It’s August 16, 1969. Where are you? I, just so happen, to not be born yet. In fact, my parents have not even met each other; they are just young little things themselves. If I could get that darned flux capacitor to work, I would be enjoying the day at Woodstock watching the Grateful Dead, CCR, Janis Joplin, and The Who. Since my time machine is still not quite in working order, I relive Woodstock vicariously through the music. And on August 16, 2015, I got even closer to the experience by visiting the festival site on the Woodstock anniversary. Walking the field where 400,000 people gathered for “three days of peace and music” was a pretty groovy experience. It was fun to have my parents along for the ride; three generations of hippies. Okay, so really, I’m probably the only one of us who is in the realm of hippiehood, but it was still fun to all go together. In fact, we all figured out our hippie names, and used them for the day. Hello, my name is Sunflower.
Some fun facts from The Woodstock Music and Arts Fair; just in case you weren’t able to be there for whatever reason. Or in case you were there, and don’t remember it (wink, wink).
• The Woodstock festival wasn’t actually held in Woodstock, NY because the organizers couldn’t find a location large enough. After permits were revoked from their second choice, they settled in the town of Bethel.
• Organizers were expecting around 80,000 to 100,000 concert goers for the event. With quadruple the amount of people actually showing up, and no system in place on how to charge them, Woodstock became a FREE event.
• With all the peace, and love wrapped up in nostalgia for Woodstock, it can be easy to forget that it wasn’t all fun, and games. There was lots of rain, and lots of mud. Besides mud, there were some other (what shall I call it) “stuff” running across the field when the toilets overflowed. YUCK!!
• With more than four times as many people showing up, there was a food shortage. Organizers were completely understocked with food for the weekend, and they actually ran out the first day of the concert. With the generosity of some of the locals, sandwiches were made, and donated; as well as food being airlifted in from a local military base.
I’ll stop there since my fun facts sure aren’t sounding that fun. With all the “problems” that Woodstock faced, it’s still an anomaly to me. You’ve got almost half a million people crammed into one area with less than desirable sanitary conditions. A food and water shortage; as well as the rain, and the mud. What’s so interesting to me….no riot. All of these negative things that could have compounded together, and made for an explosive disaster; they simply didn’t. It makes me feel like it really was just all about the music.
This has nothing to do with Woodstock other than that we saw these on the same day…..hay bale Minions. Since I adore Minions, I had to include them. They’re too cute not to.
