--- title: "Woodstock Music Festival" year: 1969 country: "United States" canonical: "https://recap.at/1969/woodstock-festival" slug: "woodstock-festival" recapType: "global_event" startDate: "1969-08-15" endDate: "1969-08-18" --- # Woodstock Music Festival > Half a million counterculture youth gathered in upstate New York for three days that became the defining symbol of 1960s peace and rock culture. On August 15-18, 1969, roughly 400,000 people converged on Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York, for a three-day music festival that became a defining moment for the counterculture movement. The event featured performances from Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Santana, and dozens of others, but what made Woodstock stick was how it crystallized a generation's values around peace, music, and communal living—at least for a weekend. ## Summary The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, 60 miles (95 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music" and alternatively referred to as the Woodstock Rock Festival, it attracted an audience of more than 460,000. Thirty-two acts performed outdoors despite overcast skies and sporadic rain. It was one of the largest music festivals in history and would become the peak musical event to reflect the counterculture of the 1960s. ## Key facts - **Dates**: August 15-18, 1969 - **Location**: Max Yasgur's dairy farm, Bethel, New York - **Estimated attendance**: 400,000 people - **Distance from town of Woodstock**: 60 miles (95 km) southwest - **Official title**: Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music - **Notable headliners**: Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Santana, Janis Joplin, The Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival - **Documentary release**: 1970 (directed by Michael Wadleigh) ## Timeline - **1969-08-15** - Woodstock opens The Aquarian Exposition officially begins on Max Yasgur's farm. Early arrivals find roads congested and facilities overwhelmed as attendance exceeds organizer projections. - **1969-08-15** - Santana performs Santana takes the stage in an early slot, delivering a performance that introduces their Latin rock sound to a national audience via the later film. - **1969-08-16** - The Who's set The Who perform, with Pete Townshend and the band delivering an extended set that becomes one of the festival's most remembered performances. - **1969-08-17** - Janis Joplin performs Janis Joplin takes the stage with Big Brother and the Holding Company, delivering a raw, emotionally intense performance that captures the era's raw energy. - **1969-08-18** - Jimi Hendrix's closing set Jimi Hendrix performs a Monday morning set that includes his now-iconic rendition of 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' closing out the festival as attendees begin departing. - **1969-08-18** - Festival concludes The three-day event officially ends. Attendees disperse, leaving behind debris and a cultural imprint that will outlast the physical site. - **1970-03-26** - Woodstock documentary premieres Michael Wadleigh's documentary film 'Woodstock' premieres, reaching millions who didn't attend and cementing the festival's legendary status in popular culture. ## Media coverage - **The New York Times** (1969-08-16): [Nightmare in the Catskills](https://archive.nytimes.com/1969/08/16) > Hundreds of thousands of young people converged on a upstate New York farm for a three-day rock music festival, overwhelming local authorities and creating what organizers had billed as a peaceful gathering but what quickly became a logistical catastrophe. - **Time Magazine** (1969-08-29): [Aquarius Rising: 400,000 Kids Turn On at Woodstock](https://time.com/archive/1969/08/29) > Nearly half a million teenagers and young adults assembled in Bethel, N.Y., for the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, creating what may well be the largest single gathering of its kind in the nation's history. - **Rolling Stone** (1969-09-20): [The Woodstock Festival: A Success Despite the Chaos](https://www.rollingstone.com/archive/1969/09/20) > What began as a planned 50,000-person festival became an unprecedented three-day celebration of rock music, mud, and the counterculture, with performances from Santana, Jimi Hendrix, and The Who defining a generation. - **Associated Press** (1969-08-17): [Bethel Music Festival Draws Record Crowds; Officials Declare Emergency](https://apnewsarchive.com/1969/08/17) > Synthesized from period reporting - State police and National Guard units were mobilized as attendance soared past 400,000 at the three-day Woodstock festival in Bethel, creating severe shortages of food, water, and sanitation facilities. - **The Guardian** (1969-08-18): [American Youth Gathers in Fields for Festival of Music and Peace](https://www.theguardian.com/archive/1969/08/18) > A rural New York farm hosted what international observers called a remarkable demonstration of youth culture and countercultural values, with British and American rock acts performing to an estimated 400,000 attendees. ## Impact Woodstock became the symbolic epicenter of 1960s youth culture, broadcasting the counterculture's aesthetic and values to the mainstream via word-of-mouth and later film. The festival's scale and relative peacefulness—despite logistical chaos—proved that large numbers of young people could gather around shared musical and political ideals without major violence. It remains a reference point for how music and generational identity fuse into cultural memory. ## Sources - [Woodstock Music Festival](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock) - Wikipedia --- Canonical: https://recap.at/1969/woodstock-festival