Woodstock: How The World's Greatest Festival Almost Failed!

Picture this. You're on your farm in upstate New York, you're tending to your crops, you're looking after your cows, everything feels like peace on earth. Then suddenly all of that changes. Half a million people show up, and your dream of a weekend of peace and quiet is thrown out the window. Can you imagine the look on their faces? It must have been something like, Miriam, get the kids and get inside quick, something funny's going on. I'm going to apologise right now for some of the impressions that are going to happen I'm of course talking about Woodstock, the summer of 69, where some of the greatest live bands ever assembled took the world out of chaos and into musical nirvana, man. Oh, I did warn you. Moving on. Organised by four young hippies, who let's face it, were way in over their heads. But to be fair to them, it didn't go up in flames, and the boomers haven't stopped talking about it since. It's probably the most impressive feat in American history that didn't involve landing on the moon. Let's get one thing straight, Woodstock wasn't just another music festival, it was the greatest music festival ever. Nothing before or since has come even close to how great it was. I think this one was better. No, you're wrong, it was Woodstock. Okay, moving on. But to be totally honest, it was a straight up miracle that they managed to pull it off. They would have had no idea how close it was to being You had four guys who stared the chaos of the 1960s in the eye and said, we might as well just put on a music festival at this point. Showing that the spirit of the summer of love was well and truly alive. Four friends with a vision, but a significantly smaller one than how Woodstock would actually turn out. They'd find a field, bring in some bands, maybe a few thousand people show up, sell some tickets, pay the artists, and maybe a little bit of loose change in the back pocket. Everyone has a good time and lives to go home to tell the tale. And that's when it exploded. Granted, they did plan for a pretty big festival, but not in their wildest dreams could they have imagined that half a million people would just show up. There had been big festivals with big lineups before Woodstock, but this time was different. It was kind of like there was some crazy energy just pulling loads of people in. People just popped out to the shops and next thing they knew, they were watching Jefferson Airplane at the crack of dawn playing White Rabbit. Talk about the trip of a lifetime. Originally, the festival was supposed to be held in Wallkill, New York. Wallkill. Not exactly the most inviting name for a town now, is it? But to say the least, the town wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of thousands of hippies rolling in. Local officials got involved and essentially made it impossible for the festival to be there. They would have to look elsewhere. It was a classic case of moral panic. But hey, if there's one thing that gets people hyped, it's being told they're not allowed to do something. Especially the flower generation. Seeking a new location, they found their saviour in the form of Max Yazga, who had more to offer than just pints of milk. Hello, would you like a pint of milk? No, I'd like to use your field to put on the greatest music festival of all time, if that's okay with you. Okay, I'll take a pint of milk as well. In the spirit of the decade, Yazga offered up his farm in Bethel, New York, stating, Are these... are these offensive? But anyway, it was probably the calmest reaction anyone's ever had to half a million people showing up to their garden. But the thing is, Yazga put his livelihood on the line, as his local community was not exactly happy about the fact that the festival was going ahead, even protesting against Oh god, I keep doing the accents. Someone stop me, please. But they wouldn't succeed, and Yazga would become an unlikely counterculture figure in the process. A hero to many, and his name firmly cemented in the American cultural history. That guy deserves a statue and a national holiday to boot. And so the stage was set, quite literally, if you'll pardon the pun. Except nothing else was ready. The security fences weren't finished, the food vendors weren't prepared for an event this size, even the bands were late for goodness sake, because the roads were gridlocked for miles. But with carefree attitudes, people abandoned their cars and just walked for hours to get there. Around 10% of the people who actually bought a ticket couldn't even make it. Imagine how bad they must have felt afterwards. It was clear at this point something was in the air. Something big was about to happen. It was a moment in history that no one wanted to miss. Unless you actually bought a ticket, and you probably were going to miss it. But you have to remember, you couldn't tweet about it. You couldn't post a story. Shocking, I know. People just knew that this was a moment for the ages. But once the organizers saw how many people had actually shown up, they basically had no choice. They just put their hands up and said, okay, fine, it's a free festival now. Who needs money? Uh, I do. So, uh, please like and subscribe and watch this video at least five times over. Thank you. They may have had loads of money on the line, but at this point they just didn't care. And that's the spirit of Woodstock. It wasn't really about money or profit. It was about creating something pure, even if it was messy. And yeah, it was a bit messy. They must have thought, okay, half a million people, we didn't expect that. But we weathered that storm. Weathered that storm. Poor choice of words? I feel like this is a poor choice of words. And then, like a biblical scene, Let's not talk about the toilets whilst you're eating. But here's the beautiful part. No one freaked out or cared. There were no riots or disorder. Just strangers helping each other out in the rain, sharing what little they had, and sleeping under the stars and in the dirt. Together, best friends for the weekend, connected for life. And we have to