The four founders.
The founders of the Woodstock festival were Michael Lang, John P. Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and Artie Kornfeld. Roberts and Rosenman were the ones financing the giant project. Lang was an experienced promoter and had already created the largest music festival on the East Coast, Miami Pop Festival. Roberts and Rosenman originally posted an ad in multiple news papers asking for men looking for legitimate investment opportunities. Lang and Kornfeld saw the ad and the four of them got together to discuss a recording studio in Woodstock. This recording studio idea further evolved into an outdoor music and arts festival. Not nearly as large as it turned out to be, it was only suppose to have a couple of famous artists from Woodstock like Bob Dylan and The Band. During the process of this project there were many doubts about this festival and many different approaches from different personalities. In April of 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival agreed to play at the event for $10,000. Once this popular band signed an act for the festival every popular or famous artist signed starting calling the for founders.
Max Yasgur saves the day.
Once all of the artists starting signing to the event, it was fairly easy for these for young men. Although the festival was originally going to take place in the 300-acre Mills Industrial Park, in the town of Wallkill, New York. But, the towns court banned the four men from having the concert in their town. Lang had then met a Realtor who said he knew a man with tons of land that would let him perform his festival there. That's when Lang met Max Yasgur and his 600-acre dairy farm. It was a giant hill with a nice pond at the bottom which would soon become a popular place for skinny dipping. As you can tell the town of Wallkill, New York did not give these four gentlemen the right to perform this concert in their town but eventually Max Yasgur gave them the right to perform in his own backyard.
“On Max Yasgur’s six hundred acres, everyone dropped their defenses and became a huge extended family. Joining together, getting into the music and each other, being part of so many people when calamity struck — the traffic jams, the rainstorms — was a life-changing experience. None of the problems damaged our spirit. In fact, they drew us closer. We recognized one another for what we were at the core, as brothers and sisters, and we embraced one another in that knowledge.” -Michael Lang