Rock and art festival in 1969 in Bethel, New York, that became a symbol of baby-boom dreams. For three days in August, an unexpected crush of 500,000 plus participants adapted to freedom, music, drugs and a lack of sanitation. In addition to performances by Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Who, the Grateful Dead, Santana, the Band, Jefferson Airplane and others, the celebration itself became myth, aided by the film and soundtrack Woodstock (1969). Nonetheless, this was a commercially organized concert, charging $18 for three-day admissions, paying performers and controlling film rights. Nonetheless, the experience of being there created an alternative vision of Woodstock Nation (1969).

This myth also opposed the Rolling Stone’s Altamount concert that year, at which Hells’ Angels, hired as bodyguards, beat a fan to death (recorded in David and Albert Maysle’s Gimme Shelter, 1970).

Attempts to recreate this event/ambiance have proven less successful. Woodstock 1994, the twenty-fifth anniversary, became highly commercialized, with sponsorship from Polygram and Pepsi and pay-per-view retransmission; musician Neil Young dubbed it “Greedstock.” Although Woodstock 1999 gathered strong contemporary bands and 1969 veterans, it, too, was marred by costs and commercialism ($150 entrance tickets).

Fires and destruction at closing and a disturbing misogyny marked by reports of multiple rapes, made it seem even further from the original or its myth. Whether the result of the high expectations set by the first or increasingly exploitative concerts and festivals in the interim, it seems one cannot go back to Yasgur’s farm.