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I added a link for the Monterey Pop festival, which deserves an article of its own. Monterey was, as far as I know, the first rock festival of its kind, and probably served as the inspiration for Woodstock. I have to say that, after looking at the roster of artists who performed at Woodstock, I am blown away with just how impressive it was. No wonder so many people wanted to attend. :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Egern~enwiki ( talk • contribs) 07:51, 15 November 2001 (UTC)
Don't you think there are way too many hyperlinks in this article? Words like "rainy"... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tiiba ( talk) 05:24, 5 December 2004 (UTC)
I changed the Crosby, Stills, & Nash (and Young) reference to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but I later read that Young only joined the trio after Woodstock. Apparently he did perform some numbers with them, but I don't know if he and they were featured separately and this was just serendipity. Could someone chime in on this? -- Jeff Q 06:25, 23 May 2004 (UTC)
I hate to be a killjoy but doesn't the license on the stamp used on this page specifically rule out its use in this manner? Nrbelex ( talk) 03:05, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
The Grateful Dead played at the festival but did not appear in the film or in any music releases due to their refusal to sign the contract given to them just before they went on stage.
I took this out, because this isn't true about the Dead and Woodstock. This happened with the Dead and the Monterey Pop Festival. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jck strw ( talk) 15:09, 13 October 2005 (UTC)
I took the entire part in the Abbie Hoffman article about him and Woodstock and created a section in this about it. Meddling 00:26, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Meddling
This article needs additional citations for
verification. |
in the description it says "The Who did not take stage until about 4:00 in the morning" but when you school down it says 3:00. Consistancy? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.224.120.138 ( talk) 03:39, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
We really need a source for that. Otherwise it's just original research. bogdan 20:42, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
I recently lived in the area of the concert for almost two years (I lived in the town of Thompson, Sullivan County, N.Y., adjacent to the town of Bethel). I am young (born 15 years after the festival), and I was surprised that many longtime local people I met from the area, did not have fond memories of the event. As other areas did not originally want the concert, this area of Sullivan County was somewhat unwelcoming and unprepared for the festival. People told me that the strain it put on the police and other public employees/officials as well as the roads being shut down were the biggest problems. Even in retrospect today, some people wish the festival had never happened. I also herd a rumor of a recent find: An old car trunk contained a dufflebag filled with unused, untorn tickets from the festival, and was found by a garage mechanic in Monticello, N.Y.(Town of Thompson). Maybe someone knows about this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.69.116.124 ( talk) 23:35, December 15, 2006
protect was unfortunate, but it had to be done...this is getting out of hand Meddling 03:08, 7 February 2007 (UTC)Meddling
"Jay Underwood got most of the bands to perform and was also on stage for many of the songs." Who? The only Jay Underwood otherwise known to Wikipedia was then a baby. — Tamfang 21:05, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
This article needs the names of the promoters and financial backers of Woodstock. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 192.173.35.26 ( talk) 22:08, 3 May 2007 (UTC).
John Roberts, heir to the Polident denture cream fortune; Joel Rosenman. A very stoned Kornfeld and Lang appear in the movie. It should be noted that Lang went on to promote the subsequent festivals (1994 and 1999). Because the festival lost huge amounts of money and John Roberts allegedly had signed over $500K worth of bad checks (Source: Trivia, 1994 Woodstock box set), Roberts basically cashed in a portion of his inheritance. The story of Woodstock Ventures, Inc. and the festival's organization (including the chronology of events during the festival) can be found at a number of trusted Woodstock-related websites.
-Jonathan Hiatt — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.118.0.57 ( talk) 04:03, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
This will work better if a more exact time was specified, as the usage of "summer" here is ambiguous.
This is also ambiguous. Substituting the exact date will work better here. -- B.d.mills 03:58, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
is there any way to get the videos of other perfomances? like the one of ravi shankar or the other songs of great musicians like john sebastian, richie havens, jeff airplane and so long... the woodstock documentary should be at least 3 days long! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.184.99.4 ( talk) 17:33, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
How many *actually* attended? Claims of 400,000 are regularly made, but where does the figure come from? -- Robert Merkel — Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.9.128.xxx ( talk) 07:39, 15 November 2001 (UTC)
There's a setlist at DigitalDreamDoor, but it's inconsistant with the one here, and I think there should just be a complete setlist rather than an small, short description of their performance, for the time being I will be using the setlist at the website, and people who know differently can change it as they please if their information is wrong. Meddling 21:47, 7 July 2006 (UTC)Meddling
The promoters of Woodstock refused John Lennon? Any reason why? Sure, it would have been nice if the Beatles had been at Woodstock, but why refuse Lennon?-10/4/06 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.163.100.9 ( talk) 22:13, 4 October 2006
Shouldn't he and his "Please Force" be mentioned? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.151.79.108 ( talk) 00:35, 8 March 2007
Acording to Randy Bachman, The Guess Who were invited, but because they played some other festival, which the considered to be the best, they declined. They went on to record American Woman at thet time. He said this on his radio show some time back. I can't remeber exactley how it went, but if anyone can eleborate upon this, it should be included.
