August 15: Woodstock Festival opens

“Three Days of Peace and Music”

On this day in 1969, the Woodstock Music Festival opens in Bethel, NY.

Promoters John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfield and Michael Lang originally envisioned the festival as a way to raise funds to build a recording studio and rock-and-roll retreat near the town of Woodstock, New York. The longtime artists’ colony was already a home base for Bob Dylan and other musicians.  The young promoters managed to sign a roster of top acts, including the Jefferson Airplane, The Who, the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival and many more.  Dairy farmer Max Yasgur rescued the event by giving the promoters access to his 600 acres of land in Bethel, some 50 miles from Woodstock when they were denied permission to hold the festival.

By the time the gates opened on Friday, August 15, more than 400,000 people were clamoring to get in.

There were surprisingly few incidents of violence on the overcrowded grounds, and a number of musicians performed songs expressing their opposition to the Vietnam War.

Later music festivals inspired by Woodstock’s success failed to live up to its standard, and the festival still stands for many as an example of America’s 1960s youth counterculture at its best.

Read more at http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-woodstock-festival-opens-in-bethel-new-york

Step back in time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ4QF45Vygw&feature=fvwrel