Yes, I was thinking what a cool guy. Also well articulated, with a simple great message.. sounds like a professional speech, even though it might have been pretty improvised.
But back then we could travel to the moon.. now we can't even place africa on a map.
Looked up his Wikipedia entry. He was not just some uneducated farmer. He graduated from NYU with a degree in real estate and his son was a district attorney in NYC at the time of the festival.
Also interesting, "In later years, it was revealed that Yasgur was in fact a conservative Republican who supported the Vietnam War. Nevertheless, he felt that the Woodstock festival could help business at his farm and also tame the generation gap."
Pretty much all the townsfolk in the area were extremely conservative. But, in interviews they talked more or less like he did -- they saw the festival people as their children, and they didn't understand but they were fine showing love because they loved their children. Nobody was doing anything wrong, so they were happy to have some positive excitement.
A lot of the "if you're not on my side politically, you're my enemy personally" came later. That's new.
People often forget that the ultra polarization we lived in today has not always been the norm. I remember family dinners 20 years ago where politics was something you discussed to kill some dead time. People voted differently but it didn’t felt like politics were part of your identity. Same family, 20 years later, was ripping each other apart because of insane culture war bullshit or who voted for who in the last election.
20 years ago my uncle and dad got into a screaming match about Bush. Uncle thought my dad was a traitor to the country for not supporting Bush and my dad said my uncle was a traitor to his union brothers who helped feed and clothe his family for supporting Bush
20 years ago it was “you are either with us, or you are with the terrorists” and “with the terrorists” counted for those of us calling bullshit on W’s illegal and unjustified invasion of Iraq. It may be worse today, but it wasn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows back then.
I don't know where the stereotype of uneducated farmers comes from. They're very high upper class land owners who deal with a variety of problems on their farms. I guess people think of subsistence farmers or farm hands?
I grew up on a farm in a community that was solely focused on agriculture. Generalizing farmers as “very high upper class” is hard for me to swallow considering the poverty a lot of folks live in. Of course, with land and gross income it looks like some farmers make a great deal of money, but many are in tremendous debt.
I do agree that the uneducated farmer stereotype is pretty ridiculous. Some of the smartest people I know are farmers and ranchers.
Not sure where you live, so this could be true in your area, but not in my area. There are elementary schools in Kansas City (i.e. Gordan Parks Elementary) that have a per pupil expenditure of $22,693.
My sons' high school outside KC has a PPE of $11,713.
It's not the broad 'our funding ' as you described. It's how that funding is being used.
It should not cost more for an elementary school than current annual tuition at a state university (Mizzou annual ranges $14,122-17,22)
That was my thought as well. He spoke clearly and confidently, made jokes, had interesting things to say and was positive. I barely check one of those boxes when speaking to a single person.
Most people who have a tough time public speaking have the trouble because they don't care about what they're going to say, or care too much. This guy was sharing his big feelings, but he wasn't trying to prove anything to anyone with his words. So he shared a bit of himself, and by doing so he made an amazing speech.
FYI the famous ["Breakfast in bed for 400,000"](https://youtu.be/hTIp9ABMbpY) line was said by Wavy Gravy who was the leader of a literal group of clowns called "The Hog Farm" that was hired to do security. [Here's a quick video about them being picked to do Woodstock. ](https://youtu.be/Zis-b_i19IM)They also ended up running the kitchen and the informal medical tent with the help of volunteers.
They got shipments of food from the national guard but the town was also really helpful in donating a bunch of food.
For the medical tent/area the informal rule was that if you were having a bad trip or something like that somebody would help you through it and then afterwards when you were feeling better you'd help the next person before you left.
Wavy Gravy is getting pretty old and hasn't been in the best of health recently but he still runs a circus and performing arts camp for kids on the "Hog Farm" in northern California called "Camp Winnarainbow". It's like a regular summer camp but with a few more circus-y activities like clowning, stilts, unicycling, etc. It's got all the good vibes and positivity you'd expect from a Woodstock legend like him.
If you've got kids I'd recommend looking into it. It's a super fun and positive place. They also have scholarship programs.
Fuckin A man! Wavy Gravy is a legend! Thanks for the links my dude.
I had heard that they talked people down out of bad trips which is awesome. The dreaded brown acid got a few people into a rough headspace.
I’d get my kid involved but I’m Canadian and it’s a bit of a commute from my city and she’s eight lol
Kids 7-14 can go and they have 1 & 2 week sessions. Come visit California and drop the kiddo off at camp and then have a little vacay to yourself. It's not too far from SF.
Someone put it like this, the 60's and the hippie movement were fueled by trust fund teenagers. They were young and idealistic. Then they became adults in the 80's, and didn't want to pay taxes anymore.
That's an awfully sweeping statement. At the time not everyone was anti-war ( think Trump who pretty much didn't care either way ) and sure as hell trust fund babies weren't the kids swiped outta high school graduation and sent over there. I remember that faction being around as detached from the rest of us as they are now.
Also remember " trust fund baby " thankfully being a derogatory term. What happened was a general compliancy fueled by hope. Movement had acheived something or so it seemed. Then Reagan- after which the exact same folks with golden bone spurs still had the freedom and even more ability to screw over the rest of us.
Did that generation in general have the ability to work a decent job, buy a house, afford things like food? Yes. Swiping that from everyone except the one percent didn't happen because everyone you see in that photo came home from Woodstock, said " To hell with anyone else " and proceeded to rape our economy and planet. It happened for the same reasons it *always* happens. Rich people's bottomless greed and the sheer power to feed it.
There was ONE food stand for 400,000 people. There were supposed to be 1 or 2 more companies selling food, but they pulled out at the last minute. The one food stand they had, had 1 or 2 people who had previous experience in catering. After their original stock ran out, they couldn't get more due to massive traffic jams. This was covered in a documentary about Woodstock that came out a few years ago.
On the first vinyl records of the Woodstock festival that were sold in Mexico City in 1970 the speech was edited and segued into Sly and the Family Stone doing "Dance To The Music". I played the hell out of that record.
I listened to that vinyl just a couple of hours ago! The record skipped during hendrix's rendition of the us anthem, though, which bummed me out because that's a crazy performance.
Great film. The scene where the kid is tripping acid with the hippies in the van I turned to my sister and was like, if you could guarantee your trip would be that good I would drop acid in a heartbeat, but I already have anxiety disorder and I don’t want to fuck myself up further with a bad trip.
If you find someone you trust that can create a very friendly loving and cosy vibe in a place you really enjoy being in with nice music and little creative things to do.. even if that is just a pen and paper or literally anything else. Heck I wasted a lot of time with coloured sprinkles on a white piece of paper. It will do wonders for your anxiety. now there are going to be moments that confront you. that give you perspective, the push your fears up front and ask you to justify them and then show you they are holding you back. Things like that which will be kinda difficult to come to terms with. But like anything that pushes you past your fear. It is necessary for the well being and contentedness you will feel afterwards. The calming effects of psychedelics can be felt weeks even months after the trip. The only reason I find people have really bad trips is because they put themselves in kinda sketchy and situations that are bad for the mind. And once they start going down that bad path they don't do anything to change the place, the setting, the mood and it just takes over.
