
00:45:49,746 --> 00:45:53,250
[Rosenman] Coming over the hill
and feeling the energy of that crowd
803
00:45:53,333 --> 00:45:55,169
is something that I'll never forget.
804
00:45:55,961 --> 00:45:58,255
There was so much power in it.
805
00:45:59,590 --> 00:46:03,260
♪ Come on, people now
Smile on your brother ♪
806
00:46:03,343 --> 00:46:05,471
♪ Everybody get together ♪
807
00:46:05,554 --> 00:46:09,016
♪ Try to love one another right now ♪
808
00:46:09,183 --> 00:46:10,809
[Starobin] It was indescribable,
809
00:46:11,310 --> 00:46:15,647
the feeling that came over me of warmth,
810
00:46:15,731 --> 00:46:19,776
and, "Oh, my God, there are
this many people in the world
811
00:46:19,860 --> 00:46:21,612
that think like I think."
812
00:46:22,070 --> 00:46:24,573
[laughing]
"There are all these people here!"
813
00:46:24,656 --> 00:46:27,951
I never knew there were
that many people in the world.
814
00:46:29,661 --> 00:46:31,622
["Get Together" continues]
815
00:46:32,748 --> 00:46:36,084
[Reynolds] Once we got there,
the fences were just trampled.
816
00:46:36,293 --> 00:46:40,839
We walked up that hill,
and we saw, you know, all these people.
817
00:46:41,423 --> 00:46:44,718
Our age, looked like us. Dressed like us.
818
00:46:44,801 --> 00:46:46,386
You know, us.
819
00:46:48,388 --> 00:46:50,516
I mean, it was just... It was...
820
00:46:50,599 --> 00:46:53,894
It was like, you know,
meeting your brothers and sisters.
821
00:46:55,062 --> 00:46:56,563
It was really beautiful.
822
00:46:58,690 --> 00:47:02,444
♪ Come on, people now
Smile on your brother ♪
823
00:47:02,528 --> 00:47:04,696
♪ Everybody get together ♪
824
00:47:04,780 --> 00:47:08,450
♪ Try to love one another right now ♪
825
00:47:09,076 --> 00:47:10,911
♪ Right now ♪
826
00:47:11,495 --> 00:47:14,289
♪ Right now ♪
827
00:47:16,458 --> 00:47:19,127
[Morris on speaker] We'll be getting
our show on in about five minutes.
828
00:47:19,211 --> 00:47:23,006
Just keep cool and relax.
We'll be with you as soon as we can.
829
00:47:23,090 --> 00:47:25,425
-Thank you.
-[all cheering]
830
00:47:25,509 --> 00:47:28,637
Do you realize that half of these people
don't have tickets,
831
00:47:28,720 --> 00:47:31,515
and there are people five miles away
sitting on a highway with tickets
832
00:47:31,598 --> 00:47:33,725
who have driven 2,000 or 3,000 miles?
833
00:47:33,809 --> 00:47:35,602
Whatever has to be done to make it right,
834
00:47:35,686 --> 00:47:37,396
-this is wrong.
-[man] Yeah.
835
00:47:37,813 --> 00:47:40,566
[Roberts] It was obvious
we were in deep shit.
836
00:47:41,483 --> 00:47:43,235
After having worked that afternoon,
837
00:47:43,318 --> 00:47:45,904
trying to organize people
to put the fences up,
838
00:47:45,988 --> 00:47:47,614
and actually pounding in posts myself,
839
00:47:48,240 --> 00:47:49,908
I realized it wasn't going to happen.
840
00:47:50,617 --> 00:47:54,371
We weren't going to be able to ring
about a mile of perimeter.
841
00:47:56,164 --> 00:47:57,249
[Morris] What are you going to tell
842
00:47:57,332 --> 00:47:59,209
a few hundred thousand people
who are sitting in your field
843
00:47:59,293 --> 00:48:00,961
when you're supposed to be
collecting money from them?
844
00:48:01,044 --> 00:48:03,005
"Go back out and come back in
when we get the tickets
845
00:48:03,088 --> 00:48:05,048
and we finish the fences
and the rest of it"?
846
00:48:05,382 --> 00:48:08,510
You are now giving the world's
greatest three-day freebie.
847
00:48:09,303 --> 00:48:10,262
That's what it is.
848
00:48:10,345 --> 00:48:11,847
-No, there's a way to do it.
-There is no way.
849
00:48:11,930 --> 00:48:13,432
[Morris] Artie came up with,
850
00:48:13,515 --> 00:48:15,183
"Can't we get a whole bunch of girls,
851
00:48:15,267 --> 00:48:18,228
and put them in diaphanous gowns
and give them collection baskets,
852
00:48:18,312 --> 00:48:19,646
and send them out into the audience?"
853
00:48:20,689 --> 00:48:23,650
It was the most ludicrous thing
I had ever heard in my life.
854
00:48:25,152 --> 00:48:27,404
[Roberts] As a business venture,
it was dead.
855
00:48:28,155 --> 00:48:32,618
And I don't know why,
but sort of a curious calm overcame us,
856
00:48:32,701 --> 00:48:34,953
and it seemed like the gates
857
00:48:35,037 --> 00:48:38,707
just weren't really
what was important here anymore.
858
00:48:39,124 --> 00:48:41,043
[Morris on speaker]
It's a free concert from now on.
859
00:48:41,126 --> 00:48:42,419
[crowd cheering]
860
00:48:43,003 --> 00:48:45,797
That doesn't mean that anything goes.
861
00:48:45,881 --> 00:48:49,301
What that means is, we're gonna
put the music up here for free.
862
00:48:50,344 --> 00:48:52,888
What it means is that the people
who are backing this thing,
863
00:48:52,971 --> 00:48:55,515
who put up the money for it,
are gonna take a bit of a bath.
864
00:48:55,932 --> 00:48:58,060
A big bath. That's no hype.
865
00:48:58,143 --> 00:49:00,062
That's truth. They're gonna get hurt.
866
00:49:01,021 --> 00:49:04,566
But what it means is that these people
have it in their heads
867
00:49:05,484 --> 00:49:08,695
that your welfare
is a hell of a lot more important,
868
00:49:08,779 --> 00:49:10,489
and the music is... than the dollar.
869
00:49:10,572 --> 00:49:12,866
[crowd cheering and applauding]
870
00:49:16,912 --> 00:49:19,915
[Beren] The roar that went up
from that crowd was incredible.
871
00:49:21,792 --> 00:49:25,921
Despite its roots
in trying to be a capitalist enterprise,
872
00:49:26,004 --> 00:49:27,589
the concert was liberated.
873
00:49:27,673 --> 00:49:28,965
-[coins clinking]
-[people chattering]
874
00:49:29,049 --> 00:49:31,718
You don't even have to bother
bringing your tickets or anything,
875
00:49:31,802 --> 00:49:33,595
because they aren't going to collect them.
876
00:49:34,096 --> 00:49:35,555
There's no way they can.
877
00:49:36,348 --> 00:49:37,974
They got a fence that's like half up,
878
00:49:38,058 --> 00:49:40,185
and there are people
just sitting in that field.
879
00:49:40,268 --> 00:49:41,603
It's really beautiful.
880
00:49:42,270 --> 00:49:44,690
[man on speaker] We're still waiting
for the arrival of group one.
881
00:49:44,773 --> 00:49:46,441
Now, please bear with us.
882
00:49:46,525 --> 00:49:47,943
Due to the traffic problems,
883
00:49:48,026 --> 00:49:50,612
we're going to have
to start a little later.
884
00:49:50,696 --> 00:49:53,573
[Morris] The bands
were all in different hotels,
885
00:49:53,657 --> 00:49:55,742
and if you tried to drive
down to the site,
886
00:49:55,826 --> 00:49:57,869
it would take you six hours to do it.
887
00:49:58,578 --> 00:50:00,956
It became obvious
that we needed helicopters.
888
00:50:02,207 --> 00:50:04,626
But then, Richie Havens showed up,
889
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:07,838
and it was like,
"Richie, please go on now."
890
00:50:08,338 --> 00:50:10,882
And he said, "I'm not scheduled
to go on till later."
891
00:50:10,966 --> 00:50:13,677
I said, "Richie,
we don't have anybody else."
892
00:50:14,845 --> 00:50:16,972
[Richie Havens] I actually was afraid
to go on first,
893
00:50:17,055 --> 00:50:21,101
basically because I knew
the concert was late
894
00:50:21,184 --> 00:50:23,437
and I didn't want to get
beer cans thrown at me.
895
00:50:24,062 --> 00:50:25,731
You know, "Don't do this to me.
896
00:50:25,814 --> 00:50:28,817
Don't put me in front of your
problem like this," you know?
897
00:50:28,900 --> 00:50:30,861
"My bass player isn't even here."
898
00:50:31,445 --> 00:50:34,781
But I went on, you know,
and it was beautiful.
899
00:50:35,407 --> 00:50:38,910
[singing] ♪ Hey, look yonder
Tell me what's that you see ♪
900
00:50:38,994 --> 00:50:42,122
♪ Marching to the fields of Concord? ♪
901
00:50:43,039 --> 00:50:47,169
♪ Looks like Handsome Johnny
With his flintlock in his hand ♪
902
00:50:47,252 --> 00:50:49,421
♪ Marching to the Concord war ♪
903
00:50:50,255 --> 00:50:53,300
♪ Hey, marching to the Concord war ♪
904
00:50:54,676 --> 00:50:57,804
[Beren] Once the festival started,
we opened the food stands.
905
00:50:57,888 --> 00:51:01,725
And a throng of people
came running up the hill.
906
00:51:02,100 --> 00:51:04,936
There were too many people,
too many arms reaching out,
907
00:51:05,020 --> 00:51:07,397
so we just started handing out hamburgers.
908
00:51:08,190 --> 00:51:11,151
And people began to shower us with joints.
909
00:51:11,860 --> 00:51:16,656
I had one in each pocket, one in my ear,
and I was smoking two at a time.
910
00:51:17,741 --> 00:51:19,201
I got really high.
911
00:51:20,285 --> 00:51:22,788
[audience cheering]
912
00:51:22,871 --> 00:51:25,499
[Havens] I was onstage
for something like two hours
913
00:51:25,582 --> 00:51:27,542
because nobody else was there to go on.
