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Woodstock Research Paper

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8 Apr 2011 Woodstock: Peace, Music, and Memories In the summer of 1969, a music festival known as “Woodstock” took place for three straight days in Upstate, New York with thirty-two musical acts playing, and over 400,000 people from around the world coming to join this musical and peaceful movement. Woodstock started out being a small concert, created to promote peace in the world. Now, Woodstock is still being celebrated over 40 years later. This three day music festival represented the perfect concert for the “baby boomers” during a messy political time. Woodstock significantly impacted the counterculture era of the 1960’s in a number of ways; how it began, the ideas of the concert, the sense of union and love it represented and it …show more content…

Music soared through the air and into the ears of the more than 450,000 hippies that were crowded into Max Yasgur's pasture. "What we had here was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence," said Bethel town historian Bert Feldmen. "Dickens said it first: 'it was the best of times, it was the worst of times'. It's a mixture that will never be reproduced again" (435). It also closed the New York State Thruway and created one of the nation's worst traffic jams (Lehrman eLibrary). Woodstock, with its rocky beginnings, epitomized the culture of that era through music, drug use, and the thousands of hippies who attended, leaving behind a legacy for future generations. The lack of planning gave Woodstock the potential for disaster. Volunteers from inside and outside the festival helped relieve any possible problems. Helicopters were used to fly in food, doctors, medical supplies, and even music acts scheduled to appear (Sitkoff eLibrary). On the first day, crowds flooded in hoping to catch a good glimpse of their favorite musicians. The line up for the day was Swami Satchidananda, Richie Havens, Country Joe McDonald, John B. Sebastian, Sweetwater, Incredible String Band, Bert Sommer, Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar, Melanie, Arlo Gurthrie, and Joan Baez. Saturday's bill included The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Grateful Dead, Canned Heat, Mountain, and Santana (Gilmore eLibrary). For

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