http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HmJQyS8QVw
Knowing how much those in the hippie generation enjoyed a good music festival, four men came together in 1969 to create a festival that would fund the recording studio they wanted to build. The result was no recording studio, but the most famous and influential festival in music history which launched and hoisted the careers of several musicians, spawned an Oscar-winning documentary, and is remembered in the minds of hippies as the turning point of the Counterculture movement. This festival was Woodstock
The Creators
Joel Rosenman was a Princetown and Yale graduate and lawyer who made money as a musician in the New York City folk scene. He became involved with the Woodstock project after he responded to a business deal for the recording studio brought forth by the other Woodstock creators with his business partner, John Roberts, a banker who had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania . Roberts and Rosenman wrote a pilot for a TV series in which two young men put an ad in the Wall Street Journal for "interesting...business proposals." The two men claimed to be "young men with unlimited capital." After this ad got thousands of responses, the two men scrapped their sitcom and pursued the proposal of Michael Lang and Artie Kornfield. Michael Lang was an acclaimed music producer who had conducted the Miami Pop Festival after dropping out of NYU and moving to Miami to open a head shop. Artie Kornfield had attended American University and became Vice President of Capitol Records in his twenties. Lang and Kornfield had the idea of building a recording studio in upstate New York, in an area known for its folk-music roots. Rosenman revised the idea to turn it into a festival, and the other men involved were compliant. The four quickly got to work organizing what would be the most historic music festival of all time.
Conceptualizing Woodstock
Rosenman, Roberts, Kornfield and Lang did their homework. They knew that orchestrating a festival of any size took planning. They worked meticulously to find the perfect venue, to determine how much food and water they would need, and to discover how much each ticket should cost. But they soon discovered that all of this planning was for naught. The men decided upon a venue in the town of Woodstock, but shortly before the festival, local governments feared that hosting such a large event would spell trouble for the town. Zoning committees chased the founders away, but they found an alternative venue. The 600-acre dairy farm of Max Yasgur fit their needs, but because of the late chnage of location, some issues needed to be dealt with. The nature of Yasgur's farm would allow for lots of Woodstock gate-crashers and sneak-ins. The four men had a choice to make: they would improve their security by putting up fences, which might cause violence and unrest which would detract from the easygoing atmosphere they had envisioned for Woodstock; or they would put up no fences and make Woodstock free. They decided to go with the second idea.
An Invitation to Play
Many famous musicians made an appearance at Woodstock, and more made nonappearences. Though initially Rosenman, Roberts, Kornfield and Lang had trouble booking musicians, the accepted invitations came rolling in after Creedence Clearwater Revival, a very hot group at the time, became the first to accept. The festival would feature Counterculture superstars like Janis Joplin; Crosby, Stills & Nash, and The Who as well as relative unknowns like Carlos Santana, whose career was launched by his well-received performance at Woodstock. As exciting as the process of signing musicians to play was, those who declined their invitation were just as intriguing. Bob Dylan was in Europe the weekend of Woodstock after the festival had been placed in Woodstock partially for his benefit. The Beatles also turned down their invitation for a number of reasons. Some say John Lennon turned down the offer because he said the only way The Beatles would play at Woodstock was if there was a spot for his wife's band, the Plastic Ono band, to which the founders did not comply. More likely The Beatles did not perform because they were in the midst of breaking up and had not given a live concert for three years. The Doors did not perform because their manager didn't think Woodstock would do much to further their career.
Knowing how much those in the hippie generation enjoyed a good music festival, four men came together in 1969 to create a festival that would fund the recording studio they wanted to build. The result was no recording studio, but the most famous and influential festival in music history which launched and hoisted the careers of several musicians, spawned an Oscar-winning documentary, and is remembered in the minds of hippies as the turning point of the Counterculture movement. This festival was Woodstock
The Creators
Joel Rosenman was a Princetown and Yale graduate and lawyer who made money as a musician in the New York City folk scene. He became involved with the Woodstock project after he responded to a business deal for the recording studio brought forth by the other Woodstock creators with his business partner, John Roberts, a banker who had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania . Roberts and Rosenman wrote a pilot for a TV series in which two young men put an ad in the Wall Street Journal for "interesting...business proposals." The two men claimed to be "young men with unlimited capital." After this ad got thousands of responses, the two men scrapped their sitcom and pursued the proposal of Michael Lang and Artie Kornfield. Michael Lang was an acclaimed music producer who had conducted the Miami Pop Festival after dropping out of NYU and moving to Miami to open a head shop. Artie Kornfield had attended American University and became Vice President of Capitol Records in his twenties. Lang and Kornfield had the idea of building a recording studio in upstate New York, in an area known for its folk-music roots. Rosenman revised the idea to turn it into a festival, and the other men involved were compliant. The four quickly got to work organizing what would be the most historic music festival of all time.
Conceptualizing Woodstock
Rosenman, Roberts, Kornfield and Lang did their homework. They knew that orchestrating a festival of any size took planning. They worked meticulously to find the perfect venue, to determine how much food and water they would need, and to discover how much each ticket should cost. But they soon discovered that all of this planning was for naught. The men decided upon a venue in the town of Woodstock, but shortly before the festival, local governments feared that hosting such a large event would spell trouble for the town. Zoning committees chased the founders away, but they found an alternative venue. The 600-acre dairy farm of Max Yasgur fit their needs, but because of the late chnage of location, some issues needed to be dealt with. The nature of Yasgur's farm would allow for lots of Woodstock gate-crashers and sneak-ins. The four men had a choice to make: they would improve their security by putting up fences, which might cause violence and unrest which would detract from the easygoing atmosphere they had envisioned for Woodstock; or they would put up no fences and make Woodstock free. They decided to go with the second idea.
An Invitation to Play
Many famous musicians made an appearance at Woodstock, and more made nonappearences. Though initially Rosenman, Roberts, Kornfield and Lang had trouble booking musicians, the accepted invitations came rolling in after Creedence Clearwater Revival, a very hot group at the time, became the first to accept. The festival would feature Counterculture superstars like Janis Joplin; Crosby, Stills & Nash, and The Who as well as relative unknowns like Carlos Santana, whose career was launched by his well-received performance at Woodstock. As exciting as the process of signing musicians to play was, those who declined their invitation were just as intriguing. Bob Dylan was in Europe the weekend of Woodstock after the festival had been placed in Woodstock partially for his benefit. The Beatles also turned down their invitation for a number of reasons. Some say John Lennon turned down the offer because he said the only way The Beatles would play at Woodstock was if there was a spot for his wife's band, the Plastic Ono band, to which the founders did not comply. More likely The Beatles did not perform because they were in the midst of breaking up and had not given a live concert for three years. The Doors did not perform because their manager didn't think Woodstock would do much to further their career.