Which songwriter wrote the song "Woodstock" after hearing about the festival?

Joni Mitchell wrote the song "Woodstock" after hearing about the festival. Although she did not attend the 1969 event, reports from the festival and accounts from her then-boyfriend Graham Nash inspired her to turn Woodstock into a song about community, idealism, and the counterculture.

Mitchell wrote the song in a hotel room in New York while watching televised coverage and reflecting on what she had missed. Her lyrics describe a traveler heading toward Max Yasgur's farm and transform the festival into a symbolic journey "back to the garden," blending peace-and-love imagery with references to war and Cold War-era destruction.

The best-known recording in the United States was made by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but that group did not write the song. Mitchell's own version appeared on her 1970 album Ladies of the Canyon. Other notable recordings followed, including versions by Matthews Southern Comfort and the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young lineup, making the songwriter's identity easy to confuse with the performers most listeners know.