The Start.
This large festival in 1969 started at 3:00 A.M. There was only suppose to be about 50,000 people at most; but as time went on the line to get in got longer and longer, and finally the fans started to climb over the fences breaking them down so that everyone could come in. By the time everyone showed up there were nearly 500,000 people sitting in Max Yasgur's backyard. The police at the festival could have easily stopped this before it happened but instead they let the eager teens in to listen to the blaring music. Now, it was the four founder's responsibility to keep this festival under control, and at first that's exactly what they did; but as I previously said as time went on more and more people started to plow through the entrance gates to see the performances. Everyone was friendly with each other as if they had known each other their whole life - that could have been from the drugs taken so often. As time went on it seemed as if the people were losing more and more clothes; this probably being from the amount of skinny dipping taking place in the pond at the bottom of the hill. Many artists performed in the three day period. The most popular ones being Jimi Hendrix, Greatful Dead, Santana, Janis Joplin, and even The Beatles.
“At Woodstock, we would focus our energy on peace, setting aside the onstage discussion of political issues to just groove on what might be possible. It was a chance to see if we could create the kind of world for which we’d been striving throughout the sixties: That would be our political statement—proving that peace and understanding were possible and creating a testament to the value of the counterculture.
It would be three days of peace and music.” -Michael Lang
It would be three days of peace and music.” -Michael Lang
Jimi Hendrix actually performed towards the end of the festival in front a smaller audience; although he performed the "Star Spangled Banner" to kick of the three days of peace and music.
Another popular artist/band that performed during the Woodstock festival was "Grateful Dead" they performed on August 16th from 10:30 to 11:45. One very popular song they played was "Mama Tried".
Santana performed on August 16th from 1:45 to about 2:30. They were one of the more famous groups to play during Woodstock; and one song that they played for everyone was "Soul Sacrifice".
Janis Joplin became known as the most famous female singer to ever perform and her going to the Woodstock festival to perform really sparked everyone's attention. Unfortunately her manager would not allow anyone to film her performing her songs. I'm sure someone at that festival illegally filmed her but they will most likely keep that film hidden forever.