33 Interesting Woodstock Facts: Learn About The Mega Music Festival

Woodstock is known as a one-of-a-kind music and art festival in the history of music.

This festival was organized in Bethel, New York, and not in Woodstock. Organizers of the Woodstock festival were not given permission to carry out their event in Woodstock.

In spite of the many difficulties such as broken fences, food shortage, and maddening traffic, the festival was carried out successfully. People were courteous for the most part and did not cause any major troubles except for one violent act.

There were some unfortunate events in the festival which would not be overshadowed by performances from even the most famous bands and singers.

The dairy farm where the Woodstock festival took place now stands as a relic of the historic music fest and is a recognized historical site of the United States of America.

Due to the sheer magnitude of the concert and the number of people that were present apart from the famous bands and singers, this music and arts festival has given the world some amusing facts to ponder over even decades after it took place.

Let's take a look at the many things that happened during the festival's days at Bethel!

History Of The Woodstock Music Festival

Woodstock is known as one of the most prominent getaways for artists that live in New York. Legendary artists like Bob Dylan are known to have lived there and for the same reason, and studios of the '60s were making efforts to open their offices in Woodstock.

Organizers of the Woodstock festival also started out with the same vision and love for music.

However, they were met with an unimaginable set of problems.

While not all events from the festival were nearly as merry, it still remains to be one of the most iconic events that took place in the '60s in America.

The Woodstock festival was the brainchild of four music lovers.

The event was conceptualized by four men from the United States of America.

They were Artie Kornfeld, Michael Lang, Joel Rosenman, and John Roberts.

They conceived the idea for this music festival in the January of 1969, eventually, they had everything set up for it to actually take place.

For music lovers and musicians, Woodstock has always been an ideal getaway paradise and these people were no different.

They started their own recording studio named Woodstock Ventures and wanted to plan this event with the idea that it would help them in gathering some cash.

However, the first problem that would come their way was getting permission to host the event in Woodstock itself.

Since concerts were not popular back in the day, the people of Wallkill thought that all the concert attendees would be hippies that would inevitably participate in substance abuse and destroy the peace in the area.

Quoting that toilet systems brought by organizers were not up to the mark, the people of Wallkill forbade the concert from taking place in Woodstock.

This forced them to change their location to a place called Bethel.

In Bethel, they found a dairy farm owned by a man named Max Yasgus.

While he was not exactly a music fanatic himself, he wanted to appreciate the idea of so many people coming together in the community spirit and allowed the organizers to use the land as the event venue.

He charged them $50,000, which would amount to be way higher now, due to inflation.

Max Yasgur also ended up addressing the audience during the concert and it is said that he was greeted with loud applause, similar to when Jimi Hendrix first entered the stage.

Many famous artists like Janis Joplin, John Sebastian, Joe Cocker, Country Joe, and Jimi Hendrix performed in the show.

Rolling Stone also ran an article about the event.

There is now a museum at Bethel Woods.

Purpose Of The Woodstock Music Festival

The Woodstock Music Festival had more purposes than the ones its organizers may have initially thought of. This concert was one-of-a-kind, and while people sure had a tough time in planning the event and holding it together, it served a greater purpose at the end of the day!

The concert was conceptualized by a group of four music enthusiasts who had just set up a recording studio named Woodstock Ventures.

In spite of what actually came to be, they started the event planning activities with the vision that they would monetize the event and make a huge profit.

This could have been the case if unfortunate events didn't start piling up throughout the festival.

Keeping aside the negative outcomes, this festival served as a reminder that the new generation wasn't exactly half as bad.

Even the local sheriff of Sullivan County had to admit that the concert-goers were some of the most mannerly kids he had seen in around 20 years of his service.

With the number of ways in which the concert went wrong, it is natural that people needed to help each other, which they did.

This music festival paved the way for more and more people to start taking up ventures and also brought artists closer to their fans!

A local commune, named Hog Farm, helped in making sure that the depleting resources of the event were replenished.

Location Of The Woodstock Music Festival

The location of the festival, when thought of with its name, can cause quite a bit of confusion.

The Woodstock festival was supposed to take place in Wallkill.

Organizers had to give up their plans when the authorities rejected their pleas.

The event finally took place in Bethel, at a dairy farm owned by Max Yasgur.

Founder Facts

This iconic event was started by a group of four people.

The founders were Artie Kornfeld, Michael Lang, Joel Rosenman, and John Roberts.

Some of them ran into debt after the event.

The rest eventually made large profits from the venture.

FAQs

How many people died at Woodstock?

Unfortunately, the 1969 Woodstock festival was not exactly a very happy one for everyone. Two people lost their lives during the concert.

How many babies were born at Woodstock?

It is said that there were also at least two births during the three-day festival.

Why is Woodstock so famous?

Woodstock is famous for being a concert that was the very first of its kind. In spite of the many problems that turned up during and before the event, concert-goers mostly had a great time and were treated with great music.

Being a large-scale music festival, organizers had a tough time in regulating all aspects and setting everything in order, but the fact that the concertgoers were mostly well-behaved and peaceful was a great thing that came from the event.

How did it get its name?

Woodstock is known as one of the largest music festivals in music history and hence, it is natural that people want to know about it. Because of the name of the event, it is usually thought that it took place in Woodstock, New York.

However, this was not the case. The festival organizers named their company Woodstock Ventures and also planned on hosting the festival in Woodstock.

However, residents of Wallkill rejected the proposition since they thought too many concert-goers, under the influence of substances, would be bad for the area.

They also proposed that toilets planned by the event hosts were not competent. While they did not get to host the festival on the intended site, the name stuck anyway!

What was the Woodstock festival?

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was a getaway paradise for music lovers. It was held on August 15–18, 1969.

With famous singers and bands flying in from all parts of the world, the people in attendance were given the opportunity to spend a lot of time watching their idols right in front of their eyes. It also kickstarted the concert culture which is now prevalent in nearly all parts of the world.