August 15th 1969 saw the start of the pop music event alongside which all such future gatherings would be rated, Woodstock Festival.
Known universally as simply Woodstock, the festival was held on Max Yasgur’s 600 acre farm in Bethel outside New York and attended by over 400,000 people.
The event featured Jimi Hendrix, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Santana, The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Canned Heat, Joan Baez, Melanie, Ten Years After, Sly and the Family Stone, Johnny Winter, Jefferson Airplane, Ravi Shankar, Country Joe and the Fish, Blood Sweat and Tears, Arlo Guthrie and Joe Cocker.
The festival has become widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history as well as a defining event for the counter-culture generation. The event’s significance was reinforced by a 1970 documentary film, an accompanying soundtrack album and a song written by Joni Mitchell.
