On August 15, 16 and 17, 1969, it took place on the farm belonging to MaxYasgur, near the city of Bethel, United States, one of the greatest music festivals in history, the Woodstock. The festival had a direct link with the counterculture which developed exponentially in the 1950s and 1960s and, above all, with the main countercultural axis, the MovementHippie. This festival took place at a time when the world was at the height of geopolitical bipolarity, that is, in the ambience of WarCold.
To understand the importance and magnitude of Woodstock, it is necessary to know that after the Second World War, there was a surge in technological development aimed at domestic life, particularly in the United States. It was the time of “American way of life” (the American way of life), which became a model for the entire Western world. This era was also known as the “era of household appliances”. The fact is that, while there was this social optimism linked to consumption, the US was involved in one of the most costly confrontations of that period: the WarofVietnam.
The counterculture was born as a challenge by young people to the climate of rivalry fostered by the Cold War. The Vietnam War became one of the main targets of this movement. The forms of protest found by young people of that period were music, especially the Rock n Roll, and drugs - mainly synthetic ones, such as LSD and the mescaline. Through rock sound and lyrics as well as stage performances, the counterculture began to penetrate society as a whole.
Woodstock represented the culmination of this countercultural era. The project for a large festival that would bring together the main representatives of rock from that period came from four young people: JohnRoberts,joelRosenman,artieKornfeld and MichaelLag. The proposal was to offer the interested public (the overwhelming majority of hippies) a three-day festival completely focused on rock and the adjacent countercultural practices: sex and drugs. Some authors who have studied the festival's history say the organizers' statement that it was expected an audience of 60 thousand people does not proceed, given that 180 thousand tickets were sold well before the event. Anyway, the event had more than double the number of people who had guaranteed their place in advance.
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About 400,000 people went to Woodstock. The city could not support the demand for food and other forms of food for such a large number of people and had to resort to help from neighboring cities. The organizers tried to make an event with the main rock personalities of the time, but not everyone could seal the commitment. Names like jimMorrison,ledZeppelin and frankZappa, despite being considered, they did not go to the festival. However, the three days featured artists from the lineage of JanisJoplin,Santana,JimiHendrix, joecocker and TheWho.
Woodstock was also marked by the images recorded on video of both the concerts and the audience and by events fatalities as well, such as the death of three people, victims, respectively, by running over, ruptured appendix and overdose of heroin.
*Image credits: Shutterstock and Liz Van Steenburgh
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
FERNANDES, Claudio. "Rock Woodstock Festival"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/datas-comemorativas/woodstock-maior-dos-festivais.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.