914
00:51:28,001 --> 00:51:31,379
[chuckles] I did about
four or five encores, you know,
915
00:51:31,463 --> 00:51:32,464
until I had nothing else to sing.
916
00:51:32,547 --> 00:51:35,675
And then "Freedom" was created
right there on the stage.
917
00:51:35,759 --> 00:51:38,178
That's how "Freedom" was created, onstage.
918
00:51:38,261 --> 00:51:41,139
It was the last thing
I could think of to sing.
919
00:51:41,681 --> 00:51:42,641
I made it up.
920
00:51:42,724 --> 00:51:44,976
[playing opening to "Freedom"]
921
00:51:54,236 --> 00:51:56,822
[Carol Green]
I remember hearing Richie Havens
922
00:51:57,823 --> 00:51:58,949
playing "Freedom."
923
00:52:00,075 --> 00:52:01,785
I was way up on the hill,
924
00:52:01,868 --> 00:52:04,913
and I heard it, and I was transported.
925
00:52:05,539 --> 00:52:08,792
[Havens singing] ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪
926
00:52:08,875 --> 00:52:12,003
♪ Freedom, freedom ♪
927
00:52:12,087 --> 00:52:13,672
[George] It's a good word to use.
928
00:52:14,214 --> 00:52:17,217
It wasn't just the freedom
of being able to smoke a joint,
929
00:52:17,300 --> 00:52:21,263
it was the freedom of being able
to be who you were.
930
00:52:21,346 --> 00:52:24,266
Not feeling that somebody
was going to judge you
931
00:52:24,349 --> 00:52:25,559
or threaten you.
932
00:52:26,184 --> 00:52:29,187
So, yeah, freedom on a lot of levels.
933
00:52:30,438 --> 00:52:33,149
-["Freedom" continues]
-[audience clapping to rhythm]
934
00:52:36,152 --> 00:52:38,989
[Agri] I left the backstage area
and I went into the crowd,
935
00:52:39,072 --> 00:52:41,908
and I went up, and I got
in the middle of the crowd,
936
00:52:41,992 --> 00:52:45,036
and that was like,
"Wow, look what we've done.
937
00:52:45,537 --> 00:52:48,832
We actually pulled it off,
and it's happening."
938
00:52:49,666 --> 00:52:51,001
[Morris on speaker]
What better way to start
939
00:52:51,084 --> 00:52:53,003
than with the beautiful Richie Havens?
940
00:52:53,086 --> 00:52:55,422
[Morris] The audience reaction
was just wonderful.
941
00:52:55,505 --> 00:52:58,425
It just brought the spirit
right up and you felt,
942
00:52:58,508 --> 00:53:00,927
"Okay, this is going to work.
We're going to be okay."
943
00:53:02,137 --> 00:53:06,182
And then, thank God,
we got the helicopter rotation working,
944
00:53:06,850 --> 00:53:08,602
and started to get people in.
945
00:53:08,685 --> 00:53:12,647
[man on speaker] We apologize for
the noise of the choppity-choppity,
946
00:53:12,731 --> 00:53:15,734
but it seems there are
a few cars blocking the road,
947
00:53:15,817 --> 00:53:17,736
so we're flying everybody in.
948
00:53:18,612 --> 00:53:21,364
[Spitz] Once the artists started arriving,
949
00:53:21,448 --> 00:53:23,909
the first band to go on was Sweetwater,
950
00:53:24,743 --> 00:53:27,746
followed by the acoustic acts.
951
00:53:27,829 --> 00:53:30,415
[Sweetwater playing "What's Wrong"]
952
00:53:37,797 --> 00:53:39,591
[strumming opening to "Joe Hill"]
953
00:53:39,716 --> 00:53:41,426
[crowd cheering]
954
00:53:44,137 --> 00:53:50,310
[singing]
♪ I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night ♪
955
00:53:50,393 --> 00:53:54,272
♪ Alive as you and me ♪
956
00:53:55,065 --> 00:53:58,652
[Barnard Collier] It was after midnight,
and in fact, it was starting to rain.
957
00:53:59,903 --> 00:54:04,866
All through the crowd, there were matches
and cigarette lighters and candles,
958
00:54:04,950 --> 00:54:06,785
and it looked like fireflies.
959
00:54:09,287 --> 00:54:10,830
[Chris Moore] The field was illuminated.
960
00:54:11,498 --> 00:54:15,627
Not as bright as the blue light
on Joan Baez on the stage,
961
00:54:15,710 --> 00:54:19,673
but the immediate impact
was the size of that crowd.
962
00:54:19,756 --> 00:54:21,341
["Joe Hill" continues]
963
00:54:21,424 --> 00:54:24,302
[Moore] There was nothing in that field
but human beings.
964
00:54:25,595 --> 00:54:27,722
-[song ends]
-[crowd cheers]
965
00:54:29,599 --> 00:54:32,644
[Morris] Joan Baez was just wonderful.
966
00:54:33,269 --> 00:54:35,480
She ended that night in a drizzle.
967
00:54:36,815 --> 00:54:39,401
I looked out in the field
and saw all these people,
968
00:54:39,484 --> 00:54:41,987
and it was like, "Let's go to sleep."
969
00:54:43,738 --> 00:54:45,824
[Morris on speaker]
Maybe the best thing for everybody to do,
970
00:54:45,907 --> 00:54:49,160
unless you have a tent
or someplace specific to go to,
971
00:54:49,828 --> 00:54:53,081
is carve yourself out
a piece of territory,
972
00:54:53,915 --> 00:54:57,794
say goodnight to your neighbor,
and say thank you to yourself
973
00:54:57,877 --> 00:55:00,714
for making this the most
peaceful, most pleasant day
974
00:55:00,797 --> 00:55:02,841
anybody's ever had in this kind of music.
975
00:55:04,592 --> 00:55:06,136
[motorcycle engines revving]
976
00:55:06,219 --> 00:55:07,762
[Roberts] Joel and I got on the Hondas.
977
00:55:08,096 --> 00:55:09,681
And we rode up to a hill
978
00:55:09,764 --> 00:55:13,601
that was, you know,
maybe a mile away from the stage.
979
00:55:14,769 --> 00:55:16,771
And in the distance,
you could see hundreds,
980
00:55:16,855 --> 00:55:18,648
thousands of little campfires.
981
00:55:19,357 --> 00:55:22,986
It was like an army at rest
before an enormous battle the next day.
982
00:55:24,654 --> 00:55:26,072
It was really beautiful.
983
00:55:27,323 --> 00:55:29,159
That moment will stay with me forever.
984
00:55:37,042 --> 00:55:39,044
[crowd cheering]
985
00:55:39,127 --> 00:55:41,129
[man on microphone]
I guess the reason we're here is music.
986
00:55:41,212 --> 00:55:44,132
So, let's have some music.
Ladies and gentlemen, Quill!
987
00:55:44,215 --> 00:55:45,925
[playing "Waiting for You"]
988
00:55:50,513 --> 00:55:52,223
[band vocalizing]
989
00:55:55,060 --> 00:55:57,896
[Lindsey] The first day of the festival,
there were a lot of people there.
990
00:55:58,229 --> 00:56:01,066
Maybe 250,000, 300,000 people.
991
00:56:01,149 --> 00:56:02,942
That was the folk day.
992
00:56:03,568 --> 00:56:06,071
The second day of the concert
was the rock 'n' roll day.
993
00:56:06,696 --> 00:56:08,239
That's when everyone showed up.
994
00:56:08,907 --> 00:56:13,203
They wanted to see The Who, Airplane,
the Dead, later that night.
995
00:56:14,079 --> 00:56:17,332
So, the crowd grew
by about a hundred thousand.
996
00:56:19,292 --> 00:56:21,002
[Dills] Holy shit, this thing
997
00:56:21,086 --> 00:56:24,089
is way beyond
what we ever could've imagined.
998
00:56:25,215 --> 00:56:29,094
We just felt like we were going
to get crushed up against the stage,
999
00:56:29,177 --> 00:56:30,887
and we didn't really want that.
1000
00:56:30,970 --> 00:56:34,349
So, like a lot of people,
we just decided to go out exploring,
1001
00:56:34,432 --> 00:56:36,684
walking around to see what was going on.
1002
00:56:39,270 --> 00:56:43,358
[Beren] On the periphery of the crowd
was a two-lane highway of people,
1003
00:56:43,733 --> 00:56:46,736
and it never stopped moving
for the entire festival.
1004
00:56:47,362 --> 00:56:51,032
People were going to the food stands,
they were coming from the bathroom.
1005
00:56:51,116 --> 00:56:53,284
They were going God knows where.
1006
00:56:55,495 --> 00:56:59,249
[George] If you just started wandering,
you'd come across all kinds of stuff.
1007
00:56:59,916 --> 00:57:01,918
["Buzzin' Fly" by Tim Buckley playing]
1008
00:57:02,001 --> 00:57:06,005
[George] A lot of it was like just walking
the boardwalk and seeing the sights
1009
00:57:06,089 --> 00:57:07,799
and taking in the scene.
1010
00:57:19,853 --> 00:57:22,313
[Dills] Walking around,
I remember thinking,
1011
00:57:22,397 --> 00:57:24,899
"Holy shit, there are
a lot of breasts here."
1012
00:57:26,151 --> 00:57:30,155
Most of the nudity I'd seen previously
was in Playboy,
1013
00:57:31,406 --> 00:57:34,451
and small bits on a hot date,
1014
00:57:34,534 --> 00:57:36,911
but, you know, really not much.
1015
00:57:36,995 --> 00:57:39,539
And there were a lot of people,
girls and guys,
1016
00:57:39,622 --> 00:57:44,252
who were very, very open
with their lack of clothing.
1017
00:57:45,503 --> 00:57:47,380
Especially down by the water.
1018
00:57:50,216 --> 00:57:53,511
[Starobin] The good thing about
skinny dipping is we all went in.
1019
00:57:53,595 --> 00:57:56,514
Fat, skinny, it didn't matter.
1020
00:57:56,598 --> 00:57:58,766
Nobody looked, nobody cared.
1021
00:58:00,268 --> 00:58:03,188
It was just plain fun.
1022
00:58:06,733 --> 00:58:07,901
[George] I was 17.
