Woodstock is 50 and also dead...

orange

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#1
The original festival was legendary, the 30th anniversary (Woodstock '99) infamous and Woodstock 50 can't even seem to get going.

Our 'hippie' parents/grandparents came in such numbers that the festival was declared free when it became apparent that nothing could stop the gatecrashers and a couple hundred thousand plus showed up, crippling a small town and it's roads for a few days, then the rains...as the legend has it one died and one was born to carry on. Even nuns came, as was shown in the movie of the concert.

'Don't eat the brown acid' became perhaps the most iconic statement of the entire show.

The superstars of music showed up (well, not Yes or the Beatles) but CCR was there, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Crosby Still and Nash and because of transportation problems a previously little-known artist named Ritchie Havens became a legend while holding down the fort so to speak for the first two hours or so. Sha-Na-Na was there, long before they had a TV show. A virtual universe of talent including the famous Star Spangled Banner of Jimi Hendrix (who would not be long for this world a scant year later).

Woodstock '99 was the festival from Hell. This time around it wasn't rain and mud, it was heat and disgust that the concessions (water especially) were too expensive and hard to come by and the new generation had different views about 'sexual liberties' (not consensual) and by the time the Red Hot Chili Peppers appeared on stage wearing only socks on their genitals the riot was ON.

(Note from me: Woodstock '99 was livestreamed and I tried to view it, signed up for the account but my computer didn't do very well until after the riots when everything was archived. I was disappointed about failing to connect but aghast watching the aftermath)

So the curse of '99 seems to have hit Woodstock 50 hard, so hard that they couldn't even hold it in the original location and when they announced a new location many of the more prominent performers simply pulled out.

Is Woodstock 50 doomed, and is Woodstock finally relegated to history? It doesn't look good right now. It's getting a bit late in the year to pull it off.

I myself am of the opinion that YES, Woodstock should be allowed to fade into history and remain the fable and dream of a generation of Peace, Love and Music.


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Wheel-right

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#3
Woodstock can never be resurrected so quite trying, the world was a different place then along with the people who were there. Watch the movie, listen to the records enjoy what it was, greed is the only motive these days for trying to create something that can't be done. There was lots of bad going on in the world then but nothing like now. Leave it like it was!
 

Bradrock

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#5
Big difference between Alvin Lee & Jay Z
I'll take Ten Years After & I'm goin home any day........................
I do wonder if the new box set plays well???
 

Northwinds

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#7
BTW, I was one of those thousands of little kids and too young to appreciate it as I was barely 5 and my sister was 4. We lived 35 miles from that field and my parents took us both. I remember the rain and mud especially, a lot of people and Hendrix's feedback. I remember having a great time with kids I don't even remember their names except a kid named Andy. I ran into him again when we were in our 40s. Just happened to be in the same bar in Rochester, NY and talking about Woodstock. It was pretty cool but never saw him again. Just one of those things, maybe we will meet again in our 80s LOL
 

MarkWComer

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#9
BTW, I was one of those thousands of little kids and too young to appreciate it as I was barely 5 and my sister was 4. We lived 35 miles from that field and my parents took us both. I remember the rain and mud especially, a lot of people and Hendrix's feedback. I remember having a great time with kids I don't even remember their names except a kid named Andy. I ran into him again when we were in our 40s. Just happened to be in the same bar in Rochester, NY and talking about Woodstock. It was pretty cool but never saw him again. Just one of those things, maybe we will meet again in our 80s LOL
I was 11 at the time, growing up in east Baltimore. I remember all the talk about it, all the stuff on the TV news.

I’m one who in retrospect of the sixties wish I were born ten years earlier, I really feel that I missed a lot, and would have “fit in” to the culture better than I did in the seventies. Almost everything from 1963 to 1970 fascinates me- wish I could have been there.

This also makes me connected to Woodstock by a thin thread- so its a pleasure to make your acquaintance!
 

MarkWComer

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#13
Drove by the home I grew up in when I visited New Orleans last year. Looked great. Like I could ring the doorbell and my mom would open the door.
Traveling vicariously via Google Earth, I visited everywhere I lived.

Baltimore sho ‘nuff slid downhill...
 

orange

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#14
I used to see my last car, Spot and Charlie in Street View.

Spot and Charlie are gone leaving only Stripey and I sold that Pontiac in 2007?
 
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