Description
Between August 15 and August 18, 1969, an estimated 400,000 members of the counterculture generation descended on Max Yasgur's farm near White Lake, New York, to attend a series of sometimes rain-soaked concerts by 32 popular musical acts, including Janis Joplin, Santana, Canned Heat, The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Country Joe & the Fish, Ravi Shankar, The Band, Johnny Winter, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, Sha-Na-Na, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, and Jimi Hendrix, whose searing, cacophonous performance of the "Star-Spangled Banner" on the final day of the festival has become iconic in the years since the event. Woodstock - which billed itself as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music" - is one of the primary historical markers of the Sixties counterculture. A 1970 documentary on the festival won an Academy Award and the accompanying triple LP record reached #1 on the pop music chart that same year.