Three Days of Peace & Music

Woodstock 94’ (10)

     Although many attempts at recreating the “Woodstock experience” were made, critics consider most of these to be a failure in the sense that none of them were nearly as peaceful as the original 1969 festival. The most well known recreation of the music festival was August 12, 13, and 14th 1994 on its twenty fifth anniversary, and was called the “commercial Woodstock” by many. The event itself was held ten miles outside of where the actual festival took place. This time around many different kinds of bands performed ranging from country to punk rock. Many agree that newcomers Green Day gave one of the best performances of the entire festival, and audience members report that the band even had a mud war with the audience. The weather was even worse than the first time around, and much of the audience spent their entire time at Woodstock 94’ covered head to toe in mud. Many reports say that this festival had even more open sexuality than the original, and some claim that people were openly displaying sexual behaviors and many were nude the entire weekend. Many reports of fights, assault, and rape were made at this event, and little could be done to hold people accountable for their actions based on the sheer number of people there.

Utopia (9)

A Utopia is, “an ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants exist under seemingly perfect conditions. Hence “utopian” and “utopianism” are words used to denote visionary reform that tends to be impossibly idealistic (dictionary.com)”

The word utopia was coined by author Sir Thomas More who used it to describe the island he considered perfection.

The Woodstock Art & Music Festival could be considered a utopia because of the peaceful, beautiful idea it conveyed.

With about 500,000 people attending the festival on the Yasgur’s somewhat small dairy farm there are no records of fights, rapes, arrests, etc.

The were only 2 deaths, neither of which were violent (a narcotic overdose, and accidental death).

The message of the concert and general idea of the concert was peace and love.

People shared what they could, mingled, and enjoyed amazing music, regardless of the circumstances they found themselves in.

The Woodstock Art & Music Festival was a beautiful example of the affect peace, love, and happiness can have on a large group of individuals.

Criticisms of Woodstock (8)

     Although many considered the Woodstock Art & Music Festival to be a positive life-changing event, many argued that the festival was just a breeding ground for hippies and illegal activities.

  People of Waykill and Bethel, NY tried to put an end to the festival taking place in their home towns. They protested and tried to have permits for the festival pulled.

     Most would say that the biggest critics of the festival were adults (not to say that all adults were anti-Woodstock) and that the youth of the 1960’s were pro-Woodstock.

     The people who attended the Woodstock Art & Music Festival were considered by most to be “Hippies”, meaning,

Lyrics to Joni Mitchell’s hit song “Woodstock”

I came upon a child of god
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I’m going on down to Yasgur’s farm
I’m going to join in a rock n roll band
I’m going to camp out on the land
I’m going to try an get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe its the time of man

I don’t know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden