Music
When did the Woodstock festival take place?
1969 AD
Woodstock ran from 15 to 18 August 1969 AD in Bethel, New York.
1 BC · 1 AD
Context
What happened?
Despite the name, the festival was not held in the town of Woodstock but on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm some 60 miles away, after earlier sites fell through. Thirty-two acts played across four days to a crowd far larger than the organisers had planned for.
Significance
Why it matters
The festival became shorthand for 1960s counterculture, helped along by the documentary and albums that followed. Jimi Hendrix closed it on the Monday morning, by which point most of the audience had already gone home.
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