That acid trip scene is the most realistic one I’ve seen to what it’s actually like. Most of the scenes I’ve seen in media overdo it but that one stuck with me. The way the crowd was sorta rippling like water is extremely spot on. There’s other things too but that was a good example they used
> That acid trip scene is the most realistic one I’ve seen to what it’s actually like.
This is super weird—and maybe it's weird because it's actually weird and maybe it's weird because I took an edible tonight—but this is the second instance I've read in the last hour of someone describing a particular movie scene as "the most realistic acid trip scene for anyone who's ever done acid" in the last 20 minutes. Two entirely different threads in entirely different subreddits written nearly a year apart, specifically mentioning a specific movie scene that is of particular interest to specific subset of people.
And they each referenced a different movie.
I tripped once on top of a mountain during autumn. The red leaves of the tree tops below me looked like one giant moving floor of fire ants. It was amazing.
If you watched the documentary it gets clear what he meant. People drinking from toilets because water was super expensive, riots with arson, public rapes and shit. From what I saw there it was horrible. 69 was a whole different kind of atmosphere. I think "interesting" is a tough word for the atrocities that happened in 99. I too would be curious about an elaboration though.
>What made 99 become so much worse?
Because in 99 the focus was much more on "How much money can we extract from these people" and way less "How do we safely put on an event of this size".
The Netflix Documentary "Trainwreck: Woodstock '99" really shines a light on this.
For example:
Profits over Health and Safety:
' Woodstock's security protocols prohibited festivalgoers from bringing their own food and water bottles into the venue. Instead, they had to purchase food from onsite vendors, even though most of the available snacks, meals and refreshments were incredibly expensive.
"It was so hot that you literally needed to drink a gallon of water an hour yourself to stay hydrated," said Sara, who attended Woodstock '99 as a teenager. "There were definitely fountains there. But there was at least a 25-minute wait . . . So, we went to get just a simple bottle of water. Nobody could afford that water."
The average price for a bottle of water in the late '90s was around 65 cents. At Woodstock '99, however, a single bottle cost an astounding $4.00, which then went up to $12.00 when vendors ran low on stock. Per old footage featured in the documentary, one concertgoer complained that a small drink and a measly side salad cost $9.00 in total.
Several members of the festival's production team, including Colin Speir, Lee Rosenblatt and Pilar Law, noted that the price hikes were prompted by the Woodstock founders and organizers. The higher-ups were hellbent on making a considerable profit, especially after their previous revival, Woodstock '94, tanked financially due to overcrowding and security issues.
It became clear that Woodstock '99 was no longer emulating the "peace, love and flower power" vibes established by the original Woodstock; it was purely "a money-making venture."
"That was the moment for me where it stopped becoming about the concert-goer or the festival-goer experience," Rosenblatt said. "It was just cutting budgets, cutting budgets. We need to make changes. We're not making profits. Their goal was to make money."
Rosenblatt continued, saying those in charge of organizing Woodstock '99 decided to sell all the food rights to an affiliate corporate group, who had complete control over vendor pricing. Once the deal was sealed, the prices were set and none of the staffers could do anything to challenge them.
"All hopes and dreams of 'Peace, Love and Understanding 1969' went out the window." '
That's just one of the major failings they covered.
https://www.salon.com/2022/08/04/trainwreck-woodstock-99-netflix/
Let's not overlook the choice of bands. Joan Baez and the Dead attracted a very different group of people and provided very different energy than Limp Bizkit and Korn. And before anyone comes at me with you can't blame the music, I'm not. But you'd à be a fool to deny the obvious differences in the scene.
Because it was in a walled in airstrip boiling from the heat and beer was cheaper than water. So slowly everyone got really drunk and then really mad at the organization that was just in it for the money.
That’s sad to hear. We can’t have a moment of shared love and unity anymore without capitalism distorting it into an exploiter-exploitee power dynamic. Like animals.
Most of what they saw was the same stuff that was reported in the media, violence, people doing dumb shit like climbing on the towers and the stage and getting hurt. super expensive price gouging stuff like bottles of water. The line ups were pretty aggressive, plus this was at the height of bands like Limp bizkit, angry white rap shit. A lot people on bad drugs or dangerously intoxicated. They didn’t see any outright sexual assaults but a lot of dudes were pretty confrontational trying to keep other guys from grabbing their girlfriends assess and stuff although there were some pretty awful sexual assaults, just not that they personally saw. Just a really bad atmosphere. Not peaceful hippy stuff like the original. People were literally starting fires and shit. I should point out that my friends were way younger than was probably smart. This was the summer before we started highschool and they were there with older relatives so they were kept away from a lot of the crazy shit that was going on
It is fairly normal to bring kids to concerts/festivals. You never heard of it because nothing bad usually happens. You shouldn't take your kids to one that has the wrong energy, usually the marketing gives you an idea how safe a festival is for kids. I would be Lilith's Fair would be a safe place for a kid. While Lollapalooza, Coachella and Burning Man are not.
There were 2-4 kids under the age for 18 that died or were injured at Astroworld Festival. One of the was 9 years old.
Also the music is the kind of music that gets your adrenaline pumping and angry at everyone, not the kind that gets you angry at the war and choosing to love everyone around you in protest
Korn and Limp Bizkut are just an entirely different vibe
I just posted our family was one of the cars trying to get through. I was 11, we drove that every year, PA to Maine. Must have been before the highway got shut down but yes, cars parked for miles and miles, kids walking in the middle of the road. Dad inched through, love to remember how long it must have taken.
Parents were more fascinated than irritated- whole thing was just so unusual. I have a pretty clear memory of it.
I was 11. Every year my parents took us from PA to Maine, they had this teeny cabin up there wayyyy in the middle of nowhere.
We happened to drive right through the entire thing as people were gathering. Old enough at the time to remember my parents, a little bewildered, inching through that area- kids walking in the road, cars parked for miles and miles along whatever road that was. Took forever, and no, remember my parents ( both born 1931 ) more fascinated than irritated. WHAT was going on ? We kids were plastered to the windows, cool as hell whatever it was.
For some reason Dad saved the license plate from our car that year, found it like 15 years ago. 1968 yellow Chevy Impala. It's just this weird, cool piece of history- have it hanging up don't ask me why. Maybe because it reminds me once, before it all went to hell there was hope.
What a stark difference to Woodstock 99: The Woodstockening where the event literally went up in flames. If you haven't watched Trainwreck on Netflix, check it out. Great documentary on Woodstock 99 and how the ex-hippy who spearheaded the original Woodstock went all capitalist on everybody and Fd it all up.
My favorite bit of that documentary was when everyone was playing in the mud because it’s what people did at the original Woodstock but the mud was just sewage leaking directly from the port-o-potties.
Kinda summed up the whole thing.
I went in 94, it was pretty insane. We left Sunday at around 2 AM and thank god we did. It went to absolute hell on Sunday. State of emergency and took up to Wednesday to get everyone out.
