Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Woodstock on Saturday, August 15th (begins at Noon) with a full afternoon of programs that will take you back to the event that defined a generation. Watch and listen to Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young and others, and recall the cultural and political climate of one of the most influential eras in our nation’s history.
Start reminiscing and share it below with your fellow viewers! Whether you attended Woodstock (and can actually piece together a memory!), recall the excitement or discovered the music decades later, we want to hear how the music and the decade affected you.
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Saturday, August 15
Noon – The Sixties: The Years That Shaped a Generation
2:00 p.m. – Bob Dylan: Live in Newport 1963-1965
3:00 p.m. – California Dreamin’: The Songs of the Mamas and the Papas
4:00 p.m. – American Experience: Summer of Love
5:00 p.m. – Jimi Hendrix Experience: American Landing
6:00 p.m. – Fillmore: The Last Days
7:00 p.m. – American Masters: Neil Young: Don’t Be Denied
It wasn’t Woodstock then, it’s not now! Although the town of Woodstock kept the tribe of long hairs out by denying the use of the town for the festival, a trip through Woodstock reveals lots of books for sale celebrating the Festival, and plenty of T Shirt shops… Yasgur’s Farm was located in Bethel, NY, as I recall, and it was one hell of an experience…but Woodstock was locked up tight…they didn’t want the crowds, the mess or the people…just the reputation… Which they are now cashing in on big time…
I was 19 when I went to Woodstock with my boyfriend at the time, who was 22. It was extraordinary. It felt like a gigantic family reunion, and I really thought that we could, in fact, change the world.(I just recently visited the same old boyfriend in Texas, where he lives with a wonderful woman with whom he was involved when he was 17 and she was 15 – a truly lovely story.)
I miss the Sixties. I miss the sense of family that struck me so forcefully at the festival.I lived in a suburban town in New Jersey, and there were very few of us. Woodstock made me realize how many of us there actually were, and made me feel a part of something much bigger than our petty personal and everyday concerns.People seemed so much kinder somehow.
I also remember the smell of the mud. I recall hitchhiking into Bethel on Sunday morning to buy eggs and such for breakfast, and how well we were treated by the local folks.
My most vivid memories of the music are Sly & the Family Stone, Joe Cocker, Santana, Hendryx, Richie Havens, and Crosby, Stills.
I would love to hear from any old friends and/or people from New Jersey who were there, to share memories and a good laugh.
I was excited about the music festival being talked about on the radio on that my 21st. year.So,I went up Kingshighway and bought my tickets in a head shop.Many of my friends though were very Ho-Hum about the whole affair.On friday night of the Music Festival having no wheels I was still in Brooklyn,NY
I went up to Whelans Bar where I knew people would be hanging out looking to talk up the show.There I found Tony Naveda,Silky Sullivan,Ray Duffy,Jack Travers gathered under the T.V.watching reports of the taffic at Woodstock.This generated enough interest to get them motivated.We bought some beer and climbed in somebody’s car and off we went.
I remember driving and being stuck in traffic and dawn and leaving the car on Rt.17B and walking through towns and being worn out and Bill Fearon back from Vietnam barking marching orders and teaching us rythym.The fence was down and no tickets were being taken
I remember it was great ,I went with my girlfriend Barbara,we got up there and allwe parked the car, and all I remember when you saw someone everything was six more miles,the music,and the people all had one thing in common we loved the music,we wanted to make a difference in the world and have as the song goes Peace,Love and for us everyone to get along. I was thinking today,how lucky I was to be apart of generation who really truly believed in a better world,and that we could make a difference. I am happy to see that the younger generation is starting to realize it. As John Lennon said Give Peace Chance.
I was 19 at the time and actually bought Woodstock tickets at the Red Barn clothing store in Paramus – $12 for two days.
Three buddies and I had to work Friday so we drove up that evening. Due to the traffic jam, we had to walk the last 8 or 9 miles in the rain, carying a tent, sleeping bags and food. We were lucky to have them, many didn’t.
Saturday was great, Santana and Mountain in particular.
Exhausted, I had to turn in Saturday night, but could hear Creedence quite clearly as I fell asleep in the tent.
Sunday Joe Cocker, Ten Years After and The Band were the highlights for me. We wound up giving away some of our food during the evening. Lots of hungry people. My friends headed for home Sunday night. I had come to see Jimi so I stuck around.
Monday morning – Almost everyone had left and the field was a sea of mud, blankets and sleeping bags. Jimi Hendrix came on around 10:30 and played a powerful set.
That afternoon, I hitchhiked to Monticello where I caught a bus to New York and from there back home to New Jersey. I still have my unused tickets.
