1960s. First, part of a 1969 abc report about the impact the massive crowd had on the small new york town known as bethel. Last night the traffic was immense, but somehow between dark and dawn when the music finally stopped, they disappeared across the country. Although thousands remained on tre the rented 600acre dairy farm pitching in on cleanup detail or just waiting out the crowd. Its nestled in the heart of the catskills. The biggest town nearby is monticello. The townspeople were terrified at the prospect of the hippy arrival. Before it was over something happened in monticello. Residents and resorts freely emptied their cupboards for the kids. Residents were stunned about their politeness. Polite. I think they are really a Wonderful Group of kids. I never met so many kids in such large numbers that were so polite, so patient, so courteous and understanding under these conditions that we had here in the last three days. Certainly in the beginning there was a great deal of apprehension. But right now i can say that the attitude of the town has changed towards these young men and women. They took a lot of aggravation and inconvenience that the average adult wouldnt take. Unfortunately, because much of the press coverage was so jaundiced in its reports of what happened here, not many people in the country will learn what monticello learned. Suffice it to say it was not a disaster area. There was 400,000 young people here. No police, no violence, not even arguments in the midst of a 12hour traffic jam. Abc News Coverage from august of 1969. Joining us from lawrence, kansas, is david farber, professor of history at the university of kansas. Lets talk about what happened in bethel, pennsylvania, 50 miles from new york city. What was woodstock . I think woodstock was a surprise to the entire nation. It started one way and it ended in a very different way. It started as three days of peace and music. It was going to be a for profit Music Festival starring some of the biggest names in rock n roll. It was like many other festivals that had preceded it in the minds of the promoters. But two days in it became something quite different, a free concert, a free concert in which some 450,000 people showed up, almost all of them young people who had to make do with what they had, who triumphed over rain, crowds, gridlock, lack of food and had an amazing time and showed the nation what young people were capable of. Why was this dairy farm in new york selected for the site . That dairy farm in new york outside of bethel was not supposed to be what was happening with woodstock. The festival was first maybe going to be up in the woodstock area. Then it was going to be down in a neighborhood not too far from woodstock. Permits werent given. Townpeople decried what was happening. With less than a month to go max yasgar, a dairy farmer, said, all right, promoters, im going to let you use my farm. They had to build a sound stage, lighting, figure out how to create fences and really in a spontaneous way created the woodstock Music Festival. What did the neighbors think . I think a lot of people in that vicinity were not sure what to make of what was going to happen at max yasgars dairy farm outside of new york city. There was a lot of concern, there was a lot of fear, there was a sense of what the unknown could bring. I think a lot of neighbors were furious with max for agreeing to do this. But over time i think most of those townspeople, most of the residents were won over, but not at the beginning. More background on what happened at woodstock, a place that became one of the iconic movements of the 1960s Counter Culture movement. The original plan was to have it in woodstock which is about 60 miles northeast of here. Woodstock, new york, was a Bohemian Community and a lot of musicians lived there off and on, including bob dylan, the band, Richie Havens, van morrison. The organizers called their Company Woodstock ventures and they started looking for a place for their festival. They couldnt find a place in woodstock that was large enough. They found a property that might have worked in down the road from woodstock. They found an industrial park. They started building. They started advertising. They built the stage. They had artists creating art installations. Everything was going smoothly until the locals caught wind of what they were doing and it wasnt going to be a 50,000 person folk festival after all, what they were promised. The fotown basically rewrote it laws to outlaw the if i feel. That left Woodstock Ventures with about four weeks to find another holocation. When they came to this property, it was a perfect shape, perfect size for the type of rock festival they wanted to have. And the rest is history. As you look at the names of the people who performed, arlo guthrie, jefferson airplane, what brought all of these musicians to this location . It was a real hall of fame roster. So many of these people have names we still know so well today. This was a Music Festival not too far from new york city that many bands and their managers thought would be a great launching pad, put them in front of a lot of people. They hoped to make some money performing. It was sort of one musician signed up, it lured another musician. It was a snowball effect. One of the myths i think by people who think about woodstock is that it became a place of violence and disruption, but that wasnt the situation, was it . No. I think what surprised the nation and certainly went against what the mass media had been promoting up until the actual festival began, was that woodstock turned out to be, despite some pretty dire conditions, an incredibly peaceful assemblage of 450,000 people who figured out how to get along, not let tensions erupt, not let lack of food, lack of water turn them off. They shared what they had, they worked