1023
00:58:07,984 --> 00:58:10,361
Normally, my jaw would be
on the floor, staring,
1024
00:58:11,112 --> 00:58:15,867
but when everything, to a certain extent,
is beyond belief to begin with,
1025
00:58:15,950 --> 00:58:17,327
nothing surprises you.
1026
00:58:21,498 --> 00:58:24,751
There was kind of a path in the woods
1027
00:58:24,834 --> 00:58:27,754
where people had all kinds
of different shops set up.
1028
00:58:28,630 --> 00:58:31,382
They were selling,
you know, musical stuff,
1029
00:58:31,466 --> 00:58:34,677
and things like beads and crafts
that they had made.
1030
00:58:35,303 --> 00:58:41,059
Hand-tie-dyed clothing, blown-glass pipes,
and stuff like that.
1031
00:58:41,893 --> 00:58:45,605
Kind of head shops in the woods,
that sort of thing.
1032
00:58:46,814 --> 00:58:50,944
There was one table set up where
they were just selling pot. [chuckles]
1033
00:58:51,027 --> 00:58:52,654
We were well supplied.
1034
00:58:55,156 --> 00:58:57,367
[Starobin] Saturday was kind of a day
1035
00:58:57,450 --> 00:59:00,495
where, you know,
we walked like a couple of miles,
1036
00:59:00,578 --> 00:59:02,121
checking things out.
1037
00:59:03,164 --> 00:59:07,877
There was so much happening that
that was almost as interesting
1038
00:59:07,961 --> 00:59:09,796
as seeing the music.
1039
00:59:12,298 --> 00:59:14,884
[Jaboolian] Just to the other side,
it was a wooded area.
1040
00:59:15,760 --> 00:59:17,971
Well, that's where
the Hog Farm was set up.
1041
00:59:18,972 --> 00:59:20,557
This was commune life.
1042
00:59:21,015 --> 00:59:24,811
You know, I had heard about it,
but I had never seen it in action.
1043
00:59:26,980 --> 00:59:30,650
[Jahanara Romney] We had been living
in a group for years by then,
1044
00:59:30,733 --> 00:59:34,195
and it was quite an amazing experiment.
1045
00:59:34,779 --> 00:59:37,407
You know, the understanding
that the people around me
1046
00:59:37,490 --> 00:59:40,577
are all part of the same spirit.
1047
00:59:42,203 --> 00:59:44,289
[Henry Diltz] There was, like,
a couple hundred of them
1048
00:59:44,622 --> 00:59:47,000
with all these kids running around.
1049
00:59:47,875 --> 00:59:50,336
They had teepees and yurts, you know,
1050
00:59:50,420 --> 00:59:54,299
and all these various
little, you know, dwellings.
1051
00:59:56,467 --> 01:00:00,555
[Daye] A whole bunch of them
came on all these exotic buses
1052
01:00:00,638 --> 01:00:02,473
that they had painted up.
1053
01:00:03,016 --> 01:00:04,559
It was magical.
1054
01:00:05,351 --> 01:00:07,228
[music playing in distance]
1055
01:00:08,980 --> 01:00:11,316
[Jaboolian] And the Hog Farm
had built a small stage.
1056
01:00:11,399 --> 01:00:13,610
And there was music there as well.
1057
01:00:13,693 --> 01:00:15,653
I didn't realize that at first.
1058
01:00:16,863 --> 01:00:20,867
[George] There was always some kind
of musical jam going on over there.
1059
01:00:20,950 --> 01:00:22,744
[playing blues tune]
1060
01:00:23,119 --> 01:00:25,288
[George] Away from the actual concert,
1061
01:00:25,663 --> 01:00:30,126
the Hog Farm was kind of a center
of gravity for the festival.
1062
01:00:33,212 --> 01:00:37,133
[Rosenman] The Hog Farm turned out to be
an interesting choice for security.
1063
01:00:38,134 --> 01:00:40,970
They didn't call themselves
a police force,
1064
01:00:41,596 --> 01:00:44,098
they called themselves a "please force."
1065
01:00:45,016 --> 01:00:49,437
They substituted, "Hey, you do this,"
with, "Would you please do this?"
1066
01:00:49,520 --> 01:00:52,106
Or, "Would it be all right with you if..."
And so forth.
1067
01:00:52,190 --> 01:00:54,776
Keep back, keep back now,
let them through.
1068
01:00:55,109 --> 01:00:57,362
Everything's got room to flow here.
1069
01:00:58,821 --> 01:01:01,532
[plays "Que Sera Sera" on kazoo]
1070
01:01:02,325 --> 01:01:05,953
[Wavy Gravy] The "please" chiefs
were myself and Tom Law.
1071
01:01:06,454 --> 01:01:07,830
We turned it into fun.
1072
01:01:08,247 --> 01:01:10,416
Oh, yes. [hums through kazoo]
1073
01:01:11,459 --> 01:01:14,504
[Roberts] They gave
a nice flavor to the festival.
1074
01:01:14,587 --> 01:01:16,422
We paid them $18,000.
1075
01:01:16,881 --> 01:01:18,341
I remember that.
1076
01:01:18,424 --> 01:01:20,176
[Rosenman] I don't remember
paying them anything.
1077
01:01:20,718 --> 01:01:21,969
I thought we just chartered the jet.
1078
01:01:22,595 --> 01:01:25,598
[Roberts] Maybe that's what that cost.
Maybe that's where the 18 grand went.
1079
01:01:25,682 --> 01:01:27,475
[Rosenman] They did it just because
they wanted to be there,
1080
01:01:27,558 --> 01:01:29,394
and because they felt
that they could be useful.
1081
01:01:29,477 --> 01:01:30,853
They were really nice people.
1082
01:01:31,479 --> 01:01:33,022
[Country Joe McDonald singing]
♪ One, two, three ♪
1083
01:01:33,106 --> 01:01:34,857
♪ What are we fighting for? ♪
1084
01:01:34,941 --> 01:01:37,402
♪ Don't ask me
I don't give a damn ♪
1085
01:01:37,485 --> 01:01:39,487
♪ The next stop is Vietnam ♪
1086
01:01:39,570 --> 01:01:42,657
[Starobin] In the afternoon,
I kind of wandered back to the concert.
1087
01:01:43,199 --> 01:01:48,621
I was determined I was not going to miss
all these incredible people.
1088
01:01:49,372 --> 01:01:51,708
[singing] ♪ Now come on, mothers
Throughout the land ♪
1089
01:01:51,791 --> 01:01:53,918
♪ Pack your boys off to Vietnam ♪
1090
01:01:54,001 --> 01:01:56,129
[Debra Conway] My boyfriend was draft age.
1091
01:01:56,754 --> 01:02:01,008
And, you know,
we had this future planned out
1092
01:02:01,092 --> 01:02:04,053
and it certainly didn't include
him coming home in a body bag.
1093
01:02:04,971 --> 01:02:07,598
And so, you know,
when Country Joe McDonald got up
1094
01:02:07,682 --> 01:02:09,142
on Saturday afternoon,
1095
01:02:09,225 --> 01:02:10,977
we were right there with him.
1096
01:02:11,769 --> 01:02:15,982
[singing] ♪ And it's five, six, seven
Open up the pearly gates ♪
1097
01:02:16,065 --> 01:02:18,901
♪ Well, I ain't no time to wonder why ♪
1098
01:02:18,985 --> 01:02:20,862
♪ Whoopee, we're all goin' to die! ♪
1099
01:02:20,945 --> 01:02:23,322
-All right!
-[crowd cheering]
1100
01:02:24,657 --> 01:02:26,951
[Reynolds] We were 400,000 kids
on a hillside
1101
01:02:27,034 --> 01:02:29,370
who all were vehemently against the war.
1102
01:02:29,454 --> 01:02:33,207
And, you know, for me, it was like,
"These are our people!" [chuckles]
1103
01:02:33,291 --> 01:02:34,667
"We found our people!"
1104
01:02:35,293 --> 01:02:36,961
[cheering continues]
1105
01:02:41,048 --> 01:02:42,592
[reporter] Are you enjoying the festival?
1106
01:02:42,675 --> 01:02:45,136
[woman] Yeah, it's out of sight. [laughs]
It's beautiful.
1107
01:02:45,678 --> 01:02:48,556
[reporter]
Why did you come to the festival?
1108
01:02:48,723 --> 01:02:51,392
To see the best music
in the world, man. [chuckles]
1109
01:02:51,476 --> 01:02:53,519
["Soul Sacrifice" by Santana playing]
1110
01:02:56,773 --> 01:02:59,776
[Moore] The only bored moment
I had that weekend
1111
01:02:59,859 --> 01:03:03,863
was when Santana was about to appear,
and I didn't know who Santana was.
1112
01:03:04,530 --> 01:03:07,241
And Santana woke me up.
1113
01:03:08,534 --> 01:03:11,162
["Soul Sacrifice" continues]
1114
01:03:12,413 --> 01:03:15,041
[Jaboolian] You got...
You got drawn into this music.
1115
01:03:16,042 --> 01:03:20,630
The song was "Soul Sacrifice,"
which most of us had never heard before.
1116
01:03:22,924 --> 01:03:25,009
[Santana plays guitar solo]
1117
01:03:31,390 --> 01:03:34,894
[Beren] Listening to it, I felt like
we had gone from civilization
1118
01:03:35,853 --> 01:03:38,105
to some place where there were no rules.
1119
01:03:39,565 --> 01:03:43,528
And some people took the freedom
to extreme places.
1120
01:03:46,322 --> 01:03:48,282
[Goldmacher] People were there
to have a good time
1121
01:03:48,366 --> 01:03:49,909
and they were doing it.
1122
01:03:50,201 --> 01:03:51,994
Now, it meant a lot of drugs.
1123
01:03:53,120 --> 01:03:57,208
It was mostly marijuana, hashish, and LSD.
1124
01:04:00,127 --> 01:04:02,380
[Collier] One girl told me
that just standing still,
1125
01:04:02,463 --> 01:04:04,006
she was getting stoned.
1126
01:04:04,090 --> 01:04:08,928
And my guess was that within
a thousand feet of the stage,
1127
01:04:09,470 --> 01:04:11,055
everybody was stoned.
1128
01:04:14,058 --> 01:04:15,351
["Soul Sacrifice" fades]
1129
01:04:16,602 --> 01:04:20,022
[Goldstein] There were a lot of people
who took a lot of drugs
1130
01:04:20,398 --> 01:04:22,733
in very strenuous circumstances
1131
01:04:23,442 --> 01:04:26,737
and were incapable of dealing with that.