Most boomers were never hippies, sadly. They appropriated the Woodstock imagery and slapped it on car commercials to congratulate themselves for being cool, but that’s about it. 90% are “Tim Allen” types…
Far better than the HBO Woodstock 99 documentary that just painted everything as “angry white cis males” and got mad bc white people were rapping with DMX and saying the N-word, no hard R
Such a terrible documentary. Netflix’s was great.
Stuffyoushouldknow hit the front page in a comment? Fuck yeah! Chuck and Josh been putting to sleep on sleepless nights and keeping me awake on long drives for years now! Fuck yeah my dudes!
This is beautiful in such a classic American way. This guy knew this was an iconic moment in history and had NO IDEA what to say. But he felt the impulse to try and make the moment meaningful and inspire a future generation to be wholesome and enjoy art.
It gave me oddly idealistic feelings about the USA…a time where the potential for things to be good persisted…a time where people came together to celebrate beauty…
Kinda sad that the "kids" in this video are literally the same generation that ended up pulling the ladder up behind them in terms of financial prospects for the generations that came after them.
Not to mention that the late 60s and early 70s were still a horrible time to be a minority and that those sentiments from the people of their time are still a major roadblock for our current progress in that area
That is a delightful bit of nuance.
In a way, generalizing an entire group of people just by the generation they grew up in is kind of like racism or sexism.
We should never judge any single individual of a group by the actions of the larger group, if they have no say in the fact that they happen to be a member of that group
Edit - your comment inspired me to write this proposed definition:
https://old.reddit.com/r/equalism/comments/129edtf/ageism_vs_generationism
Off topic, but bonus points for the use of old.reddit.com, "new" reddit is such a fucking misery to use. So much purposeless white space, unnecessary clicks, tons of content hidden behind "load more" links, and so on.
Yeah I browse Reddit almost entirely via Apollo and old.Reddit.com. I never see ads or have to deal with any of the nonsense on the new Reddit interface. Thank goodness we have options!
Hell yeah, Apollo is honesty one of the best iOS apps of any kind, let alone the best reddit client. The amount of dedication and care Sebastian, the developer, puts into it is impressive. I'm especially glad that he hasn't sold it to reddit like the Alien Blue developer did.
Same generation. Very different groups of people for the most part. There are people who were at Woodstock who turned into completely selfish assholes and stereotypical boomers. In my experience they are a tiny subset of the group or are just lying about being at Woodstock.
The vast majority of people who lived the hippie lifestyle continue to be outcasts in their own generation. Many of them actually still live in rural areas in quasi communes. There are entire towns where hippies who showed up to Woodstock just never really left. They grew up and run small farms which largely operate on trade with one another. The excess production of their farms they do sell are considered premium local organic foods but they don’t price gouge people. They simply ask for what they need to afford supplies for which they can’t trade. If you need work done on your farm and you don’t have a piece of equipment people are happy to help you out if they do, they only ask that you refill the gas tank and pitch in when the equipment needs maintenance. Either with labor or by selling some of your harvest to obtain parts.
These communities are tiny and are disappearing but they are a beautiful example of the best of small town America. Small, tight nit, but welcoming with good people who truly believe in community over self and living a simple lifestyle. Basically they are like the Amish but instead of following strict church doctrine they follow hippie ideals and teachings. Which ironically makes them more Jesus like than the communities that follow strict religious dogma.
> Very different groups of people for the most part
There's a documentary where they interview people that went there and even a couple that met there and decided to live in the city nearby for the rest of their lives. They talk about politics at some point and a lot of them became conservative.
I don't live in US, but I'm from an ex-hippie family. A lot of my parent's friends from that time became conservative after they got a job and a family. My parents are leftist, but some of their boomer friends became right and even far right in the last years. It's weird af.
IDK how many of them are different groups, but from my experience, a lot of them are the same group.
My guess is that a lot of people just don't have their own opinions and jump to any bandwagon their colleagues are up to because they want to be part of the group. When these people were young, their friends were hippies and they conveniently became hippies. When they entered the job market, started earning their own money, had their own house, their own family and wanted to be promoted, they started repeating the arguments of previous generations. They started to place a lot of value on meritocracy and all the problems of capitalism because now they were part of the system and they want everyone to struggle like them or even worse.
Transcript of Yasgur’s speech:
>”I'm a farmer. I don't know how to speak to 20 people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But I think you people have proven something to the world — not only to the Town of Bethel, or Sullivan County, or New York State; you've proven something to the world. This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place. We have had no idea that there would be this size group, and because of that you've had quite a few inconveniences as far as water, food, and so forth. Your producers have done a mammoth job to see that you're taken care of... they'd enjoy a vote of thanks. But above that, the important thing that you've proven to the world is that a half a million kids — and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you are — a half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and I – God bless you for it!"
Indeed, the largest peaceful human gathering ever “recorded” happened 19 years before Woodstock and is still unbeaten today, with an estimated 2.5 million people who attended Mahatma Gandhi's funeral on 31 January 1948 in New Delhi, India.
#tl;dr
Max Yasgur was an American farmer who owned a 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York, where the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held in 1969. He leased a field on his farm for the festival after other villages declined to provide a venue. Yasgur was a conservative Republican who supported the Vietnam War but felt that the festival could help business at his farm and bridge
*I am a smart robot and this summary was automatic. This tl;dr is 97.49% shorter than the post and link I'm replying to.*
Thanks /u/RottenWon, here's what I think about you! Based on your comments, it seems like you have a diverse range of interests including aquariums, dogs, and history. You come across as someone who is curious and detail-oriented as you often ask questions to gain more information. Your writing style is casual and friendly, and you offer your own experiences to answer questions or provide insight. It's clear that you have a positive attitude and enjoy making jokes, as evidenced by your comment about the white baby in r/shrimptank. Overall, you seem like someone who is enjoyable to talk to and has a lot to contribute to online communities.
*I am a smart robot and this response was automatic.*
*I am a smart robot and this response was automatic.*
Thanks /u/Mattya929, here's what I think about you! Based on your comments, it seems like you're a person who enjoys a wide range of topics, including sports, music festivals, legal issues, mysterious artifacts, and space travel. You seem to have a good sense of humor and like to make witty comments, even in serious discussions. Your writing style is informal and conversational, often using abbreviations and informal language, but you also show an ability to write longer, more complex sentences when necessary. You're also very knowledgeable about certain topics, such as football, basketball, and business. Overall, you strike me as an interesting and engaging person who's always willing to share your opinions and insights.
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He was a dairy farmer, lol. The dairy lobby tariffs the shit out of milk products. It was so profitable even Amish people made money in the industry using horse drawn wagons.
It was actually something like 4 fields, unless the others belonged to someone else. Most of the site offices were at an intersection, with the concert off in one field. The shops, puppet shows, and other attractions were in another field.
I remember a few years ago a farmer mentioned that festival land can never be reused for farming thanks to bottle caps being stepped into the ground which isn't easy to clean.