ufossuck
01:39, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
iron butterfly are mentioned there, and probably if the guess who had played woodstock they had become bigger than they were, i mean look at what woodstock did for santana. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.196.227.222 ( talk) 13:21, 18 April 2010 (UTC)
Why is the article at "Woodstock Festival"? I notice that the most common name, "Woodstock", is a redirect here (I would have thought that the best spot for the article unless "Woodstock" was a disambiguation, which it isn't). I also see that acording to article, the official name was apparently "the Woodstock Music and Art Fair" and I didn't notice an explanation of why it should be called "Woodstock Festival" in the article. Just wondering, -- Infrogmation 03:38, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
I've read where Neil claimed that he and Jimi were on their way to the Woodstock stage area. However, being that it was a bit far off in the distance Neil hijacked a pick-up truck and drove it thru the fields while Jimi rode on the hood pointing the way. T. Cole-Chicago —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.46.220.64 ( talk) 13:03, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
Hey, I always thought that there were 24 hours in a day, taken from 12.00 to 24.00, so why is this set list artificially divided into 3 days when the festival actually ran into 4, yet another example of 'fitting' the evidence to a pre-concieved Ideal, lets get back to reality, the audience certainly did, no matter how spaced they have been percieved as, the majority headed off back to routine of 'Monday Morning' and a lot of those that stayed for a glimpse of Jimi left shortly after he arrived on stage. Jameselmo ( talk) 23:02, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
A large amount of biased edits have been contributed today by 68.53.171.208. This could be vandalism or simply a disgruntled critic of the festival, but either way, I'd ask everyone to keep an eye on his/her contributions to see if any further action should be taken. Thanks, Glassbreaker5791 ( talk) 16:21, 25 June 2008 (UTC)
---> "A local banker, Charlie Prince, went way out on a limb and extended $250,000 of credit to Woodstock Ventures at a crucial time. Because additional ticket revenues were not coming in and some acts (Janis Joplin, the Who, and the Grateful Dead) refused to perform until they were paid, ..." --P. 270
The same information appears (again with no footnotes) in this 2006 book, It Happened in New York:
So, I do not know if you all would consider these sources as verifiable information. Designquest10 ( talk) 14:46, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
This sentence makes no sense and appears to be missing a word or two: "Instead the group went on with their hugely successful summer tour, their only time out being taken to attend Elvis Presley's show, at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, on August 12." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.174.101.64 ( talk) 16:10, 7 July 2008 (UTC)
Wesley Pomeroy should have been included in this article. He was the Vice President and Director of Security for Woodstock, which played a very important role.
There are several other sources if you need them. As he was a key and essential organizer for the event, he should be included. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.92.67.206 ( talk) 18:51, 20 July 2008 (UTC)
It says that Tim Hardin headed up an hour-long set but only shows two songs he played (which together are somewhere around five minutes long); I'm just curious as to how he filled a whole hour. Did he play some jam session or something for the remainder of his set? 69.134.33.93 ( talk) 18:49, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
you should really take them out of the article, i mean a few weeks ago there stands that they coulnd't get the beatles to play there but john offered to be there with the ono band(but they turned him down), now there stands that the beatles would have come if the ono band could also play, and if this would be true why the hell should they turn down the beatles just because after them there would play the band who played give peace a chance? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.196.249.95 ( talk) 18:37, 24 September 2008 (UTC)
A "See also" link to Woodstock Jazz Festival was placed in the article twice. I have removed it because I see very little relationship to Woodstock Festival except for the coincidence of both containing the word "Woodstock" simply because the jazz festival occured in Woodstock, NY. The jazz festival was not based on the 1969 rock event (as some other music festivals have been), and the music genre was entirely different. A coincidence of name is not notable enough for inclusion in the article. If that was the case, we would be linking such unrelated articles as an 1826 novel entitled Woodstock. Ward3001 ( talk) 18:13, 22 November 2008 (UTC)
Ward, you are invited to join the discussion on the talk page regarding your use of fact tags. First you haven't challenged the material in question. Second, section tags are preferred to multiple citation tags whenever possible, especially in cases where it appears that a single topic is covered by single sources, such as an event like this. Third, with all due respect, you do not appear to be familiar with the material in question, as you do not seem to have made an effort to look for sources. Specific fact tags are used for controversial, challenged, or quoted material. If you can't be bothered to do the research, then that's fine, just excuse yourself from this article. If on the other hand, you are serious about adding sources, I welcome and invite you to participate. Now, please join the discussion. Viriditas ( talk) 02:11, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
With the most recent edit to this article, there are now two External Links to foreign-language (French) Woodstock sites.
As a casual editor, I don't know the WP policy about non-English links, but the addition of these links seems to me to be a bit de trop for an English encyclopedia. In addition, the links appear to be rather promotional in nature. Could a seasoned Wikipedian please comment, and if appropriate, delete these references? Merci. Seduisant ( talk) 15:13, 12 March 2009 (UTC)
I just took a closer look at "Woodstock En Beauce" and got a Google translation, as I don't speak French. It does not appear to pertain to the original Woodstock Festival. It also appears to be a lot of spam. If no one object, I'm removing that link in a day or two. Ward3001 ( talk) 01:00, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
I suggest the removal of another article: the Portugese one addressing a possible Woodstock tribute concert in Brazil. Not only is this article not in English, but it also is only speculation and does not certify the future occurence of an actual event. -- Mrkemper ( talk) 09:10, 14 April 2010 (UTC)
I was stunned to find that the article had virtually no info about the albums, apart from a brief mention in the intro. I added a small section, just below the section about the film. EJSawyer ( talk) 21:50, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
Today I reverted an infobox entry/external link to something called woodstock.com [1], which features some Woodstock content, but is mostly reviews of concerts, albums, etc. by non-Woodstock bands, plus lots of ads. There's also content from "fans", Facebook-style, listing concerts they've attended, and similar drivel.
Usually I would dismiss this out of hand, but I did a WHOIS on the site, and found that it is the work of Joel Rosenman, one of the festival founders. Any registered article-watchers want to weigh in on this link's inclusion? Thanks. Seduisant ( talk) 15:51, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
Wasn't the idea that there'd be a Woodstock every 25 years? The next one (#3) being in 2019? -- 98.232.181.201 ( talk) 08:45, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
by Viriditas ( talk) about the change I wanted to make. Viriditas may I ask your permission? Markmark12 ( talk) 09:31, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
A recent AP story quotes Bethel museum Director Wade Lawrence saying that the NY State Thruway was never closed, contrary to the BBC article cited. I added a line indicating this was disputed. I went to the NY Times articles at the time and there was no reference to the Thruway or even Rt. 17 being closed. It only indicates that Rt. 17B was blocked off. On balance, I think it may be an urban myth.-- JohnnyB256 ( talk) 02:48, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
Can anybody tell me why there is nothing about Woodstock Stop? This is the biggest open-air rock festival in Europe. It's ogranized since 1995 in Poland from 1st to 3rd of August.
Of course it's different festival but in fact, it have really big refers to the traditions of 1969. For example, at the oficial site of the festival there is short triler at the top, which shows clips about 40th anniversary. Or near the logo of this year edition, there is the logo of the classic '69 festival.
The Woodstock Stop is very popular festival, in this year there should be about half milion people there, so I suppose that there must be some information about it.
