Woodstock Music And Art Fair Essay Example For Students

Woodstock Music And Art Fair Essay In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair drew more than450,000 people to a pasture in Sullivan county. For four days,this site became a countercultural mini-nation in which drugswere all but legal, music was plenty, and love was free. Themusic began Friday afternoon at 5:07 p.m. August 15, andcontinued until mid-morning Monday August 18. The festivalclosed the New York State Thruway and created one of the nationsworst traffic jams. It also inspired a bunch of local and statelaws to ensure that nothing like it would ever happen again. Woodstock was the idea of four young men: John Roberts, JoelRosenman, Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang. The oldest of the fourwas 26. Their original odea was to have it in Wallkill, New York,but the residents objected so greatly, that the site was thentaken to a farm about eight miles outside of Bethel, N.Y. ,population 3,900. There was objections from this city as well,but a permit had already been purchased to have a concert, so notmuch could be done about it. We will write a custom essay on Woodstock Music And Art Fair specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Although the conditions were terrible, (Lack of food, sparsesanitation facilities, drugs and alcohol, mud, to name a few)there were no violent acts at the festival. DRUGSDrugs were a problem at the festival, nearly ninety percentof the people there were smoking marijuana. There were noviolence problems though. Approximately one hundred percent ofthe 33 people arrested were charged with drug-related charges. FOODFood shortage was a problem since so many people showed upwho the festival organizers wree not prepared for.Only 60,000people were expected to attend, yet on the first day alone,500,000 frankfurters and hamburgers were consumed. Constantairlifts were being operated from the site and outlying areas,bringing in a total of 1,300 pounds of canned food, sandwiches,and fruit. In fact, the food problems were so great that theWomens Group of the Jewish Community Center of Monticello andthe Sisters of the Convent of St. Thomas prepared and distributed30,000 sandwiches for the festival go-ers.