100 Fun Facts About Woodstock

In what month did the original Woodstock Music and Art Fair take place?

It ran from the 15th to the 18th, 1969, spilling a day past what was advertised.

Woodstock 1969 was held on a dairy farm 60 miles southwest of its namesake town, in which New York town?

Bethel, 60 miles southwest of Woodstock, hosted the festival on a 600-acre dairy farm after the original site at Wallkill fell through.

Which of these individuals was one of the four main organizers of the 1969 Woodstock festival?

He founded Woodstock Ventures with Artie Kornfeld, John P. Roberts and Joel Rosenman, and later co-organised the 1994 and 1999 anniversary festivals.

Woodstock was billed as 'An Aquarian Exposition' with which subtitle, a promise the rain delays turned optimistic?

3 Days of Peace & Music was the promise; the rain delays stretched the music into a fourth morning.

Only about 186,000 advance tickets were sold, yet roughly how many people turned up to Woodstock in 1969?

400,000 or more came, against plans for a crowd less than an eighth of that size; the count is often put above 460,000.

Who opened Woodstock after police stopped the scheduled first act, improvising the song 'Freedom' after running out of material?

Richie Havens was bumped up to open at 5:07 pm on the Friday because Sweetwater had been stopped by police on the way and other acts were stuck on the freeway.

Which legendary guitarist was the last performer at the original Woodstock festival?

Jimi Hendrix went on at 8:30 on the morning after the festival's advertised close, delayed by rain, and only about 40,000 people were left to hear him.

Which of these famous bands notably declined an invitation to perform at the 1969 Woodstock festival?

Manager Peter Grant turned it down because, in his words, the band would have been "just another band on the bill"; The Doors and Jethro Tull also passed.

The Woodstock festival took place on the farm of which dairy farmer?

Max Yasgur's farm formed a natural bowl sloping down to Filippini Pond, which became a popular skinny-dipping spot; the other three names were the festival's promoters.

Which New York town's industrial park did the Woodstock organizers lease before local opposition forced them out?

Woodstock Ventures had leased the 300-acre Mills Industrial Park there for $10,000, but residents opposed the project and the town board passed a permit law aimed at the event.

Which future star director was one of seven editors on the 1970 Woodstock documentary?

Fellow editor Thelma Schoonmaker earned a Best Film Editing nomination for the film, a rare distinction for a documentary, and went on to cut nearly all of his features.

Which musician, absent from the festival, wrote a hit song about Woodstock?

She wrote it from Graham Nash's description of the weekend, and it became a major hit for CSNY and for Matthews Southern Comfort.

Broadcast descriptions of the huge traffic jam around the Woodstock site eventually had what effect?

The host town stopped enforcing its codes for fear of chaos as the crowds poured in, and recent rain had already turned the roads and fields to mud.

What was the approximate advance ticket price for the entire Woodstock festival?

Tickets cost US$18 in advance and $24 at the gate, although the event became a free concert once the crowds overran the unfinished fences.

Which musician, not on the bill at all, was pulled from the audience to play while promoters waited for delayed acts?

The former Lovin' Spoonful frontman played a short Saturday-afternoon slot before the Keef Hartley Band.

Woodstock became the peak musical event of which 1960s movement?

Woodstock is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history and a defining event for the counterculture movement of the 1960s.

Which band's Woodstock set famously included a 20-minute version of "I'm Going Home"?

Ten Years After delivered a memorable performance at Woodstock, with Alvin Lee's guitar solo in "I'm Going Home" becoming one of the highlights of the festival and the documentary film.

The decision to make Woodstock a 'free concert' was largely due to what unforeseen circumstance?

Days out, the crews could finish either the fencing or the stage, not both; by Wednesday morning tens of thousands of early arrivals were already camped in front of the half-built stage, and everyone else simply walked in.

Which CSNY member skipped most of the acoustic set at Woodstock and refused to be filmed during the electric set?

He warned the camera crew he would hit anyone who came near him with his guitar, which is why he is largely absent from the film's CSNY footage.

When food ran short at Woodstock, what did the Hog Farm's free food lines dish out?

Wavy Gravy announced "breakfast in bed for four hundred thousand," and the festival is credited with popularising the food.

Which artist's Woodstock set included the song "Coming into Los Angeles"?

His filmed announcement that the New York State Thruway was closed became famous, though the Woodstock museum's director says the closure never actually happened.

Woodstock '94, the 25th-anniversary festival, was held on a farm in which New York town?

Woodstock '94 took place on Winston Farm, just west of Saugerties, 25 years after the original.

The two young promoters originally approached financiers Roberts and Rosenman for money to build what?

Roberts and Rosenman were unpersuaded by the studio pitch and counter-proposed a concert featuring the kind of performers who frequented the area, such as Bob Dylan and the Band.