This is the links to sites:
http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/woodstock/ (english)
http://www.wosp.org.pl/przystanek/2009/ (polish) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.45.66.70 ( talk) 21:33, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
Does anyone else hate that Rolling Stone is there at top as well as the stuff in the pp that follows. As someone who wasn't around then, it certainyl doesnt help summarize the essence of what it was. it just reeks of raining on the parade--what credibility to they have in determining what was and what wasnt about Woodstock? maybe if Rolling Stone explained what made the event historic , and there was a link to that article...—Preceding unsigned comment added by Markmark12 ( talk • contribs) 23:10, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
Statements like these litter this article:
99.164.68.102 ( talk) 11:54, 12 August 2009 (UTC)
Is it true that the main purpose of the festival was to coax out Bob Dylan? This isn't really mentioned in the article.-- Jack Upland ( talk) 10:13, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
There is a source ^ "Reporting Woodstock: Some contemporary press reflections on the festival" by Simon Warner in Remembering Woodstock, edited by Andy Bennett (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004)." that seems to be the citation used for the claims made in the section. Because we can't link to the section there is no way to immediately figure out if the claims made from this section come from this cite. If they are there is no problem. If this can't be confirmed this needs to be taken out as there are some very serious allegation being made here.
On a longer term note this section should evolve into a general overview of how the media covered the event. Edkollin ( talk) 01:48, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
In any event, I question how this section adds to the readers' understanding of the article topic. There is no inherent *notability* in how one news outlet covered the event. The article is not about the NYT; there is no useful context for details about an apparent disagreement between a reporter and his editors. Jgm ( talk) 11:43, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
Does anyone believe this article can be made ready for nomination for FA for the 40th anniversary of Woodstock on the 17th. It would be nice but it is rated C class and still haves at least 1 tag. Just a thought. B.s.n. (R.N.) 06:37, 16 August 2009 (UTC)
Here's my take:
So, even with Woodstock eventually becoming a free concert, it should have created a pretty healthy profit.
Does anyone have further information on this? Thanks! Maikel ( talk) 11:19, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
It would be nice if this article included a section about how the festival was financed, who paid what, and where the money went. This is especially true if the "peace and love" concert was followed by 80 lawsuits. GregE625 ( talk) 19:09, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
How does Woodstock compare to other big concerts of the era? Was it the biggest until then? Was it the biggest concert ever?
Was there anything new about the idea to host several bands, not just a single act and their supporting band?
Let's put Woodstock in perspective, folks! Ta, Maikel ( talk) 11:39, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
Two of the major books on the subject (Robert Spitz "Barefoot in Babylon" and Pete Fornatale "Back to the Garden") state that Contry Joe's solo appearance and John Sebastian's occurred on Friday night, after Richie Havens. They go into considerable detail about how this occurred. Michael Lang's book has their appearances on Saturday afternoon, as does this article, without a citation. What's the real story? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.86.13.191 ( talk) 22:27, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
Elliot Tiber's account of the origins of Woodstock, and how it came to Bethel, needs to be treated with caution. He claims in the book Taking Woodstock, which I've read, that he personally introduced Michael Lang to Max Yasgur. But Lang says Tiber introduced Lang to a real estate salesman, and the salesman drove Lang to Yasgur, without Tiber. This is a pretty big discrepancy. Tiber may be right, but Sam Yasgur, Max's son, agrees with Lang. Given that this key factual detail is disputed, prudence requires that anything attributable to Tiber be stated as such in the article. -- JohnnyB256 ( talk) 23:11, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
Editors familiar with the history of the festival are urged to take a look at Sam Yasgur. I just became aware of this article. It claims that Sam Yasgur persuaded his father to bring Woodstock to Bethel. That is unsupported by the two references. I'd suspect this was a hoax, but it has been around for four years.-- JohnnyB256 ( talk) 21:47, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
An anon editor insists on creating a new section consisting solely of a description of a poem about Woodstock by Argentine poet Edgar Brau. There is already a "Cultural references" section, where any mention of this poem would seem to belong; there is no indication it deserves a section of its own. Additionally, the added content contained an extensive description/analysis of the poem's content, which is completely unsourced. As added, the entry appears spammy, unsourced and gives undue weight to one work by an author who, while probably is considered important in his homeland, does not even have an entry in English Wikipedia.
Additionally, in the same edit in which I trimmed the poem description to that which could be verified (based on the English-language publisher's site, sort of COI in itself), I also included other minor fixes to other references and external links. The anon editor keeps reverting the entire set of changes without comment, undoing changes explained/noted in the edit summaries. Reverting for reasons given. Fat&Happy ( talk) 15:42, 3 May 2010 (UTC)
Does a 40th anniversary concert comprised of apparently non-notable tribute bands merit mention? Rather than edit war, I'm bringing this here for a consensus. JNW ( talk) 03:45, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
John Fogerty's quote may be accurate as to what he said but what he stated isn't accurate. The Bic lighter wasn't around in 1969. The guy he mentioned would have been using some other type of lighter (probably a Zippo, maybe something else). Maybe the guy who was "flicking his Bic" was flicking a Bic ink pen. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.196.198.16 ( talk) 16:16, 28 September 2010 (UTC)
There's now a Wikiquote page devoted to quotations from or about the festival, Q:Woodstock Festival. It's just a start. I know there are a bunch of memorable lines, but I don't have any books on the topic. If anyone can improve the page, have at it. (I copied in the John Fogerty quotation from this page already.) Will Beback talk 08:57, 2 February 2011 (UTC)
Woodstock 25th anniversary Woodstock 94 held at the historic 'Wilson Farm' in Saugerties, NY hosted 200,000+ folks who celebrated the spirit of the original festival with multiple stages, an eco-village, a craft-village and an installation by Todd Rundgren. The two main stages hosted major artists from around the world and were designed by Peter Max. Michael Lang partnered with PolyGram Records to finance this production.
Woodstock 30th anniversary Michael Lang and Jon Scher promoted and produced this festival located at an abandoned air force base in Rome NY. 250,000+ attended this festival which ended in riots. Major artists including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Dave Matthew's Band, Green Day and Rusted Root performed during the three days.
