WOODSTOCK OPENED 45 YEARS AGO TODAY
Bethel, New York (JFK+50) Forty-five years ago today, August 15, 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Festival opened on a six-hundred acre dairy farm owned by Max Yasgur located near the village of White Lake.
While the festival was billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace and Music," it became known as WOODSTOCK because, according to CNN, the event's creator, Mike Lang, thought "it had the right vibe."
CNN also says that Lang and promoter Artie Kornfeld planned to have...
"the biggest party the counterculture* had ever seen."
During the festival, musical entertainment would be provided by Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Thirty-two acts would perform over four days. Rolling Stone would later list Woodstock as one of the 50 moments that changed the history of rock n roll.
Woodstock Nation
After the festival, which lasted from August 15 to August 18, 1969, the organizers were left with a $1 million debt and faced seventy lawsuits.
According to www.history1900s.about.com, all but $100,000 of the debt was paid off from proceeds of a movie about the festival.
*Counterculture (1964-1972) term applied to young people of the period who were unconventional in appearance, music, political activism, protests, drugs, communal experimentation, and sexual liberation.
Hippie Bug
SOURCES
"The Woodstock Festival of 1969," by Jennifer Rosenberg, www.history1900s.about.com
"Woodstock at 45: Still stardust, still golden," by Katie McLaughlin, CNN, August 15, 2014, www.cnn.com
THE BEATLES PLAYED AT SHEA 49 YEARS AGO
New York City (JFK+50) The British rock group, "The Beatles", performed forty-nine years ago this evening, August 15, 1965, before 55,600 fans at Shea Stadium.
The performance was promoted by Sid Bernstein.
The "Fab Four" was introduced on stage by television host Ed Sullivan who said to the crowd:
"Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, honored by their country, decorated by their Queen and loved here in America, here are the Beatles."
Bethel, New York (JFK+50) Forty-five years ago today, August 15, 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Festival opened on a six-hundred acre dairy farm owned by Max Yasgur located near the village of White Lake.
While the festival was billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace and Music," it became known as WOODSTOCK because, according to CNN, the event's creator, Mike Lang, thought "it had the right vibe."
CNN also says that Lang and promoter Artie Kornfeld planned to have...
"the biggest party the counterculture* had ever seen."
During the festival, musical entertainment would be provided by Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Thirty-two acts would perform over four days. Rolling Stone would later list Woodstock as one of the 50 moments that changed the history of rock n roll.
Woodstock Nation
Photo by Derek Redmond
and Paul Campbell
After the festival, which lasted from August 15 to August 18, 1969, the organizers were left with a $1 million debt and faced seventy lawsuits.
According to www.history1900s.about.com, all but $100,000 of the debt was paid off from proceeds of a movie about the festival.
*Counterculture (1964-1972) term applied to young people of the period who were unconventional in appearance, music, political activism, protests, drugs, communal experimentation, and sexual liberation.
Hippie Bug
Cologne, Germany
Photo by Mathias Degen
"The Woodstock Festival of 1969," by Jennifer Rosenberg, www.history1900s.about.com
"Woodstock at 45: Still stardust, still golden," by Katie McLaughlin, CNN, August 15, 2014, www.cnn.com
THE BEATLES PLAYED AT SHEA 49 YEARS AGO
New York City (JFK+50) The British rock group, "The Beatles", performed forty-nine years ago this evening, August 15, 1965, before 55,600 fans at Shea Stadium.
The performance was promoted by Sid Bernstein.
The "Fab Four" was introduced on stage by television host Ed Sullivan who said to the crowd:
"Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, honored by their country, decorated by their Queen and loved here in America, here are the Beatles."
The Beatles Perform at Shea Stadium
