(crowd murmuring) It looks like we're going to get a little bit of rain, so you better cover up. (wind rumbling) Everybody who's in the back, please move back! Please move back. We have to get away from these towers.
(wind blowing) Put the mic stands down on the floor. Cover all the equipment.
JOEL ROSENMAN
We were all in our mid-20s. We had created something that was much bigger than we had anticipated. I see it. (over
speakers)
All of you up on the towers, please come down. You're making it very, very dangerous. (wind blowing) All right, everybody, just sit down, wrap yourself up. We're going to have to ride it out.
JOHN MORRIS
Everything that could possibly go wrong was happening. I mean, it was all hell breaking loose.
MORRIS (over speaker)
Hold on to your neighbor, man. And let's think hard to get rid of it, please. (shouting): No rain! No rain!
No rain! (crowd chanting "No rain!")
SUSAN REYNOLDS
When you think about it, it could have been an absolute disaster. (thunder rumbling, rain pouring)
BARON WOLMAN
And I just kept thinking, "Which direction is this thing going to go?"
MAN (over speaker)
Try to keep yourself comfortable. It's gonna blow through. ("Something in the Air" by Thunderclap Newman playing) Call out the instigator Because there's something in the air We got to get together sooner or later Because the revolution's here And you know it's right
REYNOLDS
We did not plan ahead, we did not plan where we were going to stay, we didn't think about food. It was just, like, "Hey, this sounds like fun. Let's get in the car and go." We have got to get it together We have got to get it together now
PETER BEREN
We would pack as many hitchhikers as we could in the car, sitting on top of each other. And as we got closer, there would be people walking on foot like pilgrims. It looked like a pilgrimage.
LAUREEN STAROBIN
We were looking for answers. We were looking for other people that felt the same way as we did. ...and houses Because there's something in the air
JON JABOOLIAN
No matter where you looked, you saw people. It was like a field with people growing in it. I had never, never seen that many people in my life in one place at one time. And you know it's right
PAUL GEORGE
My feeling was, "This is what we've been talking about, "this is what we've been aiming for, this kind of freedom."
STAROBIN
If 400,000 people could get together and have absolutely no violence, absolutely no conflict, I felt like, if we could bring all that love back into society, we could change the world. We have got to get it together (cheering) We have got to get it together now ("I'll Take Manhattan" by Bobby Hackett playing) (horns honking)
JOHN ROBERTS
I grew up in New York City, and I came from a wealthy family. My mother died when I was young, so when I was 21, I inherited about a quarter of a million dollars. That was quite a bit of money in those days. I had a-a job down on Wall Street doing research.
ROSENMAN
When I met John, I had just gotten out of law school and was playing with a band down in the Village and at the clubs on Second and Third Avenue, but I was starting to get a little frayed at the edges. Neither one of us, I think, was really on a career path that we knew was the right one.
ROBERTS
Joel and I met playing golf. We hit it off. And, uh, we thought we'd go into business together, investing this money that I had.
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JOEL MAKOWER
John's grandfather founded the Block Drug Company, the maker of Poligrip and Polident. That fortune was the source of the seed money for a recording studio in Midtown Manhattan, Media Sound, which for John and Joel, actually turned into their first successful venture. It was because of Media Sound that John and Joel met Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld.
MAN
How much do those matches sell for? 65 cents for the roll.
MAKOWER
Michael had a head shop in Miami, in Coconut Grove, the center of the hippie culture down there. Right there, is that a pipe? Yeah, it's a Turkish water pipe. With two hoses.
In 1968 he moved to Woodstock, New York, about 100 miles north of New York City, and was introduced to Artie Kornfeld, who was a vice president at Capitol Records.
ROBERTS
They called us in early 1969, and said, "We're very interested in building a recording studio "in Woodstock, New York. "We know that you and Joel were involved in-in building one "in New York City. Would you meet with us?" We said, "Sure!"
ROSENMAN
When we met them, they were quite different from us, meaning a lot of fringe, a lot of buckskin, and a great deal of hair. John and I were making an effort to look like businessmen at the time. (laughing): So we, we couldn't have represented more distant ends of the spectrum.
ROBERTS
What Artie said was, basically, Woodstock was a center for artists, and that a recording studio there would have a natural constituency, and it would be a success.
ROSENMAN
As we were looking through the proposal that they'd given us, we noticed an idea for an opening-day party, where musicians who lived in the area-- Tim Hardin, John Sebastian, Bob Dylan-- would perform. I said, "The idea of having a concert with those stars, "I mean, why don't we skip the studio idea "and just do a big concert? We could make a fortune." So in late January 1969, the four of us shook hands and started brainstorming what Woodstock could be.
REPORTER
To the hippie youth of today, this is part of their real world. This is the atmosphere at the Monterey Pop Festival. The music is frantic, the sounds are wild, and the mind is free.
BOB HITE
I rolled and I tumbled I cried the whole night long
BOB SPITZ
Outdoor rock festivals were a pretty new concept at the time. They had begun in 1967 with Monterey Pop. And by 1968, '69, there had been a few festivals scattered around the country. Michael Lang was the only one of the four that had any experience in the concert business.
In 1968 he had helped produce a festival in Miami that was a huge disaster. It was held at a racetrack, had very little atmosphere, it rained, there were a lot of lawsuits afterwards; the festival never really came off. But Michael knew that this is what he wanted to do. And he had this idea of taking the festival out of the racetrack and putting it in a bucolic place.
LANG
I had been thinking about doing a series of concerts in Woodstock. And I always thought if you could dream it up, you could put it together. And this was a chance to make, you know, a dream come true.
ROSENMAN
Michael and Artie had optioned a property in Woodstock, but it was far too small-- it was just ten acres. So that didn't work out. A property in Saugerties didn't work out. And then John and I found a piece of property that was in Wallkill that was being turned into an industrial park.
It-it didn't knock you out visually, but it was available.
MAKOWER
Michael hated it. It was everything he didn't want-- just a flat, barren piece of land that had no trees, no soul.
LANG
You know how some pastoral scenes are beautiful and calming and make you feel comfortable, at peace? This was completely the opposite. But we needed to get going, we needed a site, and I felt that we could transform it into something more spiritual and special.
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