1132
01:04:27,822 --> 01:04:30,449
The freak-out tents were oases.
1133
01:04:31,701 --> 01:04:35,913
[Goldmacher] Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm
were taking care of bad trips.
1134
01:04:36,289 --> 01:04:40,001
Freak-out tents had been set up
where people could lie down,
1135
01:04:40,084 --> 01:04:42,295
and folks from the Hog Farm
were in there, you know,
1136
01:04:42,378 --> 01:04:44,338
just holding people's hands
1137
01:04:44,422 --> 01:04:47,466
and just really being able
to guide them through it.
1138
01:04:49,010 --> 01:04:50,845
[Wavy Gravy]
We're telling them, "You know,
1139
01:04:50,928 --> 01:04:53,806
it's going to be cool, man,
it's going to wear off.
1140
01:04:53,890 --> 01:04:56,517
You took a little acid,
and it's gonna wear off."
1141
01:04:57,018 --> 01:04:59,812
And then when somebody
was near normal to rock 'n' roll,
1142
01:04:59,896 --> 01:05:00,855
we said, "Hold it.
1143
01:05:00,938 --> 01:05:03,900
Now, you see that brother
coming through the door?
1144
01:05:03,983 --> 01:05:05,776
That was you three hours ago.
1145
01:05:05,860 --> 01:05:07,528
Now you go and help them out."
1146
01:05:08,237 --> 01:05:12,033
And that's the way the scene
regenerated itself.
1147
01:05:15,703 --> 01:05:18,748
[Spitz] They always knew that there
were going to be medical problems,
1148
01:05:18,831 --> 01:05:22,376
and they had prepared themselves
as best they could.
1149
01:05:23,544 --> 01:05:28,716
But like everything else at the festival,
they were woefully understaffed,
1150
01:05:30,092 --> 01:05:33,804
and an emergency situation was developing.
1151
01:05:33,888 --> 01:05:36,140
[man on speaker]
We need a doctor or a medic, please,
1152
01:05:36,223 --> 01:05:40,102
over on this side of the stage, please,
at your earliest convenience.
1153
01:05:40,937 --> 01:05:44,190
[Goldmacher] One of our people
came rushing up to me and said,
1154
01:05:44,273 --> 01:05:45,858
"We're out of medical supplies."
1155
01:05:46,817 --> 01:05:49,278
And I said, "You've got to be kidding."
1156
01:05:50,071 --> 01:05:53,407
All the panoply of medical
situations you could encounter
1157
01:05:53,491 --> 01:05:56,035
will happen during the course of 72 hours.
1158
01:05:56,494 --> 01:05:59,914
It's just what happens
in a city of 400,000 people.
1159
01:06:00,831 --> 01:06:03,167
This is a medical disaster in the making.
1160
01:06:03,250 --> 01:06:04,794
[siren blaring]
1161
01:06:07,546 --> 01:06:09,340
[Goldstein] Leaving aside for the moment
1162
01:06:09,423 --> 01:06:12,927
those people who were diabetics
who needed insulin and so forth,
1163
01:06:13,219 --> 01:06:15,096
the casualties were mounting.
1164
01:06:20,935 --> 01:06:23,229
[Morris] We got a call from
the governor's chief of staff
1165
01:06:23,312 --> 01:06:25,272
telling us that Rockefeller
was considering
1166
01:06:25,356 --> 01:06:27,358
sending in the National Guard.
1167
01:06:29,151 --> 01:06:30,736
[Spitz] Nelson Rockefeller's office,
1168
01:06:30,820 --> 01:06:32,363
he was the governor at the time,
1169
01:06:32,446 --> 01:06:36,409
was in pretty constant communication
with the festival people,
1170
01:06:36,909 --> 01:06:40,621
and Rockefeller was always threatening
to send in the troops.
1171
01:06:42,790 --> 01:06:44,375
[Morris] They said it was
a danger to the community,
1172
01:06:44,458 --> 01:06:45,626
it was a danger to public health,
1173
01:06:45,710 --> 01:06:48,129
it was a danger to any
damn thing they could think of.
1174
01:06:48,212 --> 01:06:49,547
They wanted to get rid of it.
1175
01:06:49,630 --> 01:06:50,923
And they were stupid enough to believe
1176
01:06:51,007 --> 01:06:53,926
they could mobilize the National Guard
and move these kids out.
1177
01:06:54,885 --> 01:06:57,179
And I kept saying,
"There's only one way to do this,
1178
01:06:57,263 --> 01:06:58,556
and that's play it through."
1179
01:06:59,849 --> 01:07:02,810
In the end, there was an assistant
to the governor who got it,
1180
01:07:03,310 --> 01:07:05,271
and he said, "What can we do?"
1181
01:07:08,816 --> 01:07:12,987
[Barbara Erskine Miller] Why are there
Army helicopters flying overhead?
1182
01:07:13,904 --> 01:07:17,158
You know, it looked like
what I saw on the news every night
1183
01:07:17,241 --> 01:07:20,619
in, you know, the pictures from Vietnam.
1184
01:07:22,580 --> 01:07:25,624
[Dills] Seeing that
they were military helicopters
1185
01:07:25,708 --> 01:07:27,293
was very disconcerting.
1186
01:07:27,877 --> 01:07:30,588
We didn't know really
why they were flying in.
1187
01:07:30,671 --> 01:07:35,426
You know, is this the start of
a militarization to close this thing down?
1188
01:07:37,553 --> 01:07:41,432
[Morris] I was standing onstage,
and I could see these Hueys coming in.
1189
01:07:41,932 --> 01:07:43,934
There were three or four of them in a row.
1190
01:07:44,560 --> 01:07:46,979
And all I said was, "Ladies and gentlemen,
1191
01:07:47,063 --> 01:07:48,689
the United States Army."
1192
01:07:49,440 --> 01:07:52,193
[Morris on speaker] The United States Army
has lent us some medical teams.
1193
01:07:53,194 --> 01:07:57,698
There are 45 doctors
who are here without pay
1194
01:07:58,324 --> 01:08:00,326
because they dig what this is into.
1195
01:08:00,993 --> 01:08:03,788
They are with us, man.
They are not against us, they are with us.
1196
01:08:03,871 --> 01:08:06,290
They're here to give us all
a hand and help us.
1197
01:08:11,087 --> 01:08:12,254
[Morris] That sound system
1198
01:08:12,338 --> 01:08:15,049
was the only source of communication
we had with the audience.
1199
01:08:15,132 --> 01:08:17,551
[man on speaker] Elliot from Harvard,
the hitchhikers you picked up
1200
01:08:17,635 --> 01:08:18,636
need the pills from your car.
1201
01:08:18,719 --> 01:08:21,555
Please go to the
information station right away.
1202
01:08:21,639 --> 01:08:25,059
[Morris] What started happening was
people would bring messages to backstage.
1203
01:08:25,142 --> 01:08:27,812
And we did as many of them as we could
in between performances.
1204
01:08:27,895 --> 01:08:31,649
[man on speaker] Sidney McGee, please come
immediately to backstage right.
1205
01:08:32,191 --> 01:08:35,402
I understand your wife
is having a baby. Congratulations.
1206
01:08:36,821 --> 01:08:39,990
Wheat Germ, Holly has your bag
with your medicine.
1207
01:08:40,074 --> 01:08:43,035
Please meet at the information booth
as soon as you can, please.
1208
01:08:43,786 --> 01:08:46,247
[Morris] The information booth
became a center.
1209
01:08:46,497 --> 01:08:48,290
And we just said to people,
1210
01:08:48,374 --> 01:08:50,584
"If you're looking for somebody,
you got to go up there."
1211
01:08:52,336 --> 01:08:54,713
[Jaboolian] Everybody
would put messages on it.
1212
01:08:54,964 --> 01:08:58,342
So, if you're looking for somebody,
or you're trying to get a ride home,
1213
01:08:58,425 --> 01:09:01,512
or whatever,
you could stick stuff up on there.
1214
01:09:01,887 --> 01:09:04,598
[man on speaker]
Larry Alexander, Cousin Al is sick.
1215
01:09:04,974 --> 01:09:07,309
Meet near the information center.
1216
01:09:07,977 --> 01:09:10,437
[Roberts] We took a lot of phone calls
from worried parents,
1217
01:09:10,521 --> 01:09:12,231
wondering what was happening up there.
1218
01:09:12,731 --> 01:09:14,400
And, you know,
if it was like, "Call home,"
1219
01:09:14,483 --> 01:09:16,193
we'd relay it to the stage.
1220
01:09:16,277 --> 01:09:18,279
[man on speaker] Helen Savage,
please call your father
1221
01:09:18,362 --> 01:09:21,157
at the Motel Glory in Woodridge.
1222
01:09:22,283 --> 01:09:25,661
[Dills] I definitely wondered
if my parents were watching
1223
01:09:25,744 --> 01:09:26,996
and what they thought.
1224
01:09:28,372 --> 01:09:31,041
Because after Friday, I'd had no contact
1225
01:09:31,125 --> 01:09:33,210
with anybody from the outside world.
1226
01:09:33,878 --> 01:09:35,045
[man on speaker] The Daily News,
1227
01:09:35,880 --> 01:09:37,715
in rather large headlines,
1228
01:09:37,798 --> 01:09:40,509
"Traffic Uptight at Hippiefest."
1229
01:09:41,177 --> 01:09:44,597
[George] The stage announcements
really became our news radio.
1230
01:09:45,014 --> 01:09:48,350
How we found out what the outside world
was paying attention to.
1231
01:09:48,893 --> 01:09:51,478
And they would've thought
it was an utter disaster,
1232
01:09:51,979 --> 01:09:54,648
from what they were seeing
in the news and stuff.
1233
01:10:14,418 --> 01:10:16,712
[Rosenman]
The world expects this to explode.
1234
01:10:17,713 --> 01:10:20,007
And I remember thinking to myself,
"This is perfect."
1235
01:10:20,090 --> 01:10:21,634
Because there's nothing kids like better
1236
01:10:21,717 --> 01:10:24,678
than to disappoint what the world
thinks they're going to do.
1237
01:10:25,054 --> 01:10:28,265
[man on speaker]
Ladies and gentlemen, Keef Hartley.