The above concerts were major events in Woodstock History and yet no mention is made on the page, they should be listed and linked to the relevant pages. Astralmaster ( talk) 19:47, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
The result of the move request was: page moved. Vegaswikian ( talk) 19:47, 16 July 2011 (UTC)
Woodstock Festival →
Woodstock – The proposed title already redirects here, so issues of primary topic should be moot. I think people rarely append "Festival" when talking about this event; they just say "I was at Woodstock" or "Woodstock was a crazy time". That makes
Woodstock the
WP:COMMONNAME for this event.
Powers
T
13:01, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
That's a serious ommission in the article. They were there, in older books they're always mentioned, but I never knew the details. I start with putting up the Wiki article as ext.link, but it really should be in the article. AlterBerg ( talk) 09:31, 6 January 2013 (UTC)AlterBerg AlterBerg ( talk) 09:31, 6 January 2013 (UTC)
Minor, but bothersome: How many died of a drug overdose (one place says one, another two). When did The Who start (3am or just before 4am)? John (Jwy) 06:03, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
Major inconsistency: what time did CCR actually start playing? Twice in the article a 3am start time is mentioned, but the performing artist list has them playing at 12:30am. Maybe there's an understandable reason for such a blatant contradiction (list contains scheduled start times as opposed to actual start times or something), but you need to explain that for the casual reader. It seems like a lot of work went into the article, and then you just leave in something that most people (including myself) are going to see as a huge inconsistency. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 100.1.99.78 ( talk) 14:30, 26 August 2012 (UTC)
Benny Hill did a hilarious--and pointed--parody skit of the Woodstock Festival. Entitled "Woodstick," the segment featured a song with a refrain that went, "Woodstick, la-la-la-la Woodstick. . .three whole days of love-and-peace-and-joy," as the camera panned across a vast, trampled field littered with garbage. That about sums it up for me, as an early Gen-Xer who grew up with four insufferable Baby Boomer siblings and their pothead friends: "You can't remember the Sixties, man. You just don't understand." Yeah, these narcissistic, smug, self-satisfied Boomers have gobbled up everything as they've marched through life, leaving successive generations to fight over the shrinking pie, be it in education, jobs, housing, and, soon, retirement. The generation that gave us the Summer of Love is about to send Medicare spiralling into bankruptcy thanks to innumerable premature age-related illnesses induced by all of their toking up, junk food and other habits indulged in during those supposedly halcyon days and long afterwards. Benny Hill (born 1924) got it right. Drop dead, Woodstock. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.27.73.102 ( talk) 06:40, 10 January 2007 (UTC).
"improve the fencing and security, which might have resulted in violence;"
Should this not be "relax the fencing and security,..."? Because:
1. Improving it should result in less violence.
2. Improving it would cost more money, which was the problem at hand.
3. In the end, the fence was cut.
Therefore, I wanted to replace "improve" with "relax", but first wanted to clarify why.
This is important, because the cutting of the fence, and the reason therefore, was a pivotal move in what led to the eventual attendance being so high. — Preceding unsigned comment added by YamSuf ( talk • contribs) 12:34, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
Outside of media coverage, why doesn't this article cover more criticism of the festival? It reads very "glowingly" of the festival yet it mentions deaths, arrests, traffic jams, food & water shortages. The media coverage mentions people working together to provide food & shelter to the masses that attended as if it was expected and not provided because it had to be provided. Wouldn't two accidental deaths in two days in any other city of 400,000 cause front page headlines? Surely there was criticism of the traffic management plan and the affect of people not attending and how they were inconvenienced. Did anyone else die because they couldn't get to the hospital due to the traffic jams? The article mentions law suits as a result of mismanagement - wouldn't that warrant a separate criticism section?
I know this was a huge event for the 60s but it had impacts beyond those attending and the festival itself but the article doesn't seem to cover any of that. Dbroer ( talk) 13:38, 12 August 2013 (UTC)
Everyone who has ever been associated with Woodstock has always remarked that as far as anyone knows there was never a fistfight or single altercation of any kind at the event..I don`t know if that`s true or not but that`s what they say which is pretty much the point when you get to it...it established the ethos of the jam band hippy festivals whatever you want to call it..on the grounds of the Wannee festival every year they bring in a few security people to be safe...nothing ever happens..the following weekend there is a country music festival where they hire every off duty cop in Florida and they still cant control the violence. Lonepilgrim007 ( talk) 06:45, 30 December 2013 (UTC)
To the OP: you might be aware of this (or not), but the establishment and large parts of mass media set out to soil the festival from the get go, partly because they disliked/distrusted the counterculture movement, partly because they expected a lot of violence, not just sex, drugs & rock'n'roll. Yet that didn't happen, so they had to change their story even before the last chords sounded. Some parts of the media focused on the overall feeling of social harmony and good music, while others went out of their way to find every little dirty detail to report. But at the end of the day, all sides more or less agreed that it was an uneventful gathering of almost half a million young people for 3 days, which is nothing short of a miracle. If there's so little meaningful criticism about the festival - both then and now - that's because there's little to criticize. Yes, there were traffic jams, shortages of food and sanitation, disruption for residents, the sea of mud, the litter, the brown acid. Yes there were 2 deaths (one of which had nothing to do with what the festival was about). But that's not the reason we still remember it 45 years later. Scoffers and hippie haters parodied Woodstock for years but they missed the main point: Woodstock wasn't about setting a model for how concert logistics should be handled! 143.239.64.169 ( talk) 08:38, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
There is a citation needed tag on "nearly half a million concert-goers." The early news reports give the total as 300,000. Some articles written in late 1969 mention "a half million." These seem to be casual estimates. The festival promoters are quoted in this August 1969 article as saying 300,000 people.
The New York State Attorney General's office was investigating complaints of ticket holders who did not get into the festival. The promoters pointed out that the tickets specified that refunds would be granted only if the show were canceled.
"Mr. [Michael] Lang has said that more than half of the 300,000 people who attended the fair got in free because three times the expected number of people turned up and broke down the entire ticket - selling, ticket taking procedure."
