1969: Happy 56th Anniversary to Woodstock!
What is alternately billed as “an Aquarian Exposition” and “3 Days of Peace and Music,” the Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens on Max Yasgur’s farm outside Bethel, New York (close, but not really in Woodstock). Richie Havens opens the show. The Who, Sly & the Family Stone, Joe Cocker, and the Jefferson Airplane are among the two dozen acts that will perform.
The event eventually draws nearly 500,000 people. Days of rain, inadequate food, water, and restroom facilities make the actual event far more harrowing than the subsequent film and record album convey.
Three deaths, two births, and one marriage will take place before Jimi Hendrix closes the festival. Yasgur’s relationship with his neighbors will never recover.
