Thirty-two acts graced the stage during the Woodstock music festival.
In August 1969, the small town of Bethel, New York, became the epicentre of the music world as it hosted the Woodstock Music and Art Festival. This landmark event in rock history brought together some of the most iconic artists of the time, creating a cultural phenomenon that continues to be celebrated today.
The Lineup
The festival featured an impressive lineup of rock and folk artists, including Richie Havens, Joan Baez, The Band, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, and Jimi Hendrix, who headlined the final act. Other performers included Arlo Guthrie and Ten Years After.
Notable Performances
The Who played much of their rock opera Tommy during a late-night set, while Jimi Hendrix closed the festival with his famous rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Sly and the Family Stone were also a highlight with their funky set.
Iconic Moments
Jimi Hendrix, scheduled to perform at midnight, was delayed until around 9 a.m. Monday morning. By that time, the crowd, which once numbered more than 500,000, had dwindled to an estimated 80,000. Despite this, Hendrix played a 16-song set that featured hits such as "Foxy Lady," "Purple Haze" and "Hey Joe." His performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" remains one of the most memorable moments of the festival.
Country Joe and The Fish took the stage around 6 p.m. and performed four songs, including "Rock and Soul Music" and "Love Machine." Joe Cocker, at the time, performed five songs, including his version of The Beatles' song "With a Little Help from My Friends."
Post-Woodstock Careers
Many of the artists went on to enjoy success as solo artists and have reunited in various configurations to record and tour over the years. For instance, Creedence Clearwater Revival formed in the San Francisco Bay area in 1959, heavily influenced by swamp blues music. They later recorded the song "Woodstock" to commemorate the festival and for a while they rivaled The Beatles in terms of popularity. However, their superegos caused the group to disband in mid-1970.
Johnny Winter, who performed nine songs at Woodstock, including two with his brother Edgar Winter, went on to produce Muddy Waters' Grammy Award-winning comeback album in 1977. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1988 and passed away in 2014.
Legacy
Payments reportedly were: Jimi Hendrix - $18,000, Blood, Sweat & Tears - $15,000, Joan Baez - $10,000, and The Who - $6,250. Despite the relatively low payments, the Woodstock Music and Art Festival left an indelible mark on the music industry, becoming a symbol of peace, love, and the counterculture movement of the 1960s.
[1] New York Times, "Woodstock Festival: A Look Back at the Legendary Event," August 15, 2019.
[2] Rolling Stone, "Woodstock: The Oral History of a Musical Revolution," 2009.
[3] Woodstock Museum, "Woodstock 1969: 50 Years of Peace and Music," 2019.
[4] Billboard, "Woodstock: The Definitive Oral History of a Revolutionary Era," 2009.
[5] The Guardian, "Woodstock: The Festival that Changed the World," August 15, 2019.
- The impressive lineup at Woodstock Music and Art Festival in 1969, which included pop-culture icons from rock and folk genres like Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Who, dramatically reshaped the landscape of entertainment, particularly sci-fi-and-fantasy and pop-culture, owing to their groundbreaking performances and the festival's symbolic representation of the 1960s counterculture.
- Over the years, Woodstock Music and Art Festival, with its extraordinary lineup of artists showcasing a wide range of music from rock and folk to folk rock, punk, blues, and funk, has significantly contributed to the development of pop-culture, popularizing various subcultures, and forever altering the trajectory of entertainment history, including sci-fi-and-fantasy and music domains.
