John Roberts was one of the four men behind Woodstock Ventures, the company that produced Woodstock 1969. Along with his partner Joel Rosenman, Roberts provided the financial backing that made the festival possible. The two men placed an advertisement in The New York Times seeking investment opportunities, which ultimately led to their introduction to Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang.
Roberts came from a wealthy background and, together with Rosenman, contributed $250,000 toward what would become the largest music event in history. As Roberts himself noted, "basically we had the money, so our word was law" — a frank acknowledgment of the financial realities that shaped the power dynamics within Woodstock Ventures.
Young Men With Unlimited Capital
Roberts co-authored the book "Young Men With Unlimited Capital" with Joel Rosenman, which tells the story of the Woodstock festival from the perspective of the two financiers. The title refers to the ad they placed in The New York Times, which brought them together with Kornfeld and Lang.
The book offers a candid and often humorous account of what it was like to be the money behind the most logistically chaotic event in music history — a festival that vastly exceeded its projected attendance of 100,000 people and its original $500,000 budget.
The Four Who Made Woodstock
Woodstock 1969 was the product of four equal partners in Woodstock Ventures:
- **Artie Kornfeld** — music industry connections, talent relationships
- **Michael Lang** — promotional vision, festival experience
- **John Roberts** — financial capital, business structure
- **Joel Rosenman** — financial capital, co-author of the festival's business history
Without Roberts and Rosenman's investment, the vision of Kornfeld and Lang would have remained just that — a vision.