give this generation some credit, I feel. After all, They saw mass conscription, political assassinations every other month, the Vietnam War, civil rights, and a near-thermonuclear war. So I don't think a bit of mud seemed that bad to them. So here they were, creating something peaceful, with nothing but hope, music, and a lot of jazz tobacco, just to take the edge off. Right. We can't talk about Woodstock without talking about the music, obviously. The lineup was straight up insane. I've been watching and listening to Woodstock performances for years, and I still can't believe how good the lineup was. It was basically the musical Avengers. Jimi Hendrix, Canned Heat, Ritchie Havens, Jefferson Airplane, and more. I mean, Hendrix's version of the Star Spangled Banner. It was unreal. He turned the national anthem into this wild, emotional, psychedelic scream that just encapsulated the era. And then you've got Santana, just shredding through Soul Sacrifice like he was in a trance. I think he probably had too much lemonade from the looks of it. Yeah, lemonade. We all know what I mean. But I'm not going to say it, because YouTube don't like it, and they are my overlords. And one of my absolute favourites is Alan Wilson playing a slide guitar at sunset, the build-up just cutting through the air like magic. It was hypnotic, almost spiritual. It felt like the whole crowd was floating. God, floating! Maybe I had some of Santana's lemonade the last time I was watching these videos. And then you had Janis Joplin, who poured everything she had into the microphone, like it was a glass of Jack Daniels. Or The Who literally waking up the crowd at sunrise with Tommy. And Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. That was only their second live performance. Think about that, your second performance being Woodstock. My second performance was in my grandmother's birthday party, and even she fell asleep during it. But the crazy thing is, I've just listed a small fraction of the amazing performances at Woodstock. Comment below with your favourite performance at Woodstock, so we can discuss it in the comments. But keep it civil, we're all friends here. So yeah, the music was pretty amazing, that's to say the least. But that isn't what made Woodstock really special, it's what it symbolised. It was a declaration that even in a country that was at war and divided as ever, for one weekend in 1969, people came together as one, as a collective, united in peace, music and love. And that may seem lofty and ideal and naive, but what three better things could you have to bring people together? Okay, not everything went to plan. Some things went awry. I mean the power went out, the rain turned everything into the slip and slide of destiny. But as I've said, no one cared. But what mattered was the feeling and the unity. You had half a million people sharing one space, one moment, without judgement or fear. That doesn't just happen, that's lightning in a bottle. Woodstock wasn't about perfection. It wasn't supposed to be this polished, over-commercialised corporate mess, like you see in this day and age. It was the epitome of raw and real. In other words, messy. A true human experience. Everyone just living in the moment. No phones and god-awful selfies getting in the way. It was a truly live experience, and that made it special. But has anything come close since? There have been many attempts to replicate the magic of Woodstock. Some of them were good, and some of them, well, not so good. We've had Coachellas and Burning Mans and Lollapaloozas, but nothing's truly matched it. Because you can't manufacture a moment like that. That's kind of the point. It has to be felt and experienced. It has to come from need. And in 1969, the world needed Woodstock. And just to prove the point, they tried to resurrect Woodstock on two occasions, once in 1994 and again in 1999. But firstly, instead of returning to the hallowed grounds of Bethel, they chose Griffith Air Force Base, a sun-scorched tarmac in Rome, New York. And Rome, New York. It sounds a lot more glamorous than I think you'll find it is. And what was the result? A corporate cash grab masquerading as a festival of peace and love, where the main takeaways was chaos, destruction and looting. Everything Woodstock was against. It may seem that Woodstock represents the end of the 60s, given when it was. But really, it was the peak. It was the decade's Everest. Everything that generation believed in, kind of came together in this wild, muddy, unforgettable weekend. And let's face it, it's gone down in history. Not just in memories, but in a documentary that came out in 1970. And get this, it made the equivalent of 400 million dollars today. So yeah, letting everyone in for free, definitely paid off in the long run. And we're still talking about it decades later. Just scroll through the YouTube comments on those old performances. People from all over, all ages, all saying the same thing. This was something special. It reminds us that even in the middle of chaos, people can come together and make something that lasts. It's a reminder of what matters and what's possible. So yeah, Woodstock wasn't perfect, but it was iconic. And now it's sacred. It was a reminder that the soul of a generation isn't defined by politicians or profits. It's defined by people. It's defined by you and me. Well, not me, because I wasn't at Woodstock, but you know what I mean. Coming together, dancing barefoot, sharing food and Woodstock was, and still is, a symbol of resistance and hope. Of what it looks like when people choose unity over chaos, music over division, and love over fear. So next time someone says, I wish I could have been there, they mean it. Because for three days in 1969, the world stopped spinning out of control. And in that pause, people found each other. And that, that's something worth remembering. If you enjoyed this video, we've got even better ones along the way. You said that last time. I did. And look how much better this video is than the last one. Think how good the next one will be. So like and subscribe, and stay tuned.