1238
01:10:29,141 --> 01:10:31,477
["Spanish Fly"
by Keef Hartley Band playing]
1239
01:10:41,445 --> 01:10:44,365
[Reynolds] Late afternoon,
the sun came out, and it was hot.
1240
01:10:44,823 --> 01:10:48,160
And we walked around a bit
because we got hungry.
1241
01:10:49,078 --> 01:10:51,664
And we quickly
discovered there was no food.
1242
01:10:51,956 --> 01:10:55,626
All the booths were out of food.
There was nothing.
1243
01:10:57,419 --> 01:10:58,963
[Beren] We ran out of food.
1244
01:10:59,380 --> 01:11:03,342
Delivery trucks could not
get through the traffic jams,
1245
01:11:03,425 --> 01:11:04,885
so there was no more food.
1246
01:11:04,969 --> 01:11:08,013
No soda, no burgers,
no hot dogs, no nothing.
1247
01:11:09,640 --> 01:11:11,600
And then word spread very fast.
1248
01:11:13,185 --> 01:11:15,312
[Spitz] Sure,
there was a sanitation crisis,
1249
01:11:15,396 --> 01:11:16,855
and there was a medical crisis,
1250
01:11:16,939 --> 01:11:18,732
but when the food started to go,
1251
01:11:18,816 --> 01:11:23,570
the producers knew that this could turn
into an even more immense problem.
1252
01:11:24,697 --> 01:11:27,241
But something really incredible happened.
1253
01:11:27,700 --> 01:11:29,952
The people of White Lake and Bethel
1254
01:11:30,035 --> 01:11:31,954
literally went in their pantries.
1255
01:11:32,037 --> 01:11:35,124
Anything that was in the refrigerator,
anything that was in the freezer,
1256
01:11:35,207 --> 01:11:38,585
anything that was in the house,
they contributed.
1257
01:11:39,336 --> 01:11:40,963
[man] We got word over WVOS
1258
01:11:41,046 --> 01:11:44,008
that a lot of kids
didn't have anything to eat.
1259
01:11:44,717 --> 01:11:49,138
Stuff was taken over to the school,
and they flew it to the site.
1260
01:11:50,306 --> 01:11:51,890
I have a 19-year-old myself,
1261
01:11:51,974 --> 01:11:56,020
I felt that we got to give them
a fair shake here.
1262
01:11:56,395 --> 01:11:58,188
Kids are hungry, you got to feed them.
1263
01:12:00,190 --> 01:12:02,943
[John Conway] Those helicopters
were going over constantly.
1264
01:12:03,235 --> 01:12:07,031
And also a lot of the neighbors
were involved
1265
01:12:07,114 --> 01:12:11,160
in efforts to make sandwiches
and get them to the helicopters.
1266
01:12:12,661 --> 01:12:14,580
[Gordon Winarick] It was on the radio,
"Bring whatever you can."
1267
01:12:14,663 --> 01:12:17,416
And I decided we'll just send eggs,
because it's an egg area.
1268
01:12:17,708 --> 01:12:19,418
I tapped people for donations.
1269
01:12:19,501 --> 01:12:21,420
I said, "Look, give me cases of eggs."
1270
01:12:22,212 --> 01:12:24,590
So, we hard-boiled hundreds
of thousands of eggs.
1271
01:12:26,884 --> 01:12:29,845
[Leni Binder] We would never have said,
"We don't want any part of you, leave.
1272
01:12:29,928 --> 01:12:31,597
I don't care
if you're hungry or starving."
1273
01:12:31,680 --> 01:12:34,016
That was not our communities.
1274
01:12:34,475 --> 01:12:37,186
Maybe we were hicks, but we did go,
1275
01:12:37,269 --> 01:12:39,938
as the Bible says, welcome the stranger.
1276
01:12:40,564 --> 01:12:42,941
They were hungry. We fed them.
1277
01:12:44,735 --> 01:12:48,489
[Romney] Helicopters came in
with anything people wanted to donate.
1278
01:12:49,031 --> 01:12:51,367
Like little bags of picnic supplies,
1279
01:12:51,450 --> 01:12:54,995
or green beans, even a tiny can of olives.
1280
01:12:55,079 --> 01:12:58,123
[chuckling] You know, I just...
"Yes! Bring it on!
1281
01:12:58,207 --> 01:13:02,044
We can take it and make it
into food for the masses."
1282
01:13:03,879 --> 01:13:06,965
[Daye] The Hog Farm
had set up this huge kitchen,
1283
01:13:07,049 --> 01:13:09,843
and they were boiling brown rice
1284
01:13:09,927 --> 01:13:11,762
and frying up vegetables,
1285
01:13:11,845 --> 01:13:14,014
and it was fabulous.
1286
01:13:22,064 --> 01:13:24,608
[Jaboolian] I found out about
the Hog Farm serving food
1287
01:13:24,691 --> 01:13:26,485
from the guy that sat next to me.
1288
01:13:26,860 --> 01:13:28,695
He says, "Yeah, man,
they got free food up there.
1289
01:13:28,779 --> 01:13:31,240
You just go up there and get in line."
1290
01:13:34,618 --> 01:13:37,788
[Dills] I and one of my friends
offer to help,
1291
01:13:39,206 --> 01:13:41,500
and they just put us on a pot,
1292
01:13:41,583 --> 01:13:43,752
and we scooped it for people.
1293
01:13:45,754 --> 01:13:47,714
It was kind of cool to feel like, "Wow,
1294
01:13:47,798 --> 01:13:51,427
I'm helpless here,
as are most of these people,
1295
01:13:51,510 --> 01:13:54,096
but there are people
who are taking care of us,
1296
01:13:54,972 --> 01:13:58,100
and in a sense,
we're taking care of each other."
1297
01:14:00,477 --> 01:14:01,812
[Bill Ward]
People were good to one another.
1298
01:14:01,895 --> 01:14:03,856
I would see... I would see people
1299
01:14:03,939 --> 01:14:05,816
passing around a Coke or something,
1300
01:14:05,899 --> 01:14:07,776
other people were sharing their food.
1301
01:14:10,362 --> 01:14:12,156
[Starobin] Everybody around us
had something,
1302
01:14:12,239 --> 01:14:14,241
and we just passed everything around.
1303
01:14:14,741 --> 01:14:17,286
It was like the loaves and the fishes,
it really was.
1304
01:14:19,496 --> 01:14:22,749
[George] This was actually
kind of a functioning city
1305
01:14:22,833 --> 01:14:24,751
out in the middle of nowhere,
1306
01:14:25,085 --> 01:14:30,090
and we realized that it was functioning
because of people pulling together.
1307
01:14:31,967 --> 01:14:35,262
It just had this feeling that,
"This was ours.
1308
01:14:35,345 --> 01:14:37,055
This was the new city.
1309
01:14:37,139 --> 01:14:40,767
This was the alternative city,
and it worked."
1310
01:14:46,648 --> 01:14:49,109
["Woodstock Boogie"
by Canned Heat playing]
1311
01:14:54,823 --> 01:14:57,075
[Morris] Saturday afternoon,
the show was good.
1312
01:14:57,993 --> 01:15:00,579
But Saturday night,
we really came up to speed
1313
01:15:00,662 --> 01:15:01,997
when the sun went down.
1314
01:15:02,664 --> 01:15:06,460
[singing] ♪ Well, the little red rooster
Told the little brown hen ♪
1315
01:15:06,627 --> 01:15:09,171
♪ "Meet you at the barn
About a half past ten" ♪
1316
01:15:09,254 --> 01:15:11,340
♪ Sing a last little boogie... ♪
1317
01:15:12,382 --> 01:15:15,052
[Morris] I guess we got to a point
where we felt more comfortable,
1318
01:15:15,385 --> 01:15:19,431
and maybe we were proving
to the press and the outside world
1319
01:15:19,515 --> 01:15:22,684
that we knew what we were doing,
and that this was special,
1320
01:15:22,768 --> 01:15:24,144
that there was some kind of magic here.
1321
01:15:24,228 --> 01:15:26,438
And I would say that probably
gave us the second wind.
1322
01:15:27,105 --> 01:15:28,524
["Woodstock Boogie" continues]
1323
01:15:28,607 --> 01:15:30,442
[George] I was sort of in a daze.
1324
01:15:30,692 --> 01:15:35,030
You'd been listening, watching music
starting in the afternoon
1325
01:15:35,113 --> 01:15:37,032
and going pretty much
all through the night.
1326
01:15:37,324 --> 01:15:39,868
There's no way
you couldn't get oversaturated
1327
01:15:40,202 --> 01:15:42,204
with the stimulus.
1328
01:15:42,287 --> 01:15:43,830
[singing] ♪ I want to take you higher ♪
1329
01:15:43,914 --> 01:15:45,249
[crowd] ♪ Higher ♪
1330
01:15:45,499 --> 01:15:46,667
♪ I want to take you higher ♪
1331
01:15:46,750 --> 01:15:50,045
[George] For me, the most memorable
performance that night
1332
01:15:50,671 --> 01:15:51,922
was Sly and the Family Stone.
1333
01:15:52,005 --> 01:15:53,340
[Sly singing]
♪ I want to take you higher ♪
1334
01:15:53,423 --> 01:15:56,134
[George] The music, yes, but the crowd
1335
01:15:56,218 --> 01:15:59,846
and just feeling
this incredible electricity.
1336
01:16:00,931 --> 01:16:02,808
I mean, it was the middle of the night,
1337
01:16:02,891 --> 01:16:04,893
and everybody was up dancing.
1338
01:16:06,019 --> 01:16:08,522
It was just a pulsing hillside
1339
01:16:08,605 --> 01:16:10,399
of hundreds of thousands of people.
1340
01:16:14,444 --> 01:16:16,113
[singing]
♪ I want to take you higher ♪
1341
01:16:16,196 --> 01:16:17,739
♪ Higher ♪
1342
01:16:17,823 --> 01:16:19,366
♪ I want to take you higher ♪
1343
01:16:19,449 --> 01:16:21,076
♪ Higher ♪
1344
01:16:21,159 --> 01:16:22,536
["My Generation" by The Who playing]
1345
01:16:25,289 --> 01:16:27,874
[Diltz] I was in front of the stage,
shooting it, you know, taking pictures.