Which British band's Woodstock set was interrupted by Abbie Hoffman, reportedly hit by Pete Townshend's guitar?

Hoffman had grabbed the microphone to protest the jailing of John Sinclair; Townshend later denied actually attacking him.

The Woodstock '99 festival faced severe criticism and problems due to its location at what kind of site?

The largely concrete and asphalt grounds were also a designated Superfund cleanup site, which did nothing to help the conditions.

Which singer-songwriter's Friday night solo set inspired her later hit "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)"?

Melanie (Melanie Safka) performed a solo set on Friday night, during which audience members lit candles, inspiring her hit song "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)."

Which weather turned the Woodstock festival site into a famous mud bath in the summer of 1969?

Sporadic rain under overcast skies did it, yet thirty-two acts still played outdoors; a Sunday thunderstorm shut the whole festival down for hours.

Which blues-rock band, known for long improvisational jams, played the 7:30 pm slot on Saturday evening?

They went on straight after the Incredible String Band, and their "Going Up the Country" became closely associated with the festival film.

The 1969 Woodstock festival officially concluded on what day of the week?

Rain delays pushed the final set past the advertised schedule onto the morning of an extra day, when only about 40,000 people were still on the field.

Whose Woodstock set featured "Soul Sacrifice", with a drum solo by 20-year-old Michael Shrieve?

The song's Woodstock performance is one of the highlights of the festival film, and Carlos Santana later admitted he was hallucinating on mescaline through most of the set.

What was a major issue concerning sanitation at the Woodstock festival?

Sanitation and first aid were both overwhelmed, and the crowd also faced food shortages and days of bad weather.

Which singer was pushed on for an unscheduled solo set on Saturday afternoon because the next band wasn't ready?

He returned the next day with the Fish; his "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" was a protest song against U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Before the festival, the town of Woodstock, New York, had a long history as a colony for which group?

The Byrdcliffe colony founded there in 1903 is one of the nation's oldest Arts & Crafts colonies.

Which 'Proud Mary' band's set was officially released as 'Live at Woodstock' for the 50th anniversary?

They were left out of the original film at John Fogerty's insistence, so the full 11-song set waited 50 years for an official release.

Despite the crowd and the rain, how many deaths did the 1969 Woodstock festival record?

Two were drug overdoses and the third was a 17-year-old run over by a tractor while sleeping in a nearby hayfield; there were also 742 drug overdoses over the three days.

Which soul and funk band's Woodstock set ran from 3:30 to 4:20 in the morning?

They went on in the small hours of Sunday, sandwiched between Janis Joplin's set and Pete Townshend's band.

The original Woodstock festival site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in what year?

In 2017, the festival site became listed on the National Register of Historic Places, acknowledging its cultural and historical significance.

Whose raw Sunday-afternoon cover of the Beatles' 'With a Little Help from My Friends' became a defining Woodstock moment?

Joe Cocker and the Grease Band opened Sunday afternoon, and right after the set a thunderstorm shut the festival down for several hours.

In July 1969 the festival's original Orange County host town required a permit for gatherings above what size?

The organisers had assured that town's officials the crowd would be modest, but residents opposed the project almost immediately, forcing a last-minute move to a dairy farm in Sullivan County.

Which hard-rock band's Saturday-night appearance at Woodstock was only its third gig ever?

Guitarist Leslie West's group played the 9 pm slot on Saturday, and their live version of "Blood of the Sun" from that night later appeared on the second Woodstock soundtrack album.

Woodstock '99 was staged on the former Griffiss air base, 100 miles northwest of the original farm, in which New York city?

Rome, New York, hosted Woodstock '99 on Griffiss, which had been decommissioned as a B-52 base in 1995; the festival is remembered for its fires and riots.

Which artist performed "If I Were a Carpenter", a Bobby Darin hit, at Woodstock?

Tim Hardin performed his song "If I Were a Carpenter" at Woodstock, a track that had also become a US Top 10 single for Bobby Darin.

How many acts played the original 1969 Woodstock festival?

They played outdoors through overcast skies and sporadic rain.

Which of these bands, known for their psychedelic rock, performed on Sunday morning?

They finally went on at 8 am on Sunday, joined on piano by session great Nicky Hopkins.

The Woodstock festival was a defining event for what generation?

The event became a defining event for the silent and early baby boomer generations.

What was the initial expected attendance for the Woodstock festival according to the organizers?

The organizers had anticipated that approximately 50,000 festival-goers would turn up.

Which folk singer, whose husband David Harris was then jailed for draft resistance, closed Woodstock's first night while six months pregnant?

Joan Baez sang from 3 to 4 am on the Saturday, ending the Friday programme, six months pregnant with the child of her imprisoned husband David Harris.