As the 40th anniversary of Woodstock nears, I’d like to make you aware of a soon to be published biography I have written on Melanie Safka, one of the performers at the original festival. The title of the book is “Melanie, the First Lady of Woodstock.” Melanie was the first woman to perform at the event and went on to become an international artist selling over 25 million albums over the course of her career.
If you have any questions or need additional information, I can be reached at this email address or by telephone at 1-203-526-7270.
Thank you
John Lambo
Was too young, but my friend Robbie Jacobs (1 of the original hippies in Washington Sq.) attended. Last seen in Oregon, pls let me know if anybody knows where he is now.
Drove up from LI a few days early with a good friend, Spoon, in his old Volvo station wagon.
Those were the days.
We had a tent, sleeping bags, a well-stocked cooler, lawn chairs and a clunky Coleman stove.
Parked near the Hog Farm folks and Kesey’s bus, Furthur. (Or was it La Hoona Express?)
Grooved the whole time.
Like others, I remember the small of the mud, the opening chords and the electricity from the crowd as Ritchie Havens fired it up, Santana, 10 Years After, the Candles in the Rain, The Who, head shops in the woods, a farmer selling quarts of milk from the back of a truck…people just going about the enjoyment of being themselves, caring for each other and simply having a good time despite some difficult conditions.
There was just a great, great Earthy vibe…
I am grateful that I was there, and also that I still have wonderful memories 40 years after the “song and celebration”.
To all who remember, and know….may you have many more days of Peace & Music, everyone…and Love !
I live relatively close to the real location and I’m headed up there on my motorcycle tomorrow (may be the only way in and out) without tickets ’cause it’s sold out. Peace!
When our friend Joan picked us up in her big red station wagon to drive us to the Woodstock festival, we all started groaning when we saw the car was filled with groceries! (Joan was no lightweight, by the way.)”Aw Joan, man, what a drag…we don’t need all this. They’ll have food there.” Well, we all know how that turned out. We feasted on grilled steak, eggs and biscuits and were passing out food to fellow campers in the corn field where we slept during the three nights of the festival. (The cornfield provided plenty of privacy and much more sanitary toilet facilities than the port-o-potties provided by the festival producers.) We hiked a mile from our “campsite” to the stage area when my boyfriend (now husband) Jim realized he had forgotten his ticket! He raced back and returned just a few minutes after the ticket booth was torn down. To this day those three days of incredible music, mud and unbelievalbe excitement is one of the biggest highlights of my 63 year life. Where did my boyfriend and I end up you ask? Woodstock, where else! Even though the festival didn’t happen here, Michael Lang, the promoter (fringe jacket, yellow Harley) is from Woodstock and based the whole idea on big festivals members of the Woodstock artists colony used to have on “the Maverick” just outside the village.
I watched this program ((The 60’s: The Years That Shaped a Generation) and cried and sobbed thoughout. While I was not at ‘Woodstock’ I had lived for 10 years 10 miles away in Rock Hill before my marital separation in April of 1969 and moved to East Orange NJ. Meanwhile, the 60’s not only held political but personal memories. I was very active in th antiwar movement in Monticello – meetings, demonstrations in NY and Washington, letters, more meetings, more demonstartions, my marriage and the birth of my 3 children (1960, ‘62, ”63). At one point, I think in the summer of 1966, I was selected to be my antiwar group’s representitive and go to Washington for a big march and demonstration. I had never been away from my children, ages 3, 4 and 5. How excitiing. I was put up at a home in Georgetown for 2 nights and walked down to the demonstration’s starting point next to Stokely Carmichael. The Saturday of Woodstock, my husband, from whom I was now separated, was taken suddenly ill and we had to get from East Orange, NJ to Monticello Hospital. We finally did, saw him along with some of the hundreds of people at Woodstock that need medical attention in ER. I am still politically active and feel that what we certainly need now is a return to the concern, envolvement and activism of the 60’s.
i remenber my bud jerry who is no longer with us “GOD REST YOUR SOUL BRO” Well he said he was going he had a ford van he wanted me to go we were the only ones in my town with long hair and we had just started somkiing pot well anyway i ran home to get some money when i got there the doors were lucked and i had no key well i broke out a small window and got in.meet jerry at the red light the only one in our town .we were on our way we pick up 4 pothers and than the “ONE” cathy alderman the dream of my young life i was so happy shewould be there with me maybe i would get some and become a man at this gig.well we were about 2mi from the gate when i brought ticket and mim later was told its all for free and than ccathy got sick real sick i went to a cop a stateie and carried her to him they took her out with a chopper she had to have emg surgery very sick she was well feeling let down i kept up untill i found mypeoplethen the party started.I will always hold that weekend dear to my heart thats the weekend i became a man!! i can go on and on but my friend just told me to write a book about it all i do have some GREAT STORYIES OF THE WEEKEND AND LIFE IN THE 60S!
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