1346
01:16:28,709 --> 01:16:32,588
Roger Daltrey up there,
with fringe on his cape flying around.
1347
01:16:33,088 --> 01:16:34,756
And he'd twirl that microphone around,
1348
01:16:34,840 --> 01:16:36,341
and, you know,
he would just miss the floor,
1349
01:16:36,425 --> 01:16:38,218
and then it would come
arcing through the air,
1350
01:16:38,302 --> 01:16:40,053
and he'd grab it just in time,
1351
01:16:40,429 --> 01:16:41,430
you know, to get into...
1352
01:16:41,513 --> 01:16:43,807
[Diltz singing]
♪ "Talkin' 'bout my generation" ♪
1353
01:16:44,850 --> 01:16:47,060
And then there was Townshend
leaping in the air,
1354
01:16:47,144 --> 01:16:49,563
and doing his splits,
and landing on stage.
1355
01:16:49,646 --> 01:16:51,857
[Daltrey singing] ♪ And don't try to dig
What, what, what we all say ♪
1356
01:16:51,940 --> 01:16:54,818
♪ Talking 'bout my generation ♪
1357
01:16:54,901 --> 01:16:56,361
[Carol Green]
"Talkin' 'bout my generation,"
1358
01:16:56,445 --> 01:16:57,988
and that was my generation.
1359
01:16:59,114 --> 01:17:03,035
When they sang that song, they, you know,
elicited this clarion call,
1360
01:17:03,118 --> 01:17:05,579
and we went, "Rock and roll!"
1361
01:17:05,662 --> 01:17:08,290
♪ This is my generation, baby ♪
1362
01:17:08,665 --> 01:17:09,958
["My Generation" concludes]
1363
01:17:10,042 --> 01:17:11,627
[crowd cheers and applauds]
1364
01:17:13,045 --> 01:17:15,339
[Diltz] The Who was absolutely fantastic,
1365
01:17:17,257 --> 01:17:19,926
and they were still playing
as the dawn came up.
1366
01:17:20,010 --> 01:17:21,511
["Naked Eye" playing]
1367
01:17:33,231 --> 01:17:34,941
["Naked Eye" fades]
1368
01:17:39,655 --> 01:17:42,032
All right, friends,
you have seen the heavy groups.
1369
01:17:42,115 --> 01:17:44,910
Now you will see morning maniac music.
1370
01:17:44,993 --> 01:17:46,828
Believe me, yeah.
1371
01:17:47,287 --> 01:17:49,289
-It's the new dawn.
-[cheering]
1372
01:17:49,373 --> 01:17:51,249
["The Other Side of This Life"
by Jefferson Airplane playing]
1373
01:17:51,333 --> 01:17:54,836
The regular guys and Nicky Hopkins.
1374
01:17:54,920 --> 01:17:59,257
["The Other Side of Life" continues]
1375
01:17:59,549 --> 01:18:01,218
[Paul Kantner] I could barely
remember our performance,
1376
01:18:01,301 --> 01:18:03,095
because it was 6:30 in the morning.
1377
01:18:03,720 --> 01:18:06,181
We just went out
and played as best we could.
1378
01:18:06,640 --> 01:18:08,934
We were pretty burned, though,
by the time we got onstage.
1379
01:18:09,017 --> 01:18:10,435
Good morning, people!
1380
01:18:10,519 --> 01:18:12,979
[Kantner] And we could see there was
a lot of people just asleep.
1381
01:18:13,814 --> 01:18:16,942
And the fires were starting to go out,
and people were crashing.
1382
01:18:19,903 --> 01:18:23,323
[Lawrence] I was walking around,
and everybody was sleeping.
1383
01:18:23,407 --> 01:18:27,327
I mean, people were horizontal
all over the place, you know?
1384
01:18:28,829 --> 01:18:30,580
It looked like after a big party.
1385
01:18:30,664 --> 01:18:32,916
["Sunday Morning" by
the Velvet Underground playing]
1386
01:18:34,084 --> 01:18:37,587
♪ Sunday morning ♪
1387
01:18:38,714 --> 01:18:42,175
♪ Brings the dawn in ♪
1388
01:18:43,301 --> 01:18:46,638
♪ It's just a restless feeling ♪
1389
01:18:47,806 --> 01:18:50,016
♪ By my side ♪
1390
01:18:51,643 --> 01:18:55,897
♪ Watch out, the world's behind you... ♪
1391
01:18:56,732 --> 01:18:58,024
[Wavy Gravy on speaker] Good morning.
1392
01:18:58,608 --> 01:19:01,570
What we have in mind is breakfast in bed
1393
01:19:01,653 --> 01:19:03,363
for 400,000.
1394
01:19:05,449 --> 01:19:08,785
Now, it's not going to be
steak and eggs or anything,
1395
01:19:09,786 --> 01:19:12,831
but it's gonna be good food,
and we're gonna get it to you.
1396
01:19:13,290 --> 01:19:15,083
We're all feeding each other.
1397
01:19:15,542 --> 01:19:17,169
[crowd cheering]
1398
01:19:17,586 --> 01:19:20,005
[Wavy Gravy] We must be in heaven, man!
1399
01:19:21,757 --> 01:19:23,759
[Romney] What we served was plain raw oats
1400
01:19:23,842 --> 01:19:26,011
with honey and powdered milk mixed up,
1401
01:19:26,553 --> 01:19:28,513
'cause there wasn't any time
to toast oats.
1402
01:19:28,597 --> 01:19:29,931
[chuckling] And, you know, it was just...
1403
01:19:30,015 --> 01:19:32,100
We threw nuts and seeds and raisins in it.
1404
01:19:34,311 --> 01:19:36,646
And I think we had ten serving stations,
1405
01:19:36,730 --> 01:19:39,524
and the lines of people in front
of each of the serving stations
1406
01:19:39,608 --> 01:19:41,359
were as long as you could see.
1407
01:19:44,821 --> 01:19:47,491
The Yasgurs supplied us
with milk and yogurt.
1408
01:19:48,074 --> 01:19:50,494
And it was just like a gift from an angel.
1409
01:19:50,952 --> 01:19:54,247
♪ Sunday morning ♪
1410
01:19:55,290 --> 01:19:57,167
♪ Sunday morning ♪
1411
01:19:57,250 --> 01:19:58,668
["Sunday Morning" fades]
1412
01:19:59,503 --> 01:20:01,421
[Morris on speaker]
We have a gentleman with us.
1413
01:20:02,506 --> 01:20:06,051
It's the gentleman upon whose farm we are,
Mr. Max Yasgur.
1414
01:20:06,134 --> 01:20:07,719
[crowd cheers and applauds]
1415
01:20:08,804 --> 01:20:12,098
[Morris] In the early afternoon,
Max came down to the stage,
1416
01:20:12,808 --> 01:20:14,935
and he said,
"I'd like to speak to the crowd."
1417
01:20:15,268 --> 01:20:18,230
And I said, "I think the crowd would
very much like to meet you."
1418
01:20:19,564 --> 01:20:20,816
[Max Yasgur] Is this on?
1419
01:20:27,823 --> 01:20:30,450
I'm a farmer, I don't know...
1420
01:20:30,534 --> 01:20:32,410
[crowd cheering and applauding]
1421
01:20:35,288 --> 01:20:38,875
I don't know how to speak
to 20 people at one time,
1422
01:20:38,959 --> 01:20:41,127
let alone a crowd like this.
1423
01:20:43,338 --> 01:20:47,551
But I think you people
have proven something to the world.
1424
01:20:48,134 --> 01:20:52,055
Not only to the town of Bethel,
or Sullivan County, or New York State,
1425
01:20:52,138 --> 01:20:54,558
you've proven something to the world.
1426
01:20:54,933 --> 01:20:57,811
The important thing
that you're proving to the world
1427
01:20:58,562 --> 01:21:02,148
is that a half a million kids,
and I call you kids
1428
01:21:02,232 --> 01:21:04,818
because I have children
that are older than you are,
1429
01:21:04,901 --> 01:21:08,321
a half a million young people
can get together
1430
01:21:08,405 --> 01:21:11,199
and have three days of fun and music,
1431
01:21:11,491 --> 01:21:13,910
and have nothing but fun and music.
1432
01:21:13,994 --> 01:21:15,745
And God bless you for it.
1433
01:21:15,829 --> 01:21:17,497
[crowd cheering and applauding]
1434
01:21:19,499 --> 01:21:21,543
[Dills] It was an affirmation, you know,
1435
01:21:21,626 --> 01:21:26,047
that instead of being angry,
that he was that positive about us.
1436
01:21:26,923 --> 01:21:30,427
And I'm sure that his fields
were just destroyed.
1437
01:21:30,927 --> 01:21:34,097
But if a conservative
Upstate New York farmer
1438
01:21:34,389 --> 01:21:38,351
could feel that way,
well, that was pretty cool.
1439
01:21:39,811 --> 01:21:43,106
In that moment, I realized,
being in the middle of it,
1440
01:21:43,189 --> 01:21:47,027
that not only was Woodstock bigger
than we ever could have imagined,
1441
01:21:47,903 --> 01:21:50,572
but it was symbolically even bigger.
1442
01:21:54,743 --> 01:21:56,870
[crowd cheering, clapping rhythmically]
1443
01:21:57,495 --> 01:22:00,165
[man on speaker]
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Joe Cocker.
1444
01:22:00,248 --> 01:22:01,583
Let's go for Sunday!
1445
01:22:01,666 --> 01:22:03,627
[Joe Cocker]
Yes, yes, well, good afternoon.
1446
01:22:03,710 --> 01:22:08,423
And this title just about
puts this all into focus.
1447
01:22:08,506 --> 01:22:11,051
It's called
"With a Little Help From My Friends."