-- SWTPC6800 ( talk) 19:50, 16 August 2009 (UTC) (I was in the crowd at Altamont)
![]() | This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 | Archive 2 |
I added a link for the Monterey Pop festival, which deserves an article of its own. Monterey was, as far as I know, the first rock festival of its kind, and probably served as the inspiration for Woodstock. I have to say that, after looking at the roster of artists who performed at Woodstock, I am blown away with just how impressive it was. No wonder so many people wanted to attend. :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Egern~enwiki ( talk • contribs) 07:51, 15 November 2001 (UTC)
Don't you think there are way too many hyperlinks in this article? Words like "rainy"... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tiiba ( talk) 05:24, 5 December 2004 (UTC)
I changed the Crosby, Stills, & Nash (and Young) reference to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but I later read that Young only joined the trio after Woodstock. Apparently he did perform some numbers with them, but I don't know if he and they were featured separately and this was just serendipity. Could someone chime in on this? -- Jeff Q 06:25, 23 May 2004 (UTC)
I hate to be a killjoy but doesn't the license on the stamp used on this page specifically rule out its use in this manner? Nrbelex ( talk) 03:05, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
The Grateful Dead played at the festival but did not appear in the film or in any music releases due to their refusal to sign the contract given to them just before they went on stage.
I took this out, because this isn't true about the Dead and Woodstock. This happened with the Dead and the Monterey Pop Festival. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jck strw ( talk) 15:09, 13 October 2005 (UTC)
I took the entire part in the Abbie Hoffman article about him and Woodstock and created a section in this about it. Meddling 00:26, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Meddling
This article needs additional citations for
verification. |
in the description it says "The Who did not take stage until about 4:00 in the morning" but when you school down it says 3:00. Consistancy? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.224.120.138 ( talk) 03:39, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
We really need a source for that. Otherwise it's just original research. bogdan 20:42, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
I recently lived in the area of the concert for almost two years (I lived in the town of Thompson, Sullivan County, N.Y., adjacent to the town of Bethel). I am young (born 15 years after the festival), and I was surprised that many longtime local people I met from the area, did not have fond memories of the event. As other areas did not originally want the concert, this area of Sullivan County was somewhat unwelcoming and unprepared for the festival. People told me that the strain it put on the police and other public employees/officials as well as the roads being shut down were the biggest problems. Even in retrospect today, some people wish the festival had never happened. I also herd a rumor of a recent find: An old car trunk contained a dufflebag filled with unused, untorn tickets from the festival, and was found by a garage mechanic in Monticello, N.Y.(Town of Thompson). Maybe someone knows about this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.69.116.124 ( talk) 23:35, December 15, 2006
protect was unfortunate, but it had to be done...this is getting out of hand Meddling 03:08, 7 February 2007 (UTC)Meddling
"Jay Underwood got most of the bands to perform and was also on stage for many of the songs." Who? The only Jay Underwood otherwise known to Wikipedia was then a baby. — Tamfang 21:05, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
This article needs the names of the promoters and financial backers of Woodstock. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 192.173.35.26 ( talk) 22:08, 3 May 2007 (UTC).
John Roberts, heir to the Polident denture cream fortune; Joel Rosenman. A very stoned Kornfeld and Lang appear in the movie. It should be noted that Lang went on to promote the subsequent festivals (1994 and 1999). Because the festival lost huge amounts of money and John Roberts allegedly had signed over $500K worth of bad checks (Source: Trivia, 1994 Woodstock box set), Roberts basically cashed in a portion of his inheritance. The story of Woodstock Ventures, Inc. and the festival's organization (including the chronology of events during the festival) can be found at a number of trusted Woodstock-related websites.
-Jonathan Hiatt — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.118.0.57 ( talk) 04:03, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
This will work better if a more exact time was specified, as the usage of "summer" here is ambiguous.
This is also ambiguous. Substituting the exact date will work better here. -- B.d.mills 03:58, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
is there any way to get the videos of other perfomances? like the one of ravi shankar or the other songs of great musicians like john sebastian, richie havens, jeff airplane and so long... the woodstock documentary should be at least 3 days long! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.184.99.4 ( talk) 17:33, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
How many *actually* attended? Claims of 400,000 are regularly made, but where does the figure come from? -- Robert Merkel — Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.9.128.xxx ( talk) 07:39, 15 November 2001 (UTC)
There's a setlist at DigitalDreamDoor, but it's inconsistant with the one here, and I think there should just be a complete setlist rather than an small, short description of their performance, for the time being I will be using the setlist at the website, and people who know differently can change it as they please if their information is wrong. Meddling 21:47, 7 July 2006 (UTC)Meddling
The promoters of Woodstock refused John Lennon? Any reason why? Sure, it would have been nice if the Beatles had been at Woodstock, but why refuse Lennon?-10/4/06 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.163.100.9 ( talk) 22:13, 4 October 2006
Shouldn't he and his "Please Force" be mentioned? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.151.79.108 ( talk) 00:35, 8 March 2007
Acording to Randy Bachman, The Guess Who were invited, but because they played some other festival, which the considered to be the best, they declined. They went on to record American Woman at thet time. He said this on his radio show some time back. I can't remeber exactley how it went, but if anyone can eleborate upon this, it should be included.
