The Hippie Movement and Woodstock 69’

The Beat Generation

• Before hippies there were products of the Beat generation known as “Beatniks”

• Mainly started by post WWII writers such as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac.

• These writers were the main focus of obscenity in the late 1950’s from Ginsberg’s Howl and Burroughs’s Naked Lunch.

The Beat Generation

• These writings portrayed a new side of a counter culture sought out as being “Beat”

• The authors portrayed lifestyles of non-conformity such as

• experimentation with drugs, alternative forms of sexuality, an interest in Eastern religion, a rejection of materialism and the idealizing of exuberant, unexpurgated means of expression and being.

Hippies

• The original “Beat” authors meet in New York after allegations of obscenity

• Then they went to San Francisco and became close with figures of the San Francisco Renaissance, which in turn lead to the ideology of the Hippie counter-culture.

• This is what made San Francisco such a hot spot for hippies.

• Hippie derived from “Hipster”

Woodstock 1969

The Set Up

• John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld, and Mike Lang were the producers of Woodstock.

• John Robert was an heir to his father’s pharmaceutical fortune and his friend Rosenman were trying to find a way to make more money.

The Set Up

• Roberts and Rosenman placed an ad in The New York Times that stated: "Young men with unlimited capital looking for interesting, legitimate investment opportunities and business propositions," they met Kornfeld and Lang soon after for a business meeting.

The Set Up

• The original idea from Kornfeld and Lang was to create a recording studio for rock musicians such as Bob Dylan who lived in Woodstock, NY

• This morphed into a 3 day concert to raise money for the studio with an anticipated 50,000 person attendance.

• This was very underestimated….

The Venue

• The festival was to be held at Max Yasgur’s 600 acre farm in Bethel, New York.

• It was to be $7 for one day, $13 for two days, and $18 for three days, which could be purchased in select stores or via mail order.

Just a few bands that played.Day 1 Aug.15th: Richie Havens,Country Joe McDonaldDay 2;16th:CCR, The Who, Janis Joplin.Day 3;17th:The Band, Jefferson Airplane.After Midnight: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Jimi Hendrix

What went wrong

• Attendance changed from expected 50,000(2 days before) to 500,000 on the first day.

• This in turn caused concession shortages, over ran security, blocked roads, massive drug usage, and 3 deaths(one heroin overdose, 1 appendix rupture, and 1 tractor fatality)

The Aftermath

• One of the greatest music festivals had been conceived.

• Mass crowds still remained (Police removed)• An incredible debt (over $1 million) and the 70

lawsuits that had been filed against them.• After all of the money made and paid there

was still $100,00 in debt.