1448
01:22:11,134 --> 01:22:13,178
["With a Little Help
From My Friends" playing]
1449
01:22:13,929 --> 01:22:19,726
[singing] ♪ What would you do
If I sang out of tune ♪
1450
01:22:20,685 --> 01:22:24,189
♪ Would you stand up
And walk out on me ♪
1451
01:22:26,441 --> 01:22:32,030
♪ Lend me your ears
And I'll sing you a song ♪
1452
01:22:33,782 --> 01:22:37,327
♪ I will try not to sing out of key ♪
1453
01:22:38,244 --> 01:22:40,121
♪ Oh, baby, I get by ♪
1454
01:22:40,205 --> 01:22:43,124
[backing singers]
♪ By with a little help from my friends ♪
1455
01:22:43,500 --> 01:22:45,293
[Cocker singing]
♪ All I need is my brother ♪
1456
01:22:45,377 --> 01:22:48,713
[singers]
♪ By with a little help from my friends ♪
1457
01:22:49,673 --> 01:22:52,258
[Cocker singing] ♪ Yeah, tell you
I'm gonna try a way ♪
1458
01:22:52,342 --> 01:22:55,387
[singers]
♪ By with a little help from my friends ♪
1459
01:22:55,470 --> 01:22:58,306
[Dills] I really liked what Joe Cocker
was singing about,
1460
01:22:58,723 --> 01:23:02,686
because in one sense,
I had 450,000 friends.
1461
01:23:13,697 --> 01:23:15,115
[Joe Cocker]
When we got into "Little Help,"
1462
01:23:15,198 --> 01:23:19,244
I just felt that we'd really
caught a massive consciousness
1463
01:23:19,327 --> 01:23:20,412
in the crowd.
1464
01:23:21,663 --> 01:23:23,415
It was a powerful feeling.
1465
01:23:23,498 --> 01:23:25,083
[crowd cheering and applauding]
1466
01:23:25,166 --> 01:23:26,960
[man on speaker] That's Joe Cocker!
1467
01:23:28,503 --> 01:23:31,631
[Cocker] And then somebody yelled at me,
"Joe, look over your shoulder."
1468
01:23:34,259 --> 01:23:35,927
[Morris] It was hot as could be.
1469
01:23:36,386 --> 01:23:39,681
And you look up in the sky
behind the audience,
1470
01:23:39,764 --> 01:23:43,643
and you can see these black clouds
like Armageddon coming at you.
1471
01:23:43,727 --> 01:23:45,437
It looks like we're going
to get a little bit of rain,
1472
01:23:45,520 --> 01:23:46,771
so you better cover up.
1473
01:23:48,189 --> 01:23:50,734
All of you up in the towers,
please come down.
1474
01:23:51,109 --> 01:23:53,111
You're making it very, very dangerous.
1475
01:23:53,570 --> 01:23:55,572
[Collier] Hanging on these
big light stands
1476
01:23:55,655 --> 01:23:57,323
were a bunch of kids who had used them
1477
01:23:57,407 --> 01:23:59,284
to get a better perch
to watch the show from.
1478
01:24:00,118 --> 01:24:03,038
People screamed,
"Come down, get down from there!"
1479
01:24:04,664 --> 01:24:07,333
[Morris on speaker] All right, everybody,
just sit down, wrap yourself up.
1480
01:24:07,709 --> 01:24:09,294
We're gonna have to have to ride it out.
1481
01:24:11,129 --> 01:24:13,423
Jody, get off the stage.
1482
01:24:15,175 --> 01:24:16,384
Get off the stage.
1483
01:24:17,260 --> 01:24:18,762
[wind gusting]
1484
01:24:20,597 --> 01:24:22,766
[Morris] I mean,
all hell started breaking loose.
1485
01:24:23,475 --> 01:24:26,311
And then, Barry Melton
of Country Joe and the Fish
1486
01:24:26,394 --> 01:24:27,562
grabbed a mike.
1487
01:24:27,645 --> 01:24:30,815
No rain, no rain, no rain!
1488
01:24:30,899 --> 01:24:35,153
[Melton and crowd]
No rain, no rain, no rain, no rain!
1489
01:24:35,236 --> 01:24:39,491
No rain, no rain, no rain,
no rain, no rain!
1490
01:24:42,535 --> 01:24:44,412
[thunder claps]
1491
01:24:44,788 --> 01:24:45,914
[Law] And then it hit.
1492
01:24:46,289 --> 01:24:49,834
It hit like a major,
you know, country storm.
1493
01:24:50,293 --> 01:24:54,214
It was not a tornado,
but it had that kind of feel to it.
1494
01:24:54,464 --> 01:24:55,465
[thunder rumbling]
1495
01:24:55,548 --> 01:24:57,967
[Law] Everyone scrambled
to cover equipment.
1496
01:24:58,051 --> 01:25:01,429
I mean, there was a billion
volts of equipment.
1497
01:25:01,513 --> 01:25:04,599
You wouldn't believe the amount
of electrical energy
1498
01:25:04,682 --> 01:25:06,935
on the stage and in those towers.
1499
01:25:08,144 --> 01:25:10,355
[Rosenman] During the storm, I learned
1500
01:25:10,438 --> 01:25:13,650
that 50,000-volt cables
had become unearthed.
1501
01:25:14,317 --> 01:25:17,237
Then we could have a mass electrocution.
1502
01:25:18,738 --> 01:25:20,698
Fortunately, that didn't happen.
1503
01:25:20,782 --> 01:25:23,910
[rain pattering, thunder rumbling]
1504
01:25:25,453 --> 01:25:28,998
[Vic Wells] There were a lot of people
who had plastic and blankets.
1505
01:25:29,082 --> 01:25:30,959
Of course, the blankets got soaked.
1506
01:25:31,501 --> 01:25:33,795
You know, you either just covered up,
1507
01:25:33,878 --> 01:25:37,549
or you just held your head up
and enjoyed it.
1508
01:25:50,395 --> 01:25:53,231
[Starobin] The outside world thought
it was a disaster area.
1509
01:25:53,982 --> 01:25:55,817
Well, that's not what we thought.
1510
01:25:57,193 --> 01:26:01,406
And so, people started playing
in the mud like children.
1511
01:26:02,323 --> 01:26:04,450
It was like they were six years old,
1512
01:26:04,868 --> 01:26:07,453
going down a waterslide
in their front yard.
1513
01:26:22,427 --> 01:26:25,597
[James Salzer] After the rain,
the crowd really thinned out.
1514
01:26:26,514 --> 01:26:29,642
I guess, a lot of people
just wanted to get back home.
1515
01:26:34,314 --> 01:26:36,441
[Debra Conway] I had to go to work
the next day.
1516
01:26:36,524 --> 01:26:38,568
So, you know, like a lot of people,
1517
01:26:38,651 --> 01:26:42,322
we hiked back to where the car was
and went home.
1518
01:26:46,993 --> 01:26:48,745
[Spitz] For everybody at the festival,
1519
01:26:48,828 --> 01:26:52,248
battling the elements
was a constant struggle.
1520
01:26:52,457 --> 01:26:55,126
They were plagued by weather
from the get-go.
1521
01:26:55,835 --> 01:26:59,047
Then after the Sunday storm,
the site was a mess.
1522
01:26:59,422 --> 01:27:01,049
But the festival went on.
1523
01:27:01,132 --> 01:27:03,259
[Country Joe and the Fish
playing "Rock and Soul Music"]
1524
01:27:03,343 --> 01:27:04,719
Marijuana!
1525
01:27:05,011 --> 01:27:07,180
[Spitz] Country Joe and the Fish
was first up.
1526
01:27:13,311 --> 01:27:16,105
[Spitz] There were a lot of great
performances that night.
1527
01:27:16,189 --> 01:27:18,983
But I think the one that really
stood out for most people
1528
01:27:19,067 --> 01:27:20,693
was Crosby, Stills & Nash,
1529
01:27:21,069 --> 01:27:24,113
because it was their first time
they had ever performed together.
1530
01:27:24,197 --> 01:27:25,657
[man on speaker] Crosby, Stills and Nash.
1531
01:27:25,740 --> 01:27:27,200
[playing "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"]
1532
01:27:27,283 --> 01:27:29,118
[Crosby] I remember being terrified.
1533
01:27:29,702 --> 01:27:32,747
Nobody had seen us get up
and sing harmony together.
1534
01:27:32,830 --> 01:27:36,376
Nobody had seen it, this was it.
This was the first time.
1535
01:27:36,793 --> 01:27:39,629
[singing] ♪ It's getting to the point ♪
1536
01:27:40,046 --> 01:27:44,217
♪ Where I'm no fun anymore ♪
1537
01:27:45,635 --> 01:27:51,307
[Daye] There were moments
where the music was so mesmerizing,
1538
01:27:51,391 --> 01:27:54,560
so internalized,
1539
01:27:54,978 --> 01:27:58,439
that I became
the music I was listening to.
1540
01:27:59,524 --> 01:28:03,194
I remember sitting in the mud
listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash,
1541
01:28:03,278 --> 01:28:05,947
looking at the sheer beauty
of the night sky,
1542
01:28:06,614 --> 01:28:09,534
wrapped in a blanket of music.
1543
01:28:10,451 --> 01:28:14,122
It was the feeling of oneness with it all.
1544
01:28:14,497 --> 01:28:16,249
["Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" ends]
1545
01:28:18,167 --> 01:28:20,628
["Star Spangled Banner"
by Jimi Hendrix playing]
1546
01:28:31,931 --> 01:28:34,225
[Wavy Gravy]
The last morning of the festival,
1547
01:28:34,600 --> 01:28:37,979
I'm wandering through people
rising up out of the mud.
1548
01:28:38,229 --> 01:28:41,107
And this amazing music suddenly...
1549
01:28:41,190 --> 01:28:42,483
[blows air]
1550
01:28:42,567 --> 01:28:46,404
It was Jimi Hendrix just filling my ears
1551
01:28:46,487 --> 01:28:50,742
with the wonder of the national anthem.
1552
01:28:57,957 --> 01:28:59,375
[playing improvisational riff]
1553
01:29:01,836 --> 01:29:04,422
[Collier] I was backstage
writing up some notes,
1554
01:29:04,922 --> 01:29:09,469
when suddenly,
into my head stabbed this sound.
1555
01:29:10,636 --> 01:29:11,971
[continuing riff]
1556
01:29:14,849 --> 01:29:17,977
[Collier] It sounded exactly
like rockets, missiles,
1557
01:29:18,061 --> 01:29:19,896
and bombs bursting in air.
1558
01:29:19,979 --> 01:29:21,647
[Hendrix continuing riff]
1559
01:29:22,065 --> 01:29:24,692
I'd never heard anything
like that in my life.
1560
01:29:26,527 --> 01:29:28,696
[Hendrix resumes melody
of "Star Spangled Banner"]
1561
01:29:32,533 --> 01:29:34,619
[Law] We're at the most peaceful gathering
1562
01:29:34,702 --> 01:29:37,455
that was probably happening
on the planet at the time.
