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Relive the magic of Woodstock with our comprehensive free 100-question trivia quiz with answers! From legendary performances to unforgettable moments, this quiz tests your knowledge of one of history's most iconic music festivals. Whether you're a '60s history buff or a music enthusiast, challenge yourself and discover fascinating facts about the summer that changed music and culture forever.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what month did the original Woodstock Music and Art Fair take place?
August
It ran from the 15th to the 18th, 1969, spilling a day past what was advertised.
Q 02Woodstock 1969 was held on a dairy farm 60 miles southwest of its namesake town, in which New York town?
Bethel
Bethel, 60 miles southwest of Woodstock, hosted the festival on a 600-acre dairy farm after the original site at Wallkill fell through.
Q 03Which of these individuals was one of the four main organizers of the 1969 Woodstock festival?
Michael Lang
He founded Woodstock Ventures with Artie Kornfeld, John P. Roberts and Joel Rosenman, and later co-organised the 1994 and 1999 anniversary festivals.
Q 04Woodstock was billed as 'An Aquarian Exposition' with which subtitle, a promise the rain delays turned optimistic?
3 Days of Peace & Music
3 Days of Peace & Music was the promise; the rain delays stretched the music into a fourth morning.
Q 05Only about 186,000 advance tickets were sold, yet roughly how many people turned up to Woodstock in 1969?
400,000
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.
Q 06Who opened Woodstock after police stopped the scheduled first act, improvising the song 'Freedom' after running out of material?
Richie Havens
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.
Q 07Which legendary guitarist was the last performer at the original Woodstock festival?
Jimi Hendrix
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.
Q 08Which of these famous bands notably declined an invitation to perform at the 1969 Woodstock festival?
Led Zeppelin
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.
Q 09The Woodstock festival took place on the farm of which dairy farmer?
Max Yasgur
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.
Q 10Which New York town's industrial park did the Woodstock organizers lease before local opposition forced them out?
Wallkill
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.
Q 11Which future star director was one of seven editors on the 1970 Woodstock documentary?
Martin Scorsese
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.
Q 12Which musician, absent from the festival, wrote a hit song about Woodstock?
Joni Mitchell
She wrote it from Graham Nash's description of the weekend, and it became a major hit for CSNY and for Matthews Southern Comfort.
Q 13Broadcast descriptions of the huge traffic jam around the Woodstock site eventually had what effect?
Discouraged more people from coming
Q 21Which artist's Woodstock set included the song "Coming into Los Angeles"?
Arlo Guthrie
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.
Q 22Woodstock '94, the 25th-anniversary festival, was held on a farm in which New York town?
Saugerties
Woodstock '94 took place on Winston Farm, just west of Saugerties, 25 years after the original.
Q 23The two young promoters originally approached financiers Roberts and Rosenman for money to build what?
A small recording studio
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.
Q 14What was the approximate advance ticket price for the entire Woodstock festival?
$18
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.
Q 15Which musician, not on the bill at all, was pulled from the audience to play while promoters waited for delayed acts?
John Sebastian
The former Lovin' Spoonful frontman played a short Saturday-afternoon slot before the Keef Hartley Band.
Q 16Woodstock became the peak musical event of which 1960s movement?
Counterculture
Woodstock is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history and a defining event for the counterculture movement of the 1960s.
Q 17Which band's Woodstock set famously included a 20-minute version of "I'm Going Home"?
Ten Years After
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.
Q 18The decision to make Woodstock a 'free concert' was largely due to what unforeseen circumstance?
Fences and ticket booths were never finished
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.
Q 19Which CSNY member skipped most of the acoustic set at Woodstock and refused to be filmed during the electric set?
Neil Young
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.
Q 20When food ran short at Woodstock, what did the Hog Farm's free food lines dish out?
Granola
Wavy Gravy announced "breakfast in bed for four hundred thousand," and the festival is credited with popularising the food.
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.
Q 24Which British band's Woodstock set was interrupted by Abbie Hoffman, reportedly hit by Pete Townshend's guitar?
The Who
Hoffman had grabbed the microphone to protest the jailing of John Sinclair; Townshend later denied actually attacking him.
Q 25The Woodstock '99 festival faced severe criticism and problems due to its location at what kind of site?
A former air force base
The largely concrete and asphalt grounds were also a designated Superfund cleanup site, which did nothing to help the conditions.
Q 26Which singer-songwriter's Friday night solo set inspired her later hit "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)"?
Melanie
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)."
Q 27Which weather turned the Woodstock festival site into a famous mud bath in the summer of 1969?
Sporadic rain
Sporadic rain under overcast skies did it, yet thirty-two acts still played outdoors; a Sunday thunderstorm shut the whole festival down for hours.
Q 28Which blues-rock band, known for long improvisational jams, played the 7:30 pm slot on Saturday evening?
Canned Heat
They went on straight after the Incredible String Band, and their "Going Up the Country" became closely associated with the festival film.
Q 29The 1969 Woodstock festival officially concluded on what day of the week?
Monday
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.
Q 30Whose Woodstock set featured "Soul Sacrifice", with a drum solo by 20-year-old Michael Shrieve?
Santana
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.