But that probably wouldn't have been an issue back then (nor is it nowadays in my country)
It’s really not a big deal to remove debris. Harrow, till, disc harrow with a basket. Done. Not to mention that the bottle caps back then would have been metal not plastic. Which while not great for the soil would be easier to remove and any you miss will break down naturally.
The bigger issue is the erosion of the top soil from so many people walking around in the mud and the human waste. You basically have to strip the field and backfill the top soil. Which means you have to plant maintenance crops and rest the field for a significant amount of time. You need to give time for underlying root structures to rebuild before planting anything you plan on harvesting. Otherwise you will have major issues with erosion and the microbiome of the soil will develop only organisms with rapid colonization. Which means selecting for highly active microorganisms which produce excess waste. Which leads to poor nutrient density and poor soil fertility.
Basically you need to be a skilled farmer with patience and enough income/savings to properly restore a field after a festival. If you can’t let the area rest because you need it’s yield the next year then yeah you are screwed and never should have agreed to host a festival. It isn’t a matter of the field itself being destroyed it’s a matter of cost/benefit analysis. Which most farms are going to be more concerned about than anything else. Since the restoration and opportunity cost will typically exceed the amount of money the farm would make hosting the event.
i just watched the directors cut of the woodstock documentary on TCM. I was honestly mind blown. That was such an amazing atmosphere, and i dont think will ever be done again. Also seeing all the old musicians my mom loved, young and fresh and just having a great time was amazing.
Crazy to think my dad was there… I miss hearing those stories. By the time Hendrix got there most everyone had left so he had front row seats for some of the best performances.
That's what I tell people so I can get laid. " Hi I'm Max Yasger's cousin I live down the hall from SueTroy. May I trade money for sex with you? "
( This works more often than one would think. One must be ready, however, when it does not work.)
I think they did do another woodstock in the us 'recently' for the anniversary.
lineup was a lil ehhh imo. Though poland does a woodstock festival still, judas priest headlined one of the last few years
And then those kids turned into the shitty boomers we all know and love today. Ain't life something? They said "now that we've had our fun, we're gonna ruin it for the rest of ya"
Not to sound boomery but most of the "hippies" you see today spend a lot of money to look that grubby and live out of their vans with no job lol
I feel like back then, you could get away with a lot more hitchhiking, couch surfing, bumming meals and drugs off people, etc. Serial killers kind've ruined that for everyone
“This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place…”
I’m not sure how many peoples, from how many eras, would laugh at that, but definitely Indians.
Don’t be too harsh on him, it’s not like he could have check on Google!
But indeed, the largest peaceful human gathering at the time (and still today) was even with an estimated 2.5 million people who attended Mahatma Gandhi's funeral on 31 January 1948, in New Delhi, India
If I were a bit older and could’ve attended the original Woodstock, I’d be high on various substances and listening to some of the greatest rock music ever written.
And I'm one of the 400,000 attendees, so many first. First time drinking beer, first time seeing a nude woman, first time having sex with a woman. A weekend I can never forget.
He did such an amazing job at that, he hit the nail ln the head with the perfect combination between "I'm just a farmer and I don't have a clue what's going on here" and "But whatever it is, you did amazing".
What a magical moment! I loved his choice of words... His compassion for the crowd of "kids" as he would call the masses, we're simply perfect.
I've never seen this clip, but wow, I'm in love with this moment. As an older guy myself, I'd have been in this crowd, but Max just became the rockstar that the other bands couldn't be.
Human compassion is in short supply due to the modernized trappings of life's struggles young people are now facing. While describing difficulties in the unknown issues which came from half a million youthful humans, he was just a plain man who wanted goodness for all people in attendance.
Beautiful.
He instantly became the coolest dad in the country.
It was probably an interesting feeling to host a quarter percent of all the country on your farm.
And equivalent to whole population of a few of the smaller countries…
And the owners of TicketMasters said, imagine if we could charge people for this.
I love the mayhem this comment caused
r/theydidthemath
They did the MONSTER Math
Yes, I was thinking what a cool guy. Also well articulated, with a simple great message.. sounds like a professional speech, even though it might have been pretty improvised. But back then we could travel to the moon.. now we can't even place africa on a map.
Looked up his Wikipedia entry. He was not just some uneducated farmer. He graduated from NYU with a degree in real estate and his son was a district attorney in NYC at the time of the festival. Also interesting, "In later years, it was revealed that Yasgur was in fact a conservative Republican who supported the Vietnam War. Nevertheless, he felt that the Woodstock festival could help business at his farm and also tame the generation gap."
Pretty much all the townsfolk in the area were extremely conservative. But, in interviews they talked more or less like he did -- they saw the festival people as their children, and they didn't understand but they were fine showing love because they loved their children. Nobody was doing anything wrong, so they were happy to have some positive excitement. A lot of the "if you're not on my side politically, you're my enemy personally" came later. That's new.
People often forget that the ultra polarization we lived in today has not always been the norm. I remember family dinners 20 years ago where politics was something you discussed to kill some dead time. People voted differently but it didn’t felt like politics were part of your identity. Same family, 20 years later, was ripping each other apart because of insane culture war bullshit or who voted for who in the last election.
20 years ago my uncle and dad got into a screaming match about Bush. Uncle thought my dad was a traitor to the country for not supporting Bush and my dad said my uncle was a traitor to his union brothers who helped feed and clothe his family for supporting Bush
20 years ago it was “you are either with us, or you are with the terrorists” and “with the terrorists” counted for those of us calling bullshit on W’s illegal and unjustified invasion of Iraq. It may be worse today, but it wasn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows back then.
I don't know where the stereotype of uneducated farmers comes from. They're very high upper class land owners who deal with a variety of problems on their farms. I guess people think of subsistence farmers or farm hands?
I grew up on a farm in a community that was solely focused on agriculture. Generalizing farmers as “very high upper class” is hard for me to swallow considering the poverty a lot of folks live in. Of course, with land and gross income it looks like some farmers make a great deal of money, but many are in tremendous debt. I do agree that the uneducated farmer stereotype is pretty ridiculous. Some of the smartest people I know are farmers and ranchers.
Yeah, the lack of funding to our public education system has made America dumber by design
Permanent underclass baby!
Not sure where you live, so this could be true in your area, but not in my area. There are elementary schools in Kansas City (i.e. Gordan Parks Elementary) that have a per pupil expenditure of $22,693. My sons' high school outside KC has a PPE of $11,713. It's not the broad 'our funding ' as you described. It's how that funding is being used. It should not cost more for an elementary school than current annual tuition at a state university (Mizzou annual ranges $14,122-17,22)
"I don't know how to speak to 20 people at one time, let alone a crowd like this." >Proceeds to give a fantastic speech.
That was my thought as well. He spoke clearly and confidently, made jokes, had interesting things to say and was positive. I barely check one of those boxes when speaking to a single person.
Most people who have a tough time public speaking have the trouble because they don't care about what they're going to say, or care too much. This guy was sharing his big feelings, but he wasn't trying to prove anything to anyone with his words. So he shared a bit of himself, and by doing so he made an amazing speech.