1563
01:29:37,538 --> 01:29:39,749
And he hooked us up with Vietnam.
1564
01:29:40,958 --> 01:29:45,630
It was the devastation
and the brutality and the insanity.
1565
01:29:45,713 --> 01:29:47,381
[riff continuing]
1566
01:29:49,050 --> 01:29:51,135
[Law] That was
a quintessential piece of art.
1567
01:29:52,220 --> 01:29:54,722
[playing pedal effects and whammy bar]
1568
01:29:55,223 --> 01:29:56,933
["Star Spangled Banner" melody resumes]
1569
01:30:05,858 --> 01:30:07,652
[holding chord, chord feeding back]
1570
01:30:08,528 --> 01:30:11,447
[Green] There was an essence
that is indescribable.
1571
01:30:11,531 --> 01:30:13,324
You can feel it in your body,
1572
01:30:13,407 --> 01:30:15,535
you can feel it right here in your heart,
1573
01:30:15,952 --> 01:30:18,162
when you know that this is life.
1574
01:30:18,246 --> 01:30:19,664
This is the essence of life.
1575
01:30:21,040 --> 01:30:23,835
He had it and he gave it to us.
1576
01:30:24,252 --> 01:30:26,170
[modulating tone with whammy bar]
1577
01:30:28,673 --> 01:30:30,383
[playing pedal effects]
1578
01:30:34,804 --> 01:30:35,888
[song pausing]
1579
01:30:36,430 --> 01:30:38,057
[concluding "Star Spangled Banner"]
1580
01:30:38,141 --> 01:30:39,767
[Diltz] Everybody was so still.
1581
01:30:40,685 --> 01:30:42,395
Most of the crowd had left.
1582
01:30:45,189 --> 01:30:48,317
I was onstage.
I was shooting right next to him.
1583
01:30:48,860 --> 01:30:51,279
Just... God,
it was just a moment, you know,
1584
01:30:51,362 --> 01:30:53,156
that was just wonderful.
1585
01:30:53,239 --> 01:30:54,782
It's his guitar ringing out.
1586
01:30:54,866 --> 01:30:56,659
[Hendrix playing riff, pedal effects]
1587
01:31:00,163 --> 01:31:02,582
[Diltz] And then suddenly,
it was all over.
1588
01:31:02,665 --> 01:31:04,250
["Star Spangled Banner" fades]
1589
01:31:11,757 --> 01:31:16,470
[Morris] The site looked like
Civil War pictures of battlefields.
1590
01:31:18,097 --> 01:31:21,684
I was terrified
I might find somebody dead.
1591
01:31:23,853 --> 01:31:26,230
And so I walked all of the site.
1592
01:31:26,814 --> 01:31:29,942
And it stank, it really stank.
1593
01:31:30,860 --> 01:31:33,404
There were just a few people
wandering around.
1594
01:31:33,905 --> 01:31:37,074
Nobody injured, nobody dead.
A great relief.
1595
01:31:38,242 --> 01:31:39,911
And then we started the cleanup.
1596
01:31:41,996 --> 01:31:44,373
[Diltz] What was left behind
was this incredible sea
1597
01:31:44,457 --> 01:31:48,044
of soggy, wet sleeping bags
and cardboard boxes
1598
01:31:48,127 --> 01:31:51,547
and tents that were all, you know,
knocked down and trampled on.
1599
01:31:51,881 --> 01:31:54,175
All this flotsam and jetsam.
1600
01:31:54,258 --> 01:31:56,427
["Highway Anxiety"
by William Tyler playing]
1601
01:31:57,803 --> 01:32:00,806
[George] We stayed for a while,
helping clean up trash.
1602
01:32:03,142 --> 01:32:05,853
There were a lot of people
out there helping clean up.
1603
01:32:11,067 --> 01:32:13,444
[Starobin] We so did not want to leave.
1604
01:32:14,070 --> 01:32:17,490
We kind of sensed that, you know,
1605
01:32:17,573 --> 01:32:19,992
we could change the world for three days,
1606
01:32:20,493 --> 01:32:22,870
but the rest of the world wasn't with us,
1607
01:32:23,037 --> 01:32:26,958
and we knew that it was going
to be a real culture shock
1608
01:32:27,041 --> 01:32:29,085
coming back into society.
1609
01:32:30,086 --> 01:32:35,675
[reporter] More than 350,000 people
came looking for peace and music.
1610
01:32:35,758 --> 01:32:38,719
Many said they learned a lot
about themselves
1611
01:32:38,803 --> 01:32:41,597
and learned a lot
about getting along together
1612
01:32:41,681 --> 01:32:42,974
and priorities.
1613
01:32:43,349 --> 01:32:47,186
And for most,
that alone makes it all worthwhile.
1614
01:32:49,855 --> 01:32:54,610
[Wavy Gravy] We realized that we
were part of this amazing event
1615
01:32:54,986 --> 01:32:57,321
that nothing like it ever was before.
1616
01:32:59,323 --> 01:33:04,245
[Law] The festival became a symbol
of intelligence and humanity
1617
01:33:04,328 --> 01:33:09,041
and cooperation and love and affection.
1618
01:33:10,293 --> 01:33:13,462
It was the start of a phenomenal change
1619
01:33:13,546 --> 01:33:15,298
in a lot of people's lives.
1620
01:33:17,174 --> 01:33:20,469
[Max Yasgur] When I realized,
Friday night and Saturday morning,
1621
01:33:20,553 --> 01:33:23,848
that we were getting up close
to the half-a-million mark,
1622
01:33:24,432 --> 01:33:27,685
and there was a sea of people here,
1623
01:33:27,768 --> 01:33:29,520
I became quite apprehensive.
1624
01:33:31,439 --> 01:33:34,358
Thoughts flashed through my mind
1625
01:33:34,442 --> 01:33:37,820
of some other problems that they
have had throughout the country.
1626
01:33:38,529 --> 01:33:40,698
And these kids,
1627
01:33:40,781 --> 01:33:43,743
these young people
made me feel guilty today,
1628
01:33:44,243 --> 01:33:45,786
because there were no problems.
1629
01:33:46,620 --> 01:33:49,874
They proved to me,
and they proved to the whole world
1630
01:33:49,957 --> 01:33:51,459
that they didn't come up for any problems.
1631
01:33:51,542 --> 01:33:54,253
They came up for exactly what
they said they were coming up for,
1632
01:33:54,337 --> 01:33:56,255
for three days of music and peace.
1633
01:33:58,674 --> 01:34:03,095
[Daye] It was a mark in cosmic time.
1634
01:34:03,637 --> 01:34:05,431
I have no doubt about that.
1635
01:34:06,515 --> 01:34:08,893
I'm not saying it never happened before
1636
01:34:08,976 --> 01:34:11,145
or that it couldn't happen in the future.
1637
01:34:11,479 --> 01:34:16,067
But that, that stopped
the clocks for three days.
1638
01:34:18,736 --> 01:34:22,281
[George] I felt like I had finally
gotten to fully experience
1639
01:34:22,365 --> 01:34:25,826
what I was hoping
the counterculture meant.
1640
01:34:28,079 --> 01:34:30,414
Woodstock was a very powerful confirmation
1641
01:34:30,498 --> 01:34:32,792
that, "Yeah, this is
what you're looking for,
1642
01:34:32,875 --> 01:34:35,211
and that you're headed
in the right direction."
1643
01:34:39,715 --> 01:34:41,967
[Starobin] Everyone
looking after one another,
1644
01:34:42,051 --> 01:34:43,969
everybody caring about one another.
1645
01:34:44,804 --> 01:34:47,139
I mean, once I experienced that,
1646
01:34:47,848 --> 01:34:52,228
I made it the basis
for the whole rest of my life.
1647
01:35:00,945 --> 01:35:04,615
[Rosenman] At Woodstock,
we tried to let the audience know,
1648
01:35:04,698 --> 01:35:07,076
in every way that we could,
1649
01:35:07,159 --> 01:35:09,203
that we believed in them.
1650
01:35:10,162 --> 01:35:13,165
That inside them was a loving nature,
1651
01:35:13,666 --> 01:35:17,461
a decency, and a fineness of spirit.
1652
01:35:19,171 --> 01:35:20,631
You can forget it sometimes,
1653
01:35:20,714 --> 01:35:24,552
but very few of us
want to be other than that.
1654
01:35:26,720 --> 01:35:28,055
You just need the opportunity.
1655
01:35:28,139 --> 01:35:29,932
[cheering and applauding]
1656
01:35:44,071 --> 01:35:46,115
["Catch the Wind" by Donovan playing]
1657
01:35:51,954 --> 01:35:57,626
♪ In the chilly hours
And minutes of uncertainty ♪
1658
01:35:58,085 --> 01:36:02,339
♪ I want to be in the warm heart ♪
1659
01:36:02,423 --> 01:36:05,509
♪ Of your loving mind ♪
1660
01:36:07,970 --> 01:36:11,348
♪ To feel you all around me ♪
1661
01:36:11,765 --> 01:36:15,936
♪ And to take your hand along the sand ♪
1662
01:36:16,395 --> 01:36:21,275
♪ Ah, but I may as well try
And catch the wind ♪
1663
01:36:24,153 --> 01:36:27,323
♪ When sundown pales the sky ♪
1664
01:36:27,990 --> 01:36:32,203
♪ I want to hide a while
Behind your smile ♪
1665
01:36:32,661 --> 01:36:37,917
♪ And everywhere I'd look
Your eyes I'd find ♪
1666
01:36:40,377 --> 01:36:46,634
♪ For me to love you now
Would be the sweetest thing ♪
1667
01:36:46,717 --> 01:36:48,594
♪ 'Twould make me sing ♪
1668
01:36:48,677 --> 01:36:53,766
♪ Ah, but I may as well try
And catch the wind ♪
1669
01:36:56,894 --> 01:36:58,854
[vocalizing]
1670
01:37:08,489 --> 01:37:12,284
♪ When rain has hung the leaves
with tears ♪
1671
01:37:12,743 --> 01:37:16,539
♪ I want you near to kill my fears ♪
1672
01:37:16,914 --> 01:37:21,168
♪ To help me to leave
all my blues behind... ♪