Aug 16, WOODSTOCK

Woodstock was a profit-making venture, aptly titled
"Woodstock Ventures". Around 186,000 tickets were
sold beforehand and organizers anticipated approximately
200,000 festival-goers would turn up. Tickets for the event
cost US$18 in advance and $24 at the gate for all three days.
Ticket saleswere limited to record stores in the greater New
York City area, or by mail via a Post Office Box at the Radio
City Station Post Office located in Midtown Manhattan. As
the day of the festival neared, almost double the number of
expected people turned up and demanded that the concert be
made a free one.

The festival came amidst military conflict abroad and racial
discord at home. It was the biggest bash for the counterculture
and is a reminder of the youthful hedonism and excess of the 60s.
It was a culmination of what the counterculture meant—
the bands appealed to the generation that was questioning the
direction of American society. Many of the biggest artists
of the 60s performed at the Festival, and it was their influence on
the youth that brought them together to a farm in Bethel to
struggle against bad weather, food shortages and poor sanitation.
The site of Woodstock became, for four days, a countercultural
mini-nation. Minds were open, drugs were available and "love"
was "free". It was a festival where nearly 400,000 "hippies"
came together to celebrate under the slogan of "three days
of peace and music"

Woodstock- 3 days of peace and music, is a 1970 documentary
on the Woodstock Festival. The film was directed by Micha l
Wadleigh and was edited by (amongst others) Martin Scorsese
 and Thelma Schoonmaker. It received the Academy Award
for Documentary Feature, as well as a nomination for Best Sound.

TRIVIA
•  The documentary was reportedly edited from 120 miles of
 footage shot at the three-day concert.
•  While they don't appear in the film, or on the soundtrack,
a number of other artists played at Woodstock, such as The
Grateful Dead, Incredible String Band, Creedence Clearwater
Revival, Johnny Winter and Ravi Shankar played through the rain.
•  There is a small portion of footage of Jerry Garcia in the film
holding a joint, and also of him discussing the traffic problems
while tuning his guitar.
•  Though the Doors did not play at Woodstock, drummer
John Densmore can be seen briefly watching Joe Cocker from
the side of the stage.

For more on Woodstock the festival