The Woodstock Music Festival was held in 1969. Officially called the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, it took place from August 15 to 18 at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm near Bethel, New York.
The festival was organised by Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, John P. Roberts and Joel Rosenman. Although it was promoted as a ticketed event, huge crowds arrived before the site was ready, and the organisers eventually treated it as a free concert. Estimates place attendance at roughly 400,000 to 500,000 people.
Woodstock was billed as “Three Days of Peace and Music,” but performances extended into the early hours of August 18 because of delays and rain. Thirty-two acts appeared, including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joan Baez and Santana.
A common mix-up is confusing the original Woodstock with later anniversary events. Woodstock ’94 took place in 1994, while Woodstock ’99 was held in 1999. Neither was the original festival that became a defining symbol of 1960s counterculture.