The story of how Woodstock 1969 happened is as improbable as the event itself. Four young men — two musicians and two businessmen — decided to throw a party in the summer of 1969. What they got was the defining event of an entire generation.
The Four Founders
Artie Kornfeld was the vice president of Capitol Records, the youngest ever to hold that position and the first VP of rock and roll. Michael Lang was a concert promoter who had staged the successful Miami Pop Festival. Joel Rosenman and John P. Roberts were two Yale-educated businessmen looking to invest in creative projects.
The four came together to form Woodstock Ventures Inc. with the initial goal of building a recording studio in the Woodstock, New York area — the center of the folk and rock music scene that had formed around Bob Dylan's home there.
The First Setback: Wallkill
The initial site selected for the festival was Mills Industrial Park in Wallkill, NY. Tickets were printed, performers were booked, and a stage was being designed. Then, just weeks before the festival, the Wallkill town board rejected the permit, citing concerns about portable toilet capacity.
With the festival date rapidly approaching and hundreds of thousands of tickets already sold, Woodstock Ventures needed a new site — fast.
Elliot Tiber's Phone Call
Elliot Tiber, owner of the struggling El Monaco Motel in White Lake, NY, read about Woodstock's permit problems and called the organizers. He had a permit to hold outdoor events on his 15-acre property. But 15 acres wasn't nearly enough.
Tiber then suggested his milkman and friend Max Yasgur might be willing to rent his far larger dairy farm. Yasgur agreed to rent 600 acres for the concert.
The Free Concert Decision
Woodstock was designed as a profit-making enterprise, with 186,000 tickets sold at $18 each. But as the August 15 date approached, it became clear that the crowd would vastly exceed expectations. By the time the gates were set to open, hundreds of thousands of people had already descended on Bethel and were bypassing the ticket booths.
The organizers made the decision to tear down the fences and declare Woodstock a free concert. It was a financial catastrophe that ultimately led to Woodstock Ventures going bankrupt — but it was also the decision that transformed a concert into a cultural event.
The Festival Itself
From August 15-18, 1969, between 400,000 and 500,000 people gathered in Max Yasgur's field. The infrastructure collapsed under the weight of the crowd — roads were impassable, food was scarce, and medical facilities were overwhelmed. The New York Governor considered declaring it a disaster area.
Yet what happened at Woodstock was not a disaster. Despite the conditions, the half-million people at the festival maintained the peace and goodwill that the organizers had hoped for. Three people died (two from drug overdoses, one from a tractor accident), and two babies were born.
Thirty-two acts performed over four days, from Richie Havens' opening improvised "Freedom" to Jimi Hendrix's closing psychedelic "Star-Spangled Banner."