If I was looking for something that summarized the changes to our world over the past 50 years — half a century – I’d pick Woodstock.
The Woodstock Music Festival took place just over 50 years ago, August 15 to 18, 1969 to be exact on a 60-acre dairy farm owned by a man named Max Yasgur. near Woodstock, New York.
It’s official name was “An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music” and it definitely lived up to that title, minus the Aquarian Exposition.
From it evolved what has become known as the Woodstock Generation, of which, I’m proud to say, I’m a member.
Not that I was there, although I did have a chance to go.
At the time I was enrolled at Sheridan College, a liberal arts college (now known as the home of an internationally recognized animation program) then headquartered in Brampton, just outside of Toronto.
Mornings at Sheridan usually began with everyone crammed together in the basement cafeteria, drinking coffee, playing cards and generally yacking about anything and everything.
One of those subjects for several weeks had been advertisements and stories which were running on CHUM FM, Toronto’s alternative radio station, about an up-coming music festival a few hours away in northern New York State.
It seemed like every week a new name was added to the list of groups and individuals who were going to be performing there. Names that we all knew and would love to see live, like Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, The Band, and, capping it all, Jimi Hendrix.
Just one or two of those names would draw a huge crowd, much less the full lineup which included nine acts Friday, 14 acts Saturday, and 10 on Sunday. An incredible 34 acts in total and they were the best of the best in folk and rock and roll.
One morning as we were all massed together in the Sheridan cafeteria someone announced they were going to rent a school bus and go to Woodstock. Who wanted to go with them and share the expenses?
Apparently it has become a ‘cool’ thing these days to claim you were among the 400,000 people who wound up going to Woodstock, even if you didn’t.
I’m not one of them. I was selling shoes that weekend, trying to cover my college tuition.
And to be honest, I’m glad I didn’t go because not being a big fan of crowds sitting in the rain, and having no food or washrooms, I probably wouldn’t have had as great a time as everyone else there seemed to have had.
Instead I settled for watching the movie about Woodstock in a comfortable theatre, with popcorn and a drink, several months later when it was finally released.
Without a doubt Woodstock was an amazing event. It did draw some 400,000 young people from across the U.S. and Canada and, despite dealing with terrible conditions including a torrential rainstorm, there was not a bit of trouble, other than in its organization.
That was a debacle almost from the start, due largely to the fact the organizers (most of whom had no experience whatsoever organizing a music festival) had no idea how big it would become and therefore how to deal with it all.
They didn’t even have the area fenced properly and soon people were simply walking in without paying an admission. There weren’t enough food booths and you can imagine that with that many young people, there were going to be some issues with “illegal substances”, LSD being the big concern at the time. That required a lot of medical support which was also soon overwhelmed, promoting the National Guard to volunteer to come in and help.
But it all turned out perfectly!
I have a CD version of the Woodstock festival movie and, some days, feeling my age, I’ll pop it in the player, just to remind myself that, at one time, I was that young and free-spirited, even selling shoes.
So, getting back to my opening, Woodstock then, and Woodstock 2019 (50 years later) are two entirely different animals. Their differences reflect the changes to our world.
Someone tried to organize a Woodstock 50 festival but wound up having to cancel it due to everything from “permit and production issues, venue relocations, and artist cancellations.”
That nicely summarizes how much this world has changed over the past 50 years.
In 1969, the people who wanted to put it on, just went out and did it. They scrambled and worked hard to pull it off. The Woodstock movie shows the workers preparing the stage and there was not a hard hat to be seen, and an OHS inspector would have worn out a citation book.
All of the performers chose to be part of it, even though they had no idea what they were getting into. Some of them put on the best show they would ever perform, period.
And despite all of the inconveniences and problems they had to deal with for three straight days and a couple of nights, the vast majority of those who were there had a great time.
Sadly, such a positive, fun, exciting, up-lifting event could not happen today. The rules and regulations alone that would have to be followed to the T would be horrendous.
It’s very likely that Ticketmaster would somehow get involved, jacking up the admission price to the point no one could afford it. One can only imagine what a ticket to see that many acts together today would cost.
The artists would want to have all kinds of guarantees and requirements in order to even consider fitting it into their schedule.
Even the crowd would be vastly different. Everyone would likely have their cell phones constantly with them, texting and sending pics to all of their friends. And the idea that they would have to sleep on the muddy ground would likely be so foreign and unacceptable to them, they’d simply leave at their earliest convenience.
No, the days of liberated, ‘face life and enjoy life as it happens’ thinking is long gone. We’ve become a society that thinks too much and enjoys far less.
Sadly, that’s what has happened over the past 50 years. At least I’ve got my CD to watch.