ufossuck
01:39, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
iron butterfly are mentioned there, and probably if the guess who had played woodstock they had become bigger than they were, i mean look at what woodstock did for santana. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.196.227.222 ( talk) 13:21, 18 April 2010 (UTC)
Why is the article at "Woodstock Festival"? I notice that the most common name, "Woodstock", is a redirect here (I would have thought that the best spot for the article unless "Woodstock" was a disambiguation, which it isn't). I also see that acording to article, the official name was apparently "the Woodstock Music and Art Fair" and I didn't notice an explanation of why it should be called "Woodstock Festival" in the article. Just wondering, -- Infrogmation 03:38, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
I've read where Neil claimed that he and Jimi were on their way to the Woodstock stage area. However, being that it was a bit far off in the distance Neil hijacked a pick-up truck and drove it thru the fields while Jimi rode on the hood pointing the way. T. Cole-Chicago —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.46.220.64 ( talk) 13:03, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
Hey, I always thought that there were 24 hours in a day, taken from 12.00 to 24.00, so why is this set list artificially divided into 3 days when the festival actually ran into 4, yet another example of 'fitting' the evidence to a pre-concieved Ideal, lets get back to reality, the audience certainly did, no matter how spaced they have been percieved as, the majority headed off back to routine of 'Monday Morning' and a lot of those that stayed for a glimpse of Jimi left shortly after he arrived on stage. Jameselmo ( talk) 23:02, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
A large amount of biased edits have been contributed today by 68.53.171.208. This could be vandalism or simply a disgruntled critic of the festival, but either way, I'd ask everyone to keep an eye on his/her contributions to see if any further action should be taken. Thanks, Glassbreaker5791 ( talk) 16:21, 25 June 2008 (UTC)
---> "A local banker, Charlie Prince, went way out on a limb and extended $250,000 of credit to Woodstock Ventures at a crucial time. Because additional ticket revenues were not coming in and some acts (Janis Joplin, the Who, and the Grateful Dead) refused to perform until they were paid, ..." --P. 270
The same information appears (again with no footnotes) in this 2006 book, It Happened in New York:
So, I do not know if you all would consider these sources as verifiable information. Designquest10 ( talk) 14:46, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
This sentence makes no sense and appears to be missing a word or two: "Instead the group went on with their hugely successful summer tour, their only time out being taken to attend Elvis Presley's show, at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, on August 12." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.174.101.64 ( talk) 16:10, 7 July 2008 (UTC)
Wesley Pomeroy should have been included in this article. He was the Vice President and Director of Security for Woodstock, which played a very important role.
There are several other sources if you need them. As he was a key and essential organizer for the event, he should be included. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.92.67.206 ( talk) 18:51, 20 July 2008 (UTC)
It says that Tim Hardin headed up an hour-long set but only shows two songs he played (which together are somewhere around five minutes long); I'm just curious as to how he filled a whole hour. Did he play some jam session or something for the remainder of his set? 69.134.33.93 ( talk) 18:49, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
you should really take them out of the article, i mean a few weeks ago there stands that they coulnd't get the beatles to play there but john offered to be there with the ono band(but they turned him down), now there stands that the beatles would have come if the ono band could also play, and if this would be true why the hell should they turn down the beatles just because after them there would play the band who played give peace a chance? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.196.249.95 ( talk) 18:37, 24 September 2008 (UTC)
A "See also" link to Woodstock Jazz Festival was placed in the article twice. I have removed it because I see very little relationship to Woodstock Festival except for the coincidence of both containing the word "Woodstock" simply because the jazz festival occured in Woodstock, NY. The jazz festival was not based on the 1969 rock event (as some other music festivals have been), and the music genre was entirely different. A coincidence of name is not notable enough for inclusion in the article. If that was the case, we would be linking such unrelated articles as an 1826 novel entitled Woodstock. Ward3001 ( talk) 18:13, 22 November 2008 (UTC)
Ward, you are invited to join the discussion on the talk page regarding your use of fact tags. First you haven't challenged the material in question. Second, section tags are preferred to multiple citation tags whenever possible, especially in cases where it appears that a single topic is covered by single sources, such as an event like this. Third, with all due respect, you do not appear to be familiar with the material in question, as you do not seem to have made an effort to look for sources. Specific fact tags are used for controversial, challenged, or quoted material. If you can't be bothered to do the research, then that's fine, just excuse yourself from this article. If on the other hand, you are serious about adding sources, I welcome and invite you to participate. Now, please join the discussion. Viriditas ( talk) 02:11, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
With the most recent edit to this article, there are now two External Links to foreign-language (French) Woodstock sites.
As a casual editor, I don't know the WP policy about non-English links, but the addition of these links seems to me to be a bit de trop for an English encyclopedia. In addition, the links appear to be rather promotional in nature. Could a seasoned Wikipedian please comment, and if appropriate, delete these references? Merci. Seduisant ( talk) 15:13, 12 March 2009 (UTC)
I just took a closer look at "Woodstock En Beauce" and got a Google translation, as I don't speak French. It does not appear to pertain to the original Woodstock Festival. It also appears to be a lot of spam. If no one object, I'm removing that link in a day or two. Ward3001 ( talk) 01:00, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
I suggest the removal of another article: the Portugese one addressing a possible Woodstock tribute concert in Brazil. Not only is this article not in English, but it also is only speculation and does not certify the future occurence of an actual event. -- Mrkemper ( talk) 09:10, 14 April 2010 (UTC)
I was stunned to find that the article had virtually no info about the albums, apart from a brief mention in the intro. I added a small section, just below the section about the film. EJSawyer ( talk) 21:50, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
Today I reverted an infobox entry/external link to something called woodstock.com [1], which features some Woodstock content, but is mostly reviews of concerts, albums, etc. by non-Woodstock bands, plus lots of ads. There's also content from "fans", Facebook-style, listing concerts they've attended, and similar drivel.
Usually I would dismiss this out of hand, but I did a WHOIS on the site, and found that it is the work of Joel Rosenman, one of the festival founders. Any registered article-watchers want to weigh in on this link's inclusion? Thanks. Seduisant ( talk) 15:51, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
Wasn't the idea that there'd be a Woodstock every 25 years? The next one (#3) being in 2019? -- 98.232.181.201 ( talk) 08:45, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
by Viriditas ( talk) about the change I wanted to make. Viriditas may I ask your permission? Markmark12 ( talk) 09:31, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
A recent AP story quotes Bethel museum Director Wade Lawrence saying that the NY State Thruway was never closed, contrary to the BBC article cited. I added a line indicating this was disputed. I went to the NY Times articles at the time and there was no reference to the Thruway or even Rt. 17 being closed. It only indicates that Rt. 17B was blocked off. On balance, I think it may be an urban myth.-- JohnnyB256 ( talk) 02:48, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
Can anybody tell me why there is nothing about Woodstock Stop? This is the biggest open-air rock festival in Europe. It's ogranized since 1995 in Poland from 1st to 3rd of August.
Of course it's different festival but in fact, it have really big refers to the traditions of 1969. For example, at the oficial site of the festival there is short triler at the top, which shows clips about 40th anniversary. Or near the logo of this year edition, there is the logo of the classic '69 festival.
The Woodstock Stop is very popular festival, in this year there should be about half milion people there, so I suppose that there must be some information about it.