with each other and they made an incredible event that those who attended never ever forgot. What is remarkable too is how this spread to a half million or nearly a half a Million People. You can see the crowds in that film that was shot. They initially expected between 150 to 200,000 people to travel to bethel, new york. This is in the era where there is no social media, no websites, no cell phones. How did word spread about this iconic event . Its a real testament to how the Counter Culture and Youth Culture in general were organized at that time. There were no social media, no advertisements on the mainstream media. A lot of the word on the concerts got out through the alternative press. There was a very vital underground press at that point. Every big city had one, many College Towns had an underground press. The promoters did advertise in those places. It was talked about on nascent burgeoning fm radio stations. Young people had their own media and it worked. Word got out far faster and spread wilder than the promoters ever expected. What was the Counter Culture movement . The Counter Culture movement didnt have membership cards and theres no roster. Its a kind of amorphous word. It entitled two Different Things by 1969. One was protest culture ranging from people seeking social justice, racial justice, against the war in vietnam, the beginnings of the environmental movement. I think even more the Counter Culture was a celebration of alternative values or maybe just america living up to the values it proclaimed. What would equality really look like, what should freedom feel like, what would social justice live like . These are people who wanted to experience and build a different america built on some real core values. For those watching on cspan3s American History tv, following our conversation well let you listen to an oral history done by artie cornfeld. Who was he . Artie was at that time in his mid 20s. All the guys who put the concert together were in their mid 20s. Co co cornfeld was integral to them signing the big names. He had connections. The legacy of woodstock is that in 500 years when they forgot about the beatles if theres still people living, theyre still going to remember the greatest peaceful event. The legacy was Time Magazine when they listed the top 20 events of mankind, making woodstock number two, when they said it was the greatest peaceful man made event in the history of all mankind and it was second to the man landing on the moon. As you hear that, whats your reaction . Well, i think arties right to take pride in what he helped accomplish. Top 20, we could all have an interesting debate about that. It was certainly an extraordinary event and certainly in 1969 it felt to Many Americans like an extraordinary event. Here was a time of polarization, anger, rage, when violence was starting to become the norm in a lot of the political movements at the time. Yet there they were 500,000 young people peacefully assembled trying to do Something Wonderful, something beautiful. I think it really did surprise the people who attended and i think it cheered a lot of americans up that young people could gather together like that and create history in a wonderful, peaceful way. If you attended woodstock, wed love to hear from you. 2027488,00 2027488000. If youre 55 or older and may not have attended but remember conversations about woodstock what is the most important thing as a historian that we need to understand with regard to what happened in bethel new york . I think woodstock has remained an important historical event really for probably two reasons. One, it was a hallmark of music history. I mean, if youve seen the movie, if youve watched those bands perform, this was an incredible event from Richie Havens opening very long set where he played that amazing freedom piece to Jimmy Hendrixs closing star spangled banner. These are the moments that live on. It was an event that marked in some ways the coming out party for the Counter Culture across america. So people kind of knew about hippies in san francisco. They knew about the Youth Culture of music. They were fearful of the drug experiences regarding marijuana and lsd. But at woodstock people saw another side of the Counter Culture, especially in the movie that came out in 1970. Here were young people who were really trying to live different values, who were trying to share and cooperate. This was the best face the Counter Culture could show america. I think its been a lasting face in part because of the film that came out the next year. We have a trailer from that film that was released in 1970. Lets watch. Woodstock, an incredible film about an incredible event is back. Supposed to be a million and a half people here by tonight. Can you dig that . I get by with a little help from my friends its amazing. It looks like some kind of biblical, epic, unbelievable scene. Woodstock, where the cast of a half a million outrageously friendly people. You want me to explain it in plain english . Its a dirty mess. Woodstock, where it all began. The voiceover by casey casem. The organizers sold about 185,000 tickets, expecting 200,000 to show up. What were the ticket prices . And what did they do when a half Million People showed up or nearly a half million . Right. I mean, thats i think one of the most important things to ponder all these decades later is woodstock was supposed to just be another music concert. I think it was 18 if you wanted to attend all three days of the concert. You could buy tickets from all over the United States but overwhelmingly the audience came from the new york mid atlantic area. What the promoters didnt expect is that another 250 or 300,000 showed up. They werent prepared. They didnt have fencing and ticket booths youd see at a Music Festival today. People were coming from all directions and they