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Fifty years ago, the Woodstock Festival's primary goal was to promote musical creativity through a series of concerts in northern New York. Nobody expected to become the symbol of a whole generation, especially the hippie movement.
Its first edition took place between August 15 and 18, 1969, at a time when rock music was emerging and long hair was a rebellion, while anti-Vietnam demonstrations were organized almost daily.
The message of love and peace promoted by the festival contrasts with the violent demonstrations and badbadinations that have impressed a decade in the context of the Vietnam War.
That year, between 400,000 and 500,000 people came together to listen to artists like Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix and Santana in an atmosphere of freedom, love and friendship. It flows along the Catskills, about 200 kilometers northwest of New York.
Entry tickets cost $ 18 throughout the festival, including legendary bands such as Credence Clearwater Revival, The Ho and Crosby Steel Nash and Young.
But organizers John Roberts, 20-year-old Joel Rosenman, Michael Lang and Artie Cornfield, quickly revised their plans to counter the traffic congestion that swept the rural roads to Bethel, about 100 kilometers southwest of Woodstock. .
Later, they decided that access would be free.
Shortly after the start of the festival, the rains began to rain, turning the site into a mud field.
There was a shortage of food and the crash of helicopters carrying musicians at a time and equipment was being heard.
Perfect weekend
Sri Swami Sachidananda, yoga teacher from India, opened the festival with a word of sympathy, a moment considered an embodiment of the culture of non-violence that Woodstock intends to represent.
"I am very happy to see young Americans coming together here on behalf of the music," said the bearded man to the large crowd.
Later, Joe McDonald of the rock band "Joe and the Fish" performed the anti-war protest song, "I Love Lake or Fixing to Die Rag".
Also on this day, a milestone in the 1960s, Jimmy Hendricks performed the American national anthem "The Star Spangled Banner" in his own way, which has become very popular.
Danny Goldberg, a music industry specialist who was then 19 years old and was writing for Billboard, remembers seeing "a lot of people and a smile on his face" this weekend.
"I was immediately seduced by the kindness that reigned, with the ideal idea of fraternity among the hippies," he told AFP from Manhattan. festival from the first moment until the last melody. "
Stories and novels
The stories told about Woodstock are different and sometimes contradictory.
Some are centered on the birth of children during the festival, others speak of deaths due to drug overdoses consumed in large quantities. A story tells how a tractor crashed someone who slept in his tent.
Like new films, originally criticized for being a reference, the media treated the Woodstock festival with contempt.
"The 300,000 people who came to this festival are no more rational than the rodents who throw themselves into the water to spend," wrote the New York Times on August 18, 1969. A huge bazaar to offer? "
"Because of the huge crowd, the festival was peaceful and there were no problems or disruptions," said 20-year-old Annie Birch.
"It was madness," she told AFP, "and all the teams that participated in the competition have become very famous today."
"Music and peace"
Immediately after the festival, the owner of the field, Max Yasgur, told a television station he was worried at first, when he saw the crowd pouring onto the stage.
But "these young crowds even made me feel guilty after that because there were no problems, they proved to me and the world that they were not coming to talk about it." ; trouble ".
"They came exactly to what they said they came … for three days of music and peace," he said.
Birch, 70, said today that Woodstock was a crucial moment for her and for her generation.
"It was great and I am very happy to be part of this experience." In his opinion, this event was unique and could not be repeated.
AP
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