Woodstock was a weekend like no other

_Elsa_

‘For three days in August 1969, it seemed like the Age of Peace and Love might just take hold. The Woodstock love-in was no drive-in: Festivalgoers abandoned their cars miles from the concert grounds.

Carl Porter strode to a grassy rise overlooking the sweeping natural amphitheater where, 50 years earlier, more than 400,000 young people grooved to the sounds of their generation at a music festival billed as “An Aquarian Exposition.”

He threw his arms out, wing-like. As a gentle breeze tossed his curly gray hair, it seemed for a moment he might start spinning, like Julie Andrews on her mountaintop.

Indeed, these hills really were alive with the sound of music as the three days of Woodstock unfolded here a half-century ago. Today that music, and the spirit of one of the most raucous weekends in American history, still echoes in the hearts of those who were there, those who wish they were there, and those who say they were there but might have come up more than a few miles short.

“For 10 days before the music even began, I sat right here with my friends,” said Porter, indicating the spot where we stood. “Every once in a while I’d walk down there to help build the stage.”

Of the nearly half-million kids who blanketed this hillside like a psychedelic quilt August 15-18, 1969, Porter seemed an unlikely prospect for ushering in the Age of Aquarius. He’d spent half his childhood in a farmhouse barely 10 miles from this spot—but his family also had a place in New York City, where he’d grown up frequenting the smoky coffee houses of Greenwich Village, soaking in the last of the Beat musicians and the first of the folk/rock crowd.

Faced with being drafted into the Vietnam War, Porter enlisted in the Air Force and was trained in Texas as an intelligence officer. He was set to ship out to the Far East in early September—giving him just enough time to drive home for this Woodstock concert he’d been hearing a lot about.

Porter and about 20 friends staked out their spot on this hillside—and then came the crowds.

Besides severely underestimating the traffic problems, Woodstock’s organizers had failed to plan properly for the amount of food, water, shelter, toilets, and medical care they would need. Reports from the time relate how area residents, upon hearing the kids at the concert were hungry, cold, and thirsty, came to their rescue with sandwiches, milk and water—and even opened their homes to some who needed hot showers.

But that didn’t mean the Age of Aquarius had magically descended upon Upstate New York. Ever practical, the people of Sullivan County realized if they didn’t do something fast a full-blown humanitarian crisis could have erupted. Already, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller was considering sending in the National Guard to break up Woodstock and send everyone home. ’ (Source)

Let’s continue – Musical Legends Take The Stage At Woodstock 1969

Start at the beginning – Tiffi and Yeti learn about Woodstock