1960s Woodstock Festival Still Captivates Audiences

For hundreds of thousands of aging hippies, Woodstock still epitomizes the 1960s and their young adult years. Whether the "peace and love" generation celebrated their burgeoning influence on the country’s social policies and politics at Woodstock or, as is more likely the case, just listened to lots of music, got stoned and had lots of unprotected sex, the music festival held in upstate New York in 1969 still is a sign of those long-gone times. Richie Havens, a musician who played at Woodstock, noted that he still is frequently asked about his appearance at the quintessential 1960s concert, and receives many requests to sing "Freedom."

Said Havens, "Everything in my life, and so many others’, is attached to that train." Even 40 years later, with the senior citizens who attended the show likely to admit – to themselves if not to reporters – that the show was more a party than a political statement, Woodstock stands for the 1960s in the country’s collective consciousness. And, 40 years later, good old U.S. capitalism is coming into play, with Woodstock nostalgia selling like hotcakes. A new director’s cut DVD of the concert movies has been released, as well as a remastered concert CD, a memoir by concert promoter Michael Lang and Ang Lee’s comedy "Taking Woodstock."

Despite the now-legendary concert almost being derailed by a change of venue after the initial site refused to allow the show, the concert did get underway on the dates planned, from August 15-18, 1969. After fences were torn down, tickets rendered useless and 400,000 people showed up in a tiny town 80 miles from New York City, rain started to fall in torrents. Armed with copious amounts of mind-altering drugs and barely-sated sexual appetites, however, the young folks at the show simply got stoned and danced in the mud, thereafter forever to be known as the "Woodstock Generation."