This is the links to sites:
http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/woodstock/ (english)
http://www.wosp.org.pl/przystanek/2009/ (polish) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.45.66.70 ( talk) 21:33, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
Does anyone else hate that Rolling Stone is there at top as well as the stuff in the pp that follows. As someone who wasn't around then, it certainyl doesnt help summarize the essence of what it was. it just reeks of raining on the parade--what credibility to they have in determining what was and what wasnt about Woodstock? maybe if Rolling Stone explained what made the event historic , and there was a link to that article...—Preceding unsigned comment added by Markmark12 ( talk • contribs) 23:10, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
Statements like these litter this article:
99.164.68.102 ( talk) 11:54, 12 August 2009 (UTC)
Is it true that the main purpose of the festival was to coax out Bob Dylan? This isn't really mentioned in the article.-- Jack Upland ( talk) 10:13, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
There is a source ^ "Reporting Woodstock: Some contemporary press reflections on the festival" by Simon Warner in Remembering Woodstock, edited by Andy Bennett (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004)." that seems to be the citation used for the claims made in the section. Because we can't link to the section there is no way to immediately figure out if the claims made from this section come from this cite. If they are there is no problem. If this can't be confirmed this needs to be taken out as there are some very serious allegation being made here.
On a longer term note this section should evolve into a general overview of how the media covered the event. Edkollin ( talk) 01:48, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
In any event, I question how this section adds to the readers' understanding of the article topic. There is no inherent *notability* in how one news outlet covered the event. The article is not about the NYT; there is no useful context for details about an apparent disagreement between a reporter and his editors. Jgm ( talk) 11:43, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
Does anyone believe this article can be made ready for nomination for FA for the 40th anniversary of Woodstock on the 17th. It would be nice but it is rated C class and still haves at least 1 tag. Just a thought. B.s.n. (R.N.) 06:37, 16 August 2009 (UTC)
Here's my take:
So, even with Woodstock eventually becoming a free concert, it should have created a pretty healthy profit.
Does anyone have further information on this? Thanks! Maikel ( talk) 11:19, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
It would be nice if this article included a section about how the festival was financed, who paid what, and where the money went. This is especially true if the "peace and love" concert was followed by 80 lawsuits. GregE625 ( talk) 19:09, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
How does Woodstock compare to other big concerts of the era? Was it the biggest until then? Was it the biggest concert ever?
Was there anything new about the idea to host several bands, not just a single act and their supporting band?
Let's put Woodstock in perspective, folks! Ta, Maikel ( talk) 11:39, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
Two of the major books on the subject (Robert Spitz "Barefoot in Babylon" and Pete Fornatale "Back to the Garden") state that Contry Joe's solo appearance and John Sebastian's occurred on Friday night, after Richie Havens. They go into considerable detail about how this occurred. Michael Lang's book has their appearances on Saturday afternoon, as does this article, without a citation. What's the real story? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.86.13.191 ( talk) 22:27, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
Elliot Tiber's account of the origins of Woodstock, and how it came to Bethel, needs to be treated with caution. He claims in the book Taking Woodstock, which I've read, that he personally introduced Michael Lang to Max Yasgur. But Lang says Tiber introduced Lang to a real estate salesman, and the salesman drove Lang to Yasgur, without Tiber. This is a pretty big discrepancy. Tiber may be right, but Sam Yasgur, Max's son, agrees with Lang. Given that this key factual detail is disputed, prudence requires that anything attributable to Tiber be stated as such in the article. -- JohnnyB256 ( talk) 23:11, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
Editors familiar with the history of the festival are urged to take a look at Sam Yasgur. I just became aware of this article. It claims that Sam Yasgur persuaded his father to bring Woodstock to Bethel. That is unsupported by the two references. I'd suspect this was a hoax, but it has been around for four years.-- JohnnyB256 ( talk) 21:47, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
An anon editor insists on creating a new section consisting solely of a description of a poem about Woodstock by Argentine poet Edgar Brau. There is already a "Cultural references" section, where any mention of this poem would seem to belong; there is no indication it deserves a section of its own. Additionally, the added content contained an extensive description/analysis of the poem's content, which is completely unsourced. As added, the entry appears spammy, unsourced and gives undue weight to one work by an author who, while probably is considered important in his homeland, does not even have an entry in English Wikipedia.
Additionally, in the same edit in which I trimmed the poem description to that which could be verified (based on the English-language publisher's site, sort of COI in itself), I also included other minor fixes to other references and external links. The anon editor keeps reverting the entire set of changes without comment, undoing changes explained/noted in the edit summaries. Reverting for reasons given. Fat&Happy ( talk) 15:42, 3 May 2010 (UTC)
Does a 40th anniversary concert comprised of apparently non-notable tribute bands merit mention? Rather than edit war, I'm bringing this here for a consensus. JNW ( talk) 03:45, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
John Fogerty's quote may be accurate as to what he said but what he stated isn't accurate. The Bic lighter wasn't around in 1969. The guy he mentioned would have been using some other type of lighter (probably a Zippo, maybe something else). Maybe the guy who was "flicking his Bic" was flicking a Bic ink pen. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.196.198.16 ( talk) 16:16, 28 September 2010 (UTC)
There's now a Wikiquote page devoted to quotations from or about the festival, Q:Woodstock Festival. It's just a start. I know there are a bunch of memorable lines, but I don't have any books on the topic. If anyone can improve the page, have at it. (I copied in the John Fogerty quotation from this page already.) Will Beback talk 08:57, 2 February 2011 (UTC)
Woodstock 25th anniversary Woodstock 94 held at the historic 'Wilson Farm' in Saugerties, NY hosted 200,000+ folks who celebrated the spirit of the original festival with multiple stages, an eco-village, a craft-village and an installation by Todd Rundgren. The two main stages hosted major artists from around the world and were designed by Peter Max. Michael Lang partnered with PolyGram Records to finance this production.
Woodstock 30th anniversary Michael Lang and Jon Scher promoted and produced this festival located at an abandoned air force base in Rome NY. 250,000+ attended this festival which ended in riots. Major artists including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Dave Matthew's Band, Green Day and Rusted Root performed during the three days.