What kind of instrument was a prominent feature of Ravi Shankar's performance at Woodstock?

He played through the rain on Friday night and later said he disliked the venue.

The Woodstock film was directed by whom?

It was his directorial debut, and it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Which band closed its Saturday-night Woodstock set with a 36-minute version of "Turn On Your Love Light"?

They played the 10:30 pm slot on Saturday, and the marathon closer pushed the next act's start past midnight.

Hendrix's expanded Woodstock band has informally been known by what name?

Introduced as the Experience, Hendrix corrected the announcer and said the crowd could call them 'a Band of Gypsies'.

Personnel from which air force base helped airlift performers in and out of Woodstock?

Sullivan County had declared a state of emergency, and the base's helicopters became the only reliable way past the jammed roads.

Who engineered the festival sound system later nicknamed the 'Woodstock Bins'?

He set the system up for 150,000 to 200,000 people, using 16 loudspeaker arrays on 70-foot towers, and half a million showed up.

Who was drafted as master of ceremonies after Michael Lang realized he'd forgotten to hire one?

The lighting designer had been paid $7,000 for ten weeks of staging work, and ended up delivering the 'brown acid' warning.

Apple Corps offered the promoters which act, but the letter arrived as they were losing Wallkill?

The Beatles were recording Abbey Road and near collapse, and the U.S. government reportedly did not want John Lennon in the country anyway.

Which guitarist said, 'I deliberately broke the group up before Woodstock'?

His pianist Nicky Hopkins went anyway, sitting in with Jefferson Airplane.

Lang and Bill Graham flipped a coin to give Santana's slot to them or which band?

Graham, who managed both bands, won the toss; he also shuffled Chicago's Fillmore West dates to free up the same slot.

Which band turned Woodstock down fearing a 'second class repeat of Monterey Pop'?

Guitarist Robby Krieger said they later regretted it; he and drummer John Densmore attended the festival anyway.

Which band on the Woodstock poster never played because it was stuck at LaGuardia Airport?

They demanded helicopters; production coordinator John Morris replied with a telegram whose first letters spelled out a blunt message.

Bob Dylan skipped Woodstock and instead signed to play which festival on August 31, 1969?

He meant to sail on the QE2 the day Woodstock opened, but his son was hurt by a cabin door and the family disembarked.

The Rolling Stones declined because Mick Jagger was in Australia filming which movie?

Keith Richards had a reason of his own: his partner Anita Pallenberg had just given birth to their son Marlon.

Which studio put up $100,000 to film Woodstock, a movie later credited with saving it?

Executive Fred Weintraub put his job on the line to fund Artie Kornfeld, who had been turned down everywhere else.

With no money to pay them, what deal did Wadleigh offer his 100-strong film crew?

The gamble paid off: the documentary grossed about $50 million in the U.S. on a $600,000 budget.

The couple wrapped in a blanket on the original soundtrack cover went on to do what?

Bobbi Kelly and Nick Ercoline, identified by Life magazine in 1989, raised a family in Pine Bush, 40 miles from the site.

The 38-disc 50th-anniversary Woodstock archive box set was limited to how many copies?

It ran 36 hours and 432 songs, missing only two Hendrix numbers his estate held back and a little doo-wop that never reached tape.

Max Yasgur put up a big sign at his barn offering what for free?

He was furious that some locals were selling water to arrivals, and told his children to fill every empty milk bottle for the kids.

Which magazine gave Max Yasgur a rare full-page obituary when he died in 1973?

He had sold the 600-acre farm in 1971 and retired to Florida, where he died of a heart attack at 53.

Max Yasgur was later revealed to have held what political stance?

Michael Lang called him his 'hero' while admitting he was 'the antithesis' of what the festival stood for.

Who played Max Yasgur in Ang Lee's 2009 film Taking Woodstock?

Jonathan Groff played Michael Lang, and Imelda Staunton played the motel owner's mother, Sonia Teichberg.

Snoopy's bird friend was finally named after the festival in which year?

The bird had been appearing unnamed since 1966; Schulz said the festival logo's bird on a guitar helped inspire the choice.

Which singer released 'Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind' in 2017?

She wrote it about North Korea–U.S. tensions while at Coachella, using the 1969 festival as a symbol of peace.

To keep pilgrims away, later owners of the festival field once spread what across it?

On one anniversary, tractors and state police cars formed roadblocks; 20,000 people still showed up in 1989.

John Roberts, who bankrolled Woodstock, was heir to the fortune from which product?

He and Joel Rosenman later co-wrote 'Young Men with Unlimited Capital' about paying for the festival.

Who gave the festival's opening invocation after being flown to the stage by helicopter?