showed up. After a while, the promoters just didnt even try to collect fees. They announced it from the stage this will be a free concert. There have been free concerts before but never at this scale, nothing like it. I think it was that transition from this kind of commercial for profit concert to this free event where hundreds of thousands of people showed up and had to take care of themselves. Thats when woodstock became woodstock. Lets bring in our viewers and listens. Bob from boston, were you there 50 years ago . Caller yes, i was. I was 16 years old. I was up in New Hampshire working at a summer camp there. Like all counsellors they had from europe, they say we all quit, were going to woodstock. I said im quitting too. Let me come. I seen the documentary in the 1980s. I didnt get to see it before that. But one thing that i noticed in the documentary that it didnt grasp the real hold of what was actually going on. It was a vietnam war protest for the most part. I was kind of disappointed about that. As somebody who was there, do you remember what you ate and where you slept . Caller well, Peanut Butter sandwiches. People had blankets and stuff, slept right there. Thank you, bob. David farber, your response . What bob said about the Peanut Butter sandwiches very much rings true. People brought what they could and ate simply. The larger context is interesting. 1969 marked in some ways the ha hallmark of the polarization over vietnam. There were massive demonstrations. Woodstock fundamentally was not political. Country joe mcdonald did give his antidraft rag. Ab Abbie Hoffman it was not fundamentally about the war in vietnam. It was a kind of Counter Point to the war in vietnam and to the anger and frustrations and fears Many Americans had. It was set up as a nonpolitical event or at least politics of a very different kind. Ann is joining us, charlotte, north carolina. Good morning. Accou caller hi. Thank you for cspan. Its the greatest. I had just one question. One of my great regrets is i did not make it to woodstock. I was under the understanding that there was a group called ten years after and they did a song called going home. I dont see them ever listed as appearing at woodstock. Could you clear that up . Thank you and im going to hang up. Thank you, ann. There were, boy, 30 or so acts. Ten years after performed. I cant remember what their status was in terms of the film. The a lot of people get the two things mixed up, who was at woodstock and who appears in the film. I know, for example, the grateful dead for reasons that might have had to do with what substances they were ingesting at the time didnt seen the waiver to be in the film. I dont know the particulars of ten years after. But thats why some peoples favorite bands dont show up in the documentary film. So drugs were prevalent at woodstock . Drugs . The use of drugs . I said the use of drugs, were they prevalent at woodstock . [ laughter ] yes. So there was a lot, a lot of marijuana smoked. People said you only had to be within 100 yards of the stage to get high. You didnt actually have to be smoking a joint because there were so many marijuana joints being passed around. Cannabis was omnipresent. It was beingd openly. Lsd use in 1969 was not something young people had ever tried. At woodstock it was fairly easily available. A lot of people tried lsd for the first time at woodstock. Imagine taking this incredibly powerful ha loo la drug in a cr 450,000. The official name was the woodstock music and art fair, 3 days of peace and music. Were looking back 50 years later. We have some aerial views of what the area looks like today. It is a Historic Site now, is it not . Thats right. Theres a Wonderful Museum right there. The bethel museum, wonderfully run and curated. Anybody whos in the area can come and relive the woodstock experience. Its really quite special. Bob from philipsburg, new jersey. You were there 50 years ago . Caller yes, i was. I was 18 years old. We traveled from bayonne, new jersey, after work friday night at midnight. We missed all of the folk day friday, but that was okay. We wanted rock n roll. And for 18 it was a bargain with a star studded cast of great rock n roll acts. We had no idea there was going to be like almost a half a Million People there. What do you remember about trying to get to bethel, new york . Because there were reports of traffic backed up 8 miles to get there. Caller well, we had parked our car maybe on somebodys lawn or the side of the road. We had to walk for miles on saturday morning or afternoon to get to the festival site. But i remember people, the local people being friendly, giving us water and sandwiches and being very nice to us. Bob, how did you hear about it, if i may ask . There was no social media. Where did you get information about this huge concert . Caller well bayonne is close to new york city and it was advertised. We just bought our tickets in advance. Bob, thanks for the call. David farber, what are you hearing from his comments . Yeah, bobs comments again ring so true and are very representative, i think, of a lot of people, one who was 1 years old. The other caller was 16 years old. I think when you look out at that crowd, you realize how young so many people were. This was a group of people 1625. Yeah, there were a few older people and a handful of kids there as well. But it was teenagers and people in their early 20s. These were young people who faced all sort of bizarre conditions, having to walk miles to get there to figuring out how to make do on a jar of Peanut Butter. These are young people who rose to the occasion and had an incredible time under incredible circumstances. Thats a great story bob just told us. Peggy from kansas, how old were you when you went to woodstock, peggy . Caller 17. How did you get there . Caller we drove, me and three o