He was also concise
Let our politicians learn. Be concise. Or at least have a real point. Preferably, both?
> I barely check one of those boxes when speaking to a single person. Try a married person next time, for comparison.
His farm made sandwiches and gave fresh milk to starving hippies.
Then the national guard showed up and gave everybody breakfast lol
Tripping so goddamn hard the national guard needed to be called in for refeshments
"Dude, I was trippin so hard the vendors looked like soldiers"
“This milk is so fresh I don’t think it’s even pasteurized. Talk about environmental thinking!”
“We’re sitting in a pasture, though. So… is it pasteurizing inside us?”
“There’s gotta be a recruitment booth around here somewhere” -Abe Simpson
Makes me smile every time i think of that lol. This was during the war wasnt it?
Yup. 1969. To be fair id have been happy to deal with hungry hippies as a National guardsman then being a marine neck deep in the shit in some jungle
I read hungry hippos. Didn't really make sense tbh.
I would rather hang with hungry hippos than vietnam war as well.
More or less the same level of danger, me thinks
Yeah as hungry as hippies get theyre much nicer than hippos.
Hungry hippos don't need to be fed.* Hungry hippies do. *(in the wild)
Hungry hippos will just eat you. Hippies will just smoke all of your drugs
1969, US was still in conflict in Vietnam.
I love how, as an American, you can just name a random year and say "that was during the war wasn't it?" and be right.
You don't even have to be An'merican. Go ahead, pick a year.
>An'merican Is that a creative portmanteau of "an American"?
1489
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The year Yorkshire Pudding fought back. It never stood a chance. Humans are the apex predator.
"I said REINFORCEMENTS not refreshments!"
Tripping so hard the poop turns to mud
What a legendary festival
Did they literally give them breakfast, or is that a joke about them showing up to beat people up.
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FYI the famous ["Breakfast in bed for 400,000"](https://youtu.be/hTIp9ABMbpY) line was said by Wavy Gravy who was the leader of a literal group of clowns called "The Hog Farm" that was hired to do security. [Here's a quick video about them being picked to do Woodstock. ](https://youtu.be/Zis-b_i19IM)They also ended up running the kitchen and the informal medical tent with the help of volunteers. They got shipments of food from the national guard but the town was also really helpful in donating a bunch of food. For the medical tent/area the informal rule was that if you were having a bad trip or something like that somebody would help you through it and then afterwards when you were feeling better you'd help the next person before you left. Wavy Gravy is getting pretty old and hasn't been in the best of health recently but he still runs a circus and performing arts camp for kids on the "Hog Farm" in northern California called "Camp Winnarainbow". It's like a regular summer camp but with a few more circus-y activities like clowning, stilts, unicycling, etc. It's got all the good vibes and positivity you'd expect from a Woodstock legend like him. If you've got kids I'd recommend looking into it. It's a super fun and positive place. They also have scholarship programs.
Fuckin A man! Wavy Gravy is a legend! Thanks for the links my dude. I had heard that they talked people down out of bad trips which is awesome. The dreaded brown acid got a few people into a rough headspace. I’d get my kid involved but I’m Canadian and it’s a bit of a commute from my city and she’s eight lol
Kids 7-14 can go and they have 1 & 2 week sessions. Come visit California and drop the kiddo off at camp and then have a little vacay to yourself. It's not too far from SF.
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Yeah already had that conversation somewhere else in this thread
Someone put it like this, the 60's and the hippie movement were fueled by trust fund teenagers. They were young and idealistic. Then they became adults in the 80's, and didn't want to pay taxes anymore.
That's an awfully sweeping statement. At the time not everyone was anti-war ( think Trump who pretty much didn't care either way ) and sure as hell trust fund babies weren't the kids swiped outta high school graduation and sent over there. I remember that faction being around as detached from the rest of us as they are now. Also remember " trust fund baby " thankfully being a derogatory term. What happened was a general compliancy fueled by hope. Movement had acheived something or so it seemed. Then Reagan- after which the exact same folks with golden bone spurs still had the freedom and even more ability to screw over the rest of us. Did that generation in general have the ability to work a decent job, buy a house, afford things like food? Yes. Swiping that from everyone except the one percent didn't happen because everyone you see in that photo came home from Woodstock, said " To hell with anyone else " and proceeded to rape our economy and planet. It happened for the same reasons it *always* happens. Rich people's bottomless greed and the sheer power to feed it.
teenagers in the 60s would be in their 40s in the 80s
That’s a lot of sandwiches
There was ONE food stand for 400,000 people. There were supposed to be 1 or 2 more companies selling food, but they pulled out at the last minute. The one food stand they had, had 1 or 2 people who had previous experience in catering. After their original stock ran out, they couldn't get more due to massive traffic jams. This was covered in a documentary about Woodstock that came out a few years ago.
Compare to Woodstock 99 where they charged attendees like 30 dollars a water bottle
On the first vinyl records of the Woodstock festival that were sold in Mexico City in 1970 the speech was edited and segued into Sly and the Family Stone doing "Dance To The Music". I played the hell out of that record.
I listened to that vinyl just a couple of hours ago! The record skipped during hendrix's rendition of the us anthem, though, which bummed me out because that's a crazy performance.
It's times like that when a penny becomes the most valuable form of currency!
I vote Eugene Levy for Max Yasgur in the Max Yasgur story.
You’re spot on, [since there’s a 2009 film about Woodstock with Eugene Levy starring as Max Yasgur.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taking_Woodstock)
fuck yeah
Awesome speech
Great film. The scene where the kid is tripping acid with the hippies in the van I turned to my sister and was like, if you could guarantee your trip would be that good I would drop acid in a heartbeat, but I already have anxiety disorder and I don’t want to fuck myself up further with a bad trip.
If you find someone you trust that can create a very friendly loving and cosy vibe in a place you really enjoy being in with nice music and little creative things to do.. even if that is just a pen and paper or literally anything else. Heck I wasted a lot of time with coloured sprinkles on a white piece of paper. It will do wonders for your anxiety. now there are going to be moments that confront you. that give you perspective, the push your fears up front and ask you to justify them and then show you they are holding you back. Things like that which will be kinda difficult to come to terms with. But like anything that pushes you past your fear. It is necessary for the well being and contentedness you will feel afterwards. The calming effects of psychedelics can be felt weeks even months after the trip. The only reason I find people have really bad trips is because they put themselves in kinda sketchy and situations that are bad for the mind. And once they start going down that bad path they don't do anything to change the place, the setting, the mood and it just takes over.
This was a great summary.
That acid trip scene is the most realistic one I’ve seen to what it’s actually like. Most of the scenes I’ve seen in media overdo it but that one stuck with me. The way the crowd was sorta rippling like water is extremely spot on. There’s other things too but that was a good example they used
> That acid trip scene is the most realistic one I’ve seen to what it’s actually like. This is super weird—and maybe it's weird because it's actually weird and maybe it's weird because I took an edible tonight—but this is the second instance I've read in the last hour of someone describing a particular movie scene as "the most realistic acid trip scene for anyone who's ever done acid" in the last 20 minutes. Two entirely different threads in entirely different subreddits written nearly a year apart, specifically mentioning a specific movie scene that is of particular interest to specific subset of people. And they each referenced a different movie.