He greeted the crowd as 'Brothers and Sisters of America', a nod to Vivekananda's 1893 Chicago speech.

Which 1950s-revival group played right before Hendrix, closing with 'At the Hop'?

Hendrix, a friend from a New York club, helped them land the slot just five months after the group formed.

Asked how he'd keep order at Woodstock, Hog Farm leader Hugh Romney named what tools?

Both are classic clown props; the press wrote it down, and he later marvelled at 'the power of manipulating the media'.

Which bluesman gave Hog Farm founder Hugh Romney his clown name weeks after Woodstock?

It happened at the Texas International Pop Festival, where the Hog Farmers kept peace between cowboys and hippies.

Who closed Woodstock '94 as the final North Stage headliner?

Aerosmith had played around 3 to 4 a.m. the night before, straight after Metallica's fireworks display.

Woodstock '94 earned what nickname after storms turned the field to sludge?

Primus were pelted with mud during 'My Name Is Mud', and Les Claypool says some is still stuck in his bass cabinets.

Which band's Woodstock '94 mudfight ended with bassist Mike Dirnt losing a tooth?

A security guard mistook him for a stage-crasher and spear-tackled him; the chaos helped push Dookie into the stratosphere.

Whose Woodstock '94 performance won the 1996 Grammy for Best Metal Performance?

The mud-caked band played 'Happiness in Slavery'; Trent Reznor still called the set 'terrible' afterward.

Which band's 'Break Stuff' performance is widely blamed for escalating the Woodstock '99 violence?

Fans tore plywood off the perimeter wall to crowd-surf on, and Fred Durst ended the set riding a panel himself.

Woodstock '99's inexperienced, unarmed security staff went by what name?

They were hired from a local job agency; some sold their spare security shirts to concertgoers or simply left.

Which Hendrix cover by the Red Hot Chili Peppers was blamed for inciting the Woodstock '99 bonfires?

Anthony Kiedis wrote that Hendrix's sister had asked them to play it in his honour; a sound tower burned and collapsed.

To protest concession prices at Woodstock '99, Insane Clown Posse taped what to beach balls?

Fans fought over the money; a year later the duo launched the Gathering of the Juggalos as a riposte to the festival.

With John Entwistle, which Grateful Dead drummer was the only 1969 alumnus to play Woodstock '99?

He appeared with his band Planet Drum; no complete original-festival act made the bill.

Woodstock 50 was moved in July 2019 from Watkins Glen to Merriweather Post Pavilion in which state?

The next day every announced artist was released from their contracts, and the festival was cancelled on July 31.

Poland's Przystanek Woodstock was renamed what in 2018 after a licensing dispute?

The free festival, founded by Jerzy Owsiak in 1995, has drawn crowds as large as 750,000.

Which 1969 event is sometimes called the 'Black Woodstock'?

It ran across July and August 1969, and finally got its due in the 2021 documentary Summer of Soul.

The New York Times' editorial on the festival ran under what headline?

It compared the fans to lemmings marching into the sea; the first two distractors were Daily News front pages.

Janis Joplin performed at Woodstock backed by which group?

Former Big Brother guitarist Sam Andrew was in the lineup; her set was only added to the film in the 1994 director's cut.

As the Who played 'See Me, Feel Me' at Woodstock, what happened 'almost as if on cue'?

John Entwistle quipped that 'God was our lighting man'; the band had gone on at 5 am after demanding $13,000 up front.

In the iconic Woodstock images, Hendrix wears a red head-scarf and what on top?

Though he took far less than his usual fee, he was still the festival's highest-paid performer.

Which folk group refused to play in Friday's pouring rain and was rescheduled to Saturday?

Lang had booked them for $4,500; they ended up between Canned Heat's slot and the Saturday electric acts.

Woodstock drummer Keef Hartley had earlier replaced whom in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes?

He went on to drum for John Mayall before bringing his own big band to Woodstock.

Abbie Hoffman's 1969 book about the festival was titled what?

In it he admits he was on a bad LSD trip when he grabbed the microphone during the Who's set.

Which magazine ran a 1970 parody poem, 'I Remember, I Remember The Wondrous Woodstock Music Fair'?

Frank Jacobs wrote it and Sergio Aragonés drew it, sending up the traffic and the impossibility of hearing the music.

Before Woodstock, Michael Lang had co-organized which 1968 festival?

About 25,000 people came to the two-day event; rain ended its second day early, a preview of things to come.

Why did the 346 off-duty New York City police hired for Woodstock security withdraw?

Security fell instead to the Hog Farm commune's 'Please Force'.

Taking Woodstock is based on the memoir of which Bethel motel owner?

Lang disputes his claim to have introduced the promoters to Max Yasgur, saying a realtor drove him there without Tiber.