The above concerts were major events in Woodstock History and yet no mention is made on the page, they should be listed and linked to the relevant pages. Astralmaster ( talk) 19:47, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
The result of the move request was: page moved. Vegaswikian ( talk) 19:47, 16 July 2011 (UTC)
Woodstock Festival →
Woodstock – The proposed title already redirects here, so issues of primary topic should be moot. I think people rarely append "Festival" when talking about this event; they just say "I was at Woodstock" or "Woodstock was a crazy time". That makes
Woodstock the
WP:COMMONNAME for this event.
Powers
T
13:01, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
That's a serious ommission in the article. They were there, in older books they're always mentioned, but I never knew the details. I start with putting up the Wiki article as ext.link, but it really should be in the article. AlterBerg ( talk) 09:31, 6 January 2013 (UTC)AlterBerg AlterBerg ( talk) 09:31, 6 January 2013 (UTC)
Minor, but bothersome: How many died of a drug overdose (one place says one, another two). When did The Who start (3am or just before 4am)? John (Jwy) 06:03, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
Major inconsistency: what time did CCR actually start playing? Twice in the article a 3am start time is mentioned, but the performing artist list has them playing at 12:30am. Maybe there's an understandable reason for such a blatant contradiction (list contains scheduled start times as opposed to actual start times or something), but you need to explain that for the casual reader. It seems like a lot of work went into the article, and then you just leave in something that most people (including myself) are going to see as a huge inconsistency. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 100.1.99.78 ( talk) 14:30, 26 August 2012 (UTC)
Benny Hill did a hilarious--and pointed--parody skit of the Woodstock Festival. Entitled "Woodstick," the segment featured a song with a refrain that went, "Woodstick, la-la-la-la Woodstick. . .three whole days of love-and-peace-and-joy," as the camera panned across a vast, trampled field littered with garbage. That about sums it up for me, as an early Gen-Xer who grew up with four insufferable Baby Boomer siblings and their pothead friends: "You can't remember the Sixties, man. You just don't understand." Yeah, these narcissistic, smug, self-satisfied Boomers have gobbled up everything as they've marched through life, leaving successive generations to fight over the shrinking pie, be it in education, jobs, housing, and, soon, retirement. The generation that gave us the Summer of Love is about to send Medicare spiralling into bankruptcy thanks to innumerable premature age-related illnesses induced by all of their toking up, junk food and other habits indulged in during those supposedly halcyon days and long afterwards. Benny Hill (born 1924) got it right. Drop dead, Woodstock. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.27.73.102 ( talk) 06:40, 10 January 2007 (UTC).
"improve the fencing and security, which might have resulted in violence;"
Should this not be "relax the fencing and security,..."? Because:
1. Improving it should result in less violence.
2. Improving it would cost more money, which was the problem at hand.
3. In the end, the fence was cut.
Therefore, I wanted to replace "improve" with "relax", but first wanted to clarify why.
This is important, because the cutting of the fence, and the reason therefore, was a pivotal move in what led to the eventual attendance being so high. — Preceding unsigned comment added by YamSuf ( talk • contribs) 12:34, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
Outside of media coverage, why doesn't this article cover more criticism of the festival? It reads very "glowingly" of the festival yet it mentions deaths, arrests, traffic jams, food & water shortages. The media coverage mentions people working together to provide food & shelter to the masses that attended as if it was expected and not provided because it had to be provided. Wouldn't two accidental deaths in two days in any other city of 400,000 cause front page headlines? Surely there was criticism of the traffic management plan and the affect of people not attending and how they were inconvenienced. Did anyone else die because they couldn't get to the hospital due to the traffic jams? The article mentions law suits as a result of mismanagement - wouldn't that warrant a separate criticism section?
I know this was a huge event for the 60s but it had impacts beyond those attending and the festival itself but the article doesn't seem to cover any of that. Dbroer ( talk) 13:38, 12 August 2013 (UTC)
Everyone who has ever been associated with Woodstock has always remarked that as far as anyone knows there was never a fistfight or single altercation of any kind at the event..I don`t know if that`s true or not but that`s what they say which is pretty much the point when you get to it...it established the ethos of the jam band hippy festivals whatever you want to call it..on the grounds of the Wannee festival every year they bring in a few security people to be safe...nothing ever happens..the following weekend there is a country music festival where they hire every off duty cop in Florida and they still cant control the violence. Lonepilgrim007 ( talk) 06:45, 30 December 2013 (UTC)
To the OP: you might be aware of this (or not), but the establishment and large parts of mass media set out to soil the festival from the get go, partly because they disliked/distrusted the counterculture movement, partly because they expected a lot of violence, not just sex, drugs & rock'n'roll. Yet that didn't happen, so they had to change their story even before the last chords sounded. Some parts of the media focused on the overall feeling of social harmony and good music, while others went out of their way to find every little dirty detail to report. But at the end of the day, all sides more or less agreed that it was an uneventful gathering of almost half a million young people for 3 days, which is nothing short of a miracle. If there's so little meaningful criticism about the festival - both then and now - that's because there's little to criticize. Yes, there were traffic jams, shortages of food and sanitation, disruption for residents, the sea of mud, the litter, the brown acid. Yes there were 2 deaths (one of which had nothing to do with what the festival was about). But that's not the reason we still remember it 45 years later. Scoffers and hippie haters parodied Woodstock for years but they missed the main point: Woodstock wasn't about setting a model for how concert logistics should be handled! 143.239.64.169 ( talk) 08:38, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
There is a citation needed tag on "nearly half a million concert-goers." The early news reports give the total as 300,000. Some articles written in late 1969 mention "a half million." These seem to be casual estimates. The festival promoters are quoted in this August 1969 article as saying 300,000 people.
The New York State Attorney General's office was investigating complaints of ticket holders who did not get into the festival. The promoters pointed out that the tickets specified that refunds would be granted only if the show were canceled.
"Mr. [Michael] Lang has said that more than half of the 300,000 people who attended the fair got in free because three times the expected number of people turned up and broke down the entire ticket - selling, ticket taking procedure."
-- SWTPC6800 ( talk) 19:50, 16 August 2009 (UTC) (I was in the crowd at Altamont)