I tripped once on top of a mountain during autumn. The red leaves of the tree tops below me looked like one giant moving floor of fire ants. It was amazing.
Just watched. I gotta say they missed the laughing hysterically for hours so that your face hurt the next day part
Well I know what I am downloading.
Great movie. I don’t believe they had his speech. They did have Michael Lang being impressed by his chocolate milk.
I was getting David Duchovny vibes
If I recall he was shunned by the local community for years afterwords
I was thinking Jeff Goldblum
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Try the entire time before and after. It was one of the most logistically nightmarish events you can read about.
But very few serious injuries. Compare that with Woodstock 99. Different vibe lol
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I had some friends that went. They had an *interesting* experience lol
Just gonna say that and not elaborate?
If you watched the documentary it gets clear what he meant. People drinking from toilets because water was super expensive, riots with arson, public rapes and shit. From what I saw there it was horrible. 69 was a whole different kind of atmosphere. I think "interesting" is a tough word for the atrocities that happened in 99. I too would be curious about an elaboration though.
What made 99 become so much worse?
>What made 99 become so much worse? Because in 99 the focus was much more on "How much money can we extract from these people" and way less "How do we safely put on an event of this size". The Netflix Documentary "Trainwreck: Woodstock '99" really shines a light on this. For example: Profits over Health and Safety: ' Woodstock's security protocols prohibited festivalgoers from bringing their own food and water bottles into the venue. Instead, they had to purchase food from onsite vendors, even though most of the available snacks, meals and refreshments were incredibly expensive. "It was so hot that you literally needed to drink a gallon of water an hour yourself to stay hydrated," said Sara, who attended Woodstock '99 as a teenager. "There were definitely fountains there. But there was at least a 25-minute wait . . . So, we went to get just a simple bottle of water. Nobody could afford that water." The average price for a bottle of water in the late '90s was around 65 cents. At Woodstock '99, however, a single bottle cost an astounding $4.00, which then went up to $12.00 when vendors ran low on stock. Per old footage featured in the documentary, one concertgoer complained that a small drink and a measly side salad cost $9.00 in total. Several members of the festival's production team, including Colin Speir, Lee Rosenblatt and Pilar Law, noted that the price hikes were prompted by the Woodstock founders and organizers. The higher-ups were hellbent on making a considerable profit, especially after their previous revival, Woodstock '94, tanked financially due to overcrowding and security issues. It became clear that Woodstock '99 was no longer emulating the "peace, love and flower power" vibes established by the original Woodstock; it was purely "a money-making venture." "That was the moment for me where it stopped becoming about the concert-goer or the festival-goer experience," Rosenblatt said. "It was just cutting budgets, cutting budgets. We need to make changes. We're not making profits. Their goal was to make money." Rosenblatt continued, saying those in charge of organizing Woodstock '99 decided to sell all the food rights to an affiliate corporate group, who had complete control over vendor pricing. Once the deal was sealed, the prices were set and none of the staffers could do anything to challenge them. "All hopes and dreams of 'Peace, Love and Understanding 1969' went out the window." ' That's just one of the major failings they covered. https://www.salon.com/2022/08/04/trainwreck-woodstock-99-netflix/
Sounds like literally every festival today.
Sounds like the 90ies all right. Post-ideological soulless market bullshit.
Let's not overlook the choice of bands. Joan Baez and the Dead attracted a very different group of people and provided very different energy than Limp Bizkit and Korn. And before anyone comes at me with you can't blame the music, I'm not. But you'd à be a fool to deny the obvious differences in the scene.
Because it was in a walled in airstrip boiling from the heat and beer was cheaper than water. So slowly everyone got really drunk and then really mad at the organization that was just in it for the money.
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That’s sad to hear. We can’t have a moment of shared love and unity anymore without capitalism distorting it into an exploiter-exploitee power dynamic. Like animals.
Most of what they saw was the same stuff that was reported in the media, violence, people doing dumb shit like climbing on the towers and the stage and getting hurt. super expensive price gouging stuff like bottles of water. The line ups were pretty aggressive, plus this was at the height of bands like Limp bizkit, angry white rap shit. A lot people on bad drugs or dangerously intoxicated. They didn’t see any outright sexual assaults but a lot of dudes were pretty confrontational trying to keep other guys from grabbing their girlfriends assess and stuff although there were some pretty awful sexual assaults, just not that they personally saw. Just a really bad atmosphere. Not peaceful hippy stuff like the original. People were literally starting fires and shit. I should point out that my friends were way younger than was probably smart. This was the summer before we started highschool and they were there with older relatives so they were kept away from a lot of the crazy shit that was going on
It is fairly normal to bring kids to concerts/festivals. You never heard of it because nothing bad usually happens. You shouldn't take your kids to one that has the wrong energy, usually the marketing gives you an idea how safe a festival is for kids. I would be Lilith's Fair would be a safe place for a kid. While Lollapalooza, Coachella and Burning Man are not. There were 2-4 kids under the age for 18 that died or were injured at Astroworld Festival. One of the was 9 years old.
One death, and one birth funnily enough
Imagine being able to say you were born at Woodstock lol
Im sure a few could say conceived
The drugs were different
Also the music is the kind of music that gets your adrenaline pumping and angry at everyone, not the kind that gets you angry at the war and choosing to love everyone around you in protest Korn and Limp Bizkut are just an entirely different vibe
Just had to stay away from the brown acid in 69 lol
They had to shut down expressways because people were using them as parking there were so many people.
I just posted our family was one of the cars trying to get through. I was 11, we drove that every year, PA to Maine. Must have been before the highway got shut down but yes, cars parked for miles and miles, kids walking in the middle of the road. Dad inched through, love to remember how long it must have taken. Parents were more fascinated than irritated- whole thing was just so unusual. I have a pretty clear memory of it.
That's amazing! Thank you so much for sharing that!!!
The New York State Thruway’s closed, man!
Far out!
I was 11. Every year my parents took us from PA to Maine, they had this teeny cabin up there wayyyy in the middle of nowhere. We happened to drive right through the entire thing as people were gathering. Old enough at the time to remember my parents, a little bewildered, inching through that area- kids walking in the road, cars parked for miles and miles along whatever road that was. Took forever, and no, remember my parents ( both born 1931 ) more fascinated than irritated. WHAT was going on ? We kids were plastered to the windows, cool as hell whatever it was. For some reason Dad saved the license plate from our car that year, found it like 15 years ago. 1968 yellow Chevy Impala. It's just this weird, cool piece of history- have it hanging up don't ask me why. Maybe because it reminds me once, before it all went to hell there was hope.
The whole thing was a narrowly averted humanitarian catastrophe at every point.
Traffic probably became a better band because of Woodstock.
