Woodstock 1969

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Peak:
24 hours ago

For those of you who haven't heard of Woodstock...really? Wow. Big event. Lots of references, but Wikipedia is always a good place to start (I particularly like the "Declined Invitations" section.) There are plenty of first person accounts out there, too.

My Take: it is generally accepted that this was the greatest music festival of all time and this or the shootings at Kent State in 1970 are used to mark the end of the childhood for the post WWII baby boom generation in the United States. I was seven at the time, and for me this was at best the third most important story of the summer behind the birth of my baby brother and the first moon landing. The largest festival I ever attended was the US Festival in the 80's (thanks Woz, I had a great time), but that was after the Who the concert tragedy, so the US Festival was a much more controlled environment.

In spite of it's image as a counter-culture event, Woodstock as been co-opted by the mainstream, in promotion, if not in spirit (in Seattle, for example, and in Houston). The hunger has been forgotten, the drugs have been romanticized, and only the music has truly lived on in its original form - but I guess the music was what it was all about anyway.