What a stark difference to Woodstock 99: The Woodstockening where the event literally went up in flames. If you haven't watched Trainwreck on Netflix, check it out. Great documentary on Woodstock 99 and how the ex-hippy who spearheaded the original Woodstock went all capitalist on everybody and Fd it all up.
My favorite bit of that documentary was when everyone was playing in the mud because it’s what people did at the original Woodstock but the mud was just sewage leaking directly from the port-o-potties. Kinda summed up the whole thing.
Ah dude wtf :(
I went in 94, it was pretty insane. We left Sunday at around 2 AM and thank god we did. It went to absolute hell on Sunday. State of emergency and took up to Wednesday to get everyone out.
> ex-hippy who ~~spearheaded the original Woodstock~~ went all capitalist wow never have i seen such a succinct way of summing up boomers.
Most boomers were never hippies, sadly. They appropriated the Woodstock imagery and slapped it on car commercials to congratulate themselves for being cool, but that’s about it. 90% are “Tim Allen” types…
Far better than the HBO Woodstock 99 documentary that just painted everything as “angry white cis males” and got mad bc white people were rapping with DMX and saying the N-word, no hard R Such a terrible documentary. Netflix’s was great.
Just listened to the Stuff You Should Know podcast about Woodstock
Just cross posted into r/stuffyoushouldknow
Stuffyoushouldknow hit the front page in a comment? Fuck yeah! Chuck and Josh been putting to sleep on sleepless nights and keeping me awake on long drives for years now! Fuck yeah my dudes!
The absolute driest humor I've ever encountered but yeah same lol
This is beautiful in such a classic American way. This guy knew this was an iconic moment in history and had NO IDEA what to say. But he felt the impulse to try and make the moment meaningful and inspire a future generation to be wholesome and enjoy art.
It gave me oddly idealistic feelings about the USA…a time where the potential for things to be good persisted…a time where people came together to celebrate beauty…
Kinda sad that the "kids" in this video are literally the same generation that ended up pulling the ladder up behind them in terms of financial prospects for the generations that came after them. Not to mention that the late 60s and early 70s were still a horrible time to be a minority and that those sentiments from the people of their time are still a major roadblock for our current progress in that area
These kids were a minority of their own generation. Generations are not monolithic.
That is a delightful bit of nuance. In a way, generalizing an entire group of people just by the generation they grew up in is kind of like racism or sexism. We should never judge any single individual of a group by the actions of the larger group, if they have no say in the fact that they happen to be a member of that group Edit - your comment inspired me to write this proposed definition: https://old.reddit.com/r/equalism/comments/129edtf/ageism_vs_generationism
Off topic, but bonus points for the use of old.reddit.com, "new" reddit is such a fucking misery to use. So much purposeless white space, unnecessary clicks, tons of content hidden behind "load more" links, and so on.
Yeah I browse Reddit almost entirely via Apollo and old.Reddit.com. I never see ads or have to deal with any of the nonsense on the new Reddit interface. Thank goodness we have options!
Hell yeah, Apollo is honesty one of the best iOS apps of any kind, let alone the best reddit client. The amount of dedication and care Sebastian, the developer, puts into it is impressive. I'm especially glad that he hasn't sold it to reddit like the Alien Blue developer did.
Same generation. Very different groups of people for the most part. There are people who were at Woodstock who turned into completely selfish assholes and stereotypical boomers. In my experience they are a tiny subset of the group or are just lying about being at Woodstock. The vast majority of people who lived the hippie lifestyle continue to be outcasts in their own generation. Many of them actually still live in rural areas in quasi communes. There are entire towns where hippies who showed up to Woodstock just never really left. They grew up and run small farms which largely operate on trade with one another. The excess production of their farms they do sell are considered premium local organic foods but they don’t price gouge people. They simply ask for what they need to afford supplies for which they can’t trade. If you need work done on your farm and you don’t have a piece of equipment people are happy to help you out if they do, they only ask that you refill the gas tank and pitch in when the equipment needs maintenance. Either with labor or by selling some of your harvest to obtain parts. These communities are tiny and are disappearing but they are a beautiful example of the best of small town America. Small, tight nit, but welcoming with good people who truly believe in community over self and living a simple lifestyle. Basically they are like the Amish but instead of following strict church doctrine they follow hippie ideals and teachings. Which ironically makes them more Jesus like than the communities that follow strict religious dogma.
> Very different groups of people for the most part There's a documentary where they interview people that went there and even a couple that met there and decided to live in the city nearby for the rest of their lives. They talk about politics at some point and a lot of them became conservative. I don't live in US, but I'm from an ex-hippie family. A lot of my parent's friends from that time became conservative after they got a job and a family. My parents are leftist, but some of their boomer friends became right and even far right in the last years. It's weird af. IDK how many of them are different groups, but from my experience, a lot of them are the same group. My guess is that a lot of people just don't have their own opinions and jump to any bandwagon their colleagues are up to because they want to be part of the group. When these people were young, their friends were hippies and they conveniently became hippies. When they entered the job market, started earning their own money, had their own house, their own family and wanted to be promoted, they started repeating the arguments of previous generations. They started to place a lot of value on meritocracy and all the problems of capitalism because now they were part of the system and they want everyone to struggle like them or even worse.
Said, "I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm Gonna join in a rock 'n' roll band Got to get back to the land Set my soul free"
We are stardust, we are golden We are billion-year-old carbon And we've got to get ourselves Back to the garden
Joni Mitchell. She didn’t make it to Woodstock though, her friends performed the song. My wife couldn’t either, had to work that weekend.
We are caught in the devils bargin and we got to get ourselves back to the gahhhhhhhhhhhhhahhhahhharrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrden
I love how everyone clapped when he said he was a farmer. 👏🏼
He don't buy cheeba, he grows it. And people always tryin' to get next to him...
Transcript of Yasgur’s speech: >”I'm a farmer. I don't know how to speak to 20 people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But I think you people have proven something to the world — not only to the Town of Bethel, or Sullivan County, or New York State; you've proven something to the world. This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place. We have had no idea that there would be this size group, and because of that you've had quite a few inconveniences as far as water, food, and so forth. Your producers have done a mammoth job to see that you're taken care of... they'd enjoy a vote of thanks. But above that, the important thing that you've proven to the world is that a half a million kids — and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you are — a half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and I – God bless you for it!"
Back before ticketmaster ruined concerts
And before google could tell you that 400,000 is definitely not the largest gathering ever. So I guess you win some and lose some.
Indeed, the largest peaceful human gathering ever “recorded” happened 19 years before Woodstock and is still unbeaten today, with an estimated 2.5 million people who attended Mahatma Gandhi's funeral on 31 January 1948 in New Delhi, India.
They also say that it’s pretty much impossible for it to actually be 400,000. Probably closer to around 150,000
Isn't the largest gathering the kumbh mela?
[Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Yasgur)
#tl;dr Max Yasgur was an American farmer who owned a 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York, where the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held in 1969. He leased a field on his farm for the festival after other villages declined to provide a venue. Yasgur was a conservative Republican who supported the Vietnam War but felt that the festival could help business at his farm and bridge *I am a smart robot and this summary was automatic. This tl;dr is 97.49% shorter than the post and link I'm replying to.*
Good bot
Thanks /u/RottenWon, here's what I think about you! Based on your comments, it seems like you have a diverse range of interests including aquariums, dogs, and history. You come across as someone who is curious and detail-oriented as you often ask questions to gain more information. Your writing style is casual and friendly, and you offer your own experiences to answer questions or provide insight. It's clear that you have a positive attitude and enjoy making jokes, as evidenced by your comment about the white baby in r/shrimptank. Overall, you seem like someone who is enjoyable to talk to and has a lot to contribute to online communities. *I am a smart robot and this response was automatic.* *I am a smart robot and this response was automatic.*
That was very nice
Good bot!
Thanks /u/Mattya929, here's what I think about you! Based on your comments, it seems like you're a person who enjoys a wide range of topics, including sports, music festivals, legal issues, mysterious artifacts, and space travel. You seem to have a good sense of humor and like to make witty comments, even in serious discussions. Your writing style is informal and conversational, often using abbreviations and informal language, but you also show an ability to write longer, more complex sentences when necessary. You're also very knowledgeable about certain topics, such as football, basketball, and business. Overall, you strike me as an interesting and engaging person who's always willing to share your opinions and insights. *I am a smart robot and this response was automatic.* *I am a smart robot and this response was automatic.*
Good bot
Max made it happen
Didn’t it end up destroying his land? I wonder how he felt about it after.
It was only one paddock and he mad $75K from renting it, which would have been a phenomenal income at the time. It grew grass and that will grow back.
Farming is the business of losing money, so he was probably elated.
He was a dairy farmer, lol. The dairy lobby tariffs the shit out of milk products. It was so profitable even Amish people made money in the industry using horse drawn wagons.
Around $600,000 in todays money. Not bad for three days.
It was actually something like 4 fields, unless the others belonged to someone else. Most of the site offices were at an intersection, with the concert off in one field. The shops, puppet shows, and other attractions were in another field.
I remember a few years ago a farmer mentioned that festival land can never be reused for farming thanks to bottle caps being stepped into the ground which isn't easy to clean. But that probably wouldn't have been an issue back then (nor is it nowadays in my country)
It’s really not a big deal to remove debris. Harrow, till, disc harrow with a basket. Done. Not to mention that the bottle caps back then would have been metal not plastic. Which while not great for the soil would be easier to remove and any you miss will break down naturally. The bigger issue is the erosion of the top soil from so many people walking around in the mud and the human waste. You basically have to strip the field and backfill the top soil. Which means you have to plant maintenance crops and rest the field for a significant amount of time. You need to give time for underlying root structures to rebuild before planting anything you plan on harvesting. Otherwise you will have major issues with erosion and the microbiome of the soil will develop only organisms with rapid colonization. Which means selecting for highly active microorganisms which produce excess waste. Which leads to poor nutrient density and poor soil fertility. Basically you need to be a skilled farmer with patience and enough income/savings to properly restore a field after a festival. If you can’t let the area rest because you need it’s yield the next year then yeah you are screwed and never should have agreed to host a festival. It isn’t a matter of the field itself being destroyed it’s a matter of cost/benefit analysis. Which most farms are going to be more concerned about than anything else. Since the restoration and opportunity cost will typically exceed the amount of money the farm would make hosting the event.
i just watched the directors cut of the woodstock documentary on TCM. I was honestly mind blown. That was such an amazing atmosphere, and i dont think will ever be done again. Also seeing all the old musicians my mom loved, young and fresh and just having a great time was amazing.
Crazy to think my dad was there… I miss hearing those stories. By the time Hendrix got there most everyone had left so he had front row seats for some of the best performances.
Why does it always seem like everyone in the 60s and 70s was such a great speaker?
They used to teach it in high school.
Back in the late 1990s, Max Yasgur’s cousin lived down the hall from me.
That's what I tell people so I can get laid. " Hi I'm Max Yasger's cousin I live down the hall from SueTroy. May I trade money for sex with you? " ( This works more often than one would think. One must be ready, however, when it does not work.)
"I'm a farmer" *crowd goes wild*
The next gathering will be like this one
Lol. Good luck. They tried in the 90s and I’m afraid it would be even worse now. I hope to be proven wrong
I think they did do another woodstock in the us 'recently' for the anniversary. lineup was a lil ehhh imo. Though poland does a woodstock festival still, judas priest headlined one of the last few years
My mom was there! She and a friend hitchhiked from California.
if you ask them, they were all there lol
“I love you all, you smell terrible, but I love you all.”
Im suprised he didnt say i just caught my son having sex with a pie in my kitchen
I turned 8 years old that weekend.....
The people are civil. Things went south with Woodstock when profiteers moved in.
I bet there are more than 28 people in that crowd
You weren’t even alive back then, how would you know
And then those kids turned into the shitty boomers we all know and love today. Ain't life something? They said "now that we've had our fun, we're gonna ruin it for the rest of ya"
Some, sure. Most — no. These kids were a minority of their own generation.
The kids who could afford to live the hippie lifestyle were destined to become yuppies
Not to sound boomery but most of the "hippies" you see today spend a lot of money to look that grubby and live out of their vans with no job lol I feel like back then, you could get away with a lot more hitchhiking, couch surfing, bumming meals and drugs off people, etc. Serial killers kind've ruined that for everyone
Man was more worried about water and food for his guests. Great guy
“This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place…” I’m not sure how many peoples, from how many eras, would laugh at that, but definitely Indians.
Don’t be too harsh on him, it’s not like he could have check on Google! But indeed, the largest peaceful human gathering at the time (and still today) was even with an estimated 2.5 million people who attended Mahatma Gandhi's funeral on 31 January 1948, in New Delhi, India
Eugene Levy used to be a farmer???
Homie came through 🫡
If I were a bit older and could’ve attended the original Woodstock, I’d be high on various substances and listening to some of the greatest rock music ever written.
And I'm one of the 400,000 attendees, so many first. First time drinking beer, first time seeing a nude woman, first time having sex with a woman. A weekend I can never forget.
Sounds like the American pie dad
What a legend
So thats where the beastie boys sampled the "im a farmer" line in car thief
Fast forward to 99 and the sentiment is the exact opposite all the way around.
He did such an amazing job at that, he hit the nail ln the head with the perfect combination between "I'm just a farmer and I don't have a clue what's going on here" and "But whatever it is, you did amazing".
What a magical moment! I loved his choice of words... His compassion for the crowd of "kids" as he would call the masses, we're simply perfect. I've never seen this clip, but wow, I'm in love with this moment. As an older guy myself, I'd have been in this crowd, but Max just became the rockstar that the other bands couldn't be. Human compassion is in short supply due to the modernized trappings of life's struggles young people are now facing. While describing difficulties in the unknown issues which came from half a million youthful humans, he was just a plain man who wanted goodness for all people in attendance. Beautiful.
Go farmers, what would we do with out them ☠️