'We knew we had something extraordinary': looking back on Woodstock, 50 years on
Woodstock was a music festival held between August 15–18, 1969, which attracted an audience of more than 400,000.
Early in the planning of Woodstock, 50 years ago this year, co-founder Joel Rosenmann had a hunch that he and his team were on to what would soon become a cultural touchstone. “I think it came in stages for me,” Rosenmann tells the Guardian, looking back at the three-day event in which wound up defining a generation. “We weren’t thinking if it would become legendary or not, but from the beginning we knew we had something extraordinary. When the crowd started coming in, our estimates had been blow away.”
White bird (1968): (White bird is a dove, symbol of peace)
Exactly how a group of ragtag founders, iconic musicians and hordes of young spectators turned 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts festival into an integral part of American lore is outlined in the new documentary Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation. The film takes a fresh look at an otherwise ubiquitous event, aiming to set itself apart from the 1970 Oscar-winning concert film that featured the festival’s performances (and was edited in part by a young Martin Scorsese). Director Barak Goodman instead shifts the perspective from the legends on the stage to the people on the ground. “We wanted to explore what it was about this festival that made it stand out when it comes of every music event in the past 50 years,” says Goodman of his team’s approach. “It certainly wasn’t only because of the music, even though it was great. It was something else, and we wanted to explore what that something else was.”
The answer Goodman found lay in the firsthand experiences of the festival’s peripheral figures, with about 50 original interviews conducted which reveal never-before-heard insight into the creation of the festival and the drama and intrigue that surrounds it. Complementing the narrative is a treasure trove of footage that’s been locked away for a half-century. “The festival was shot by a group of hippie film-makers who put in their own money and captured everything from end to end,” says Goodman, noting that there were three dedicated crews who did nothing but film the crowd. “At the time, everyone was only focused on the performances so they never never entertained the thought of turning the footage from the crowd into a film.”.. read more:
Early in the planning of Woodstock, 50 years ago this year, co-founder Joel Rosenmann had a hunch that he and his team were on to what would soon become a cultural touchstone. “I think it came in stages for me,” Rosenmann tells the Guardian, looking back at the three-day event in which wound up defining a generation. “We weren’t thinking if it would become legendary or not, but from the beginning we knew we had something extraordinary. When the crowd started coming in, our estimates had been blow away.”
White bird (1968): (White bird is a dove, symbol of peace)
Exactly how a group of ragtag founders, iconic musicians and hordes of young spectators turned 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts festival into an integral part of American lore is outlined in the new documentary Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation. The film takes a fresh look at an otherwise ubiquitous event, aiming to set itself apart from the 1970 Oscar-winning concert film that featured the festival’s performances (and was edited in part by a young Martin Scorsese). Director Barak Goodman instead shifts the perspective from the legends on the stage to the people on the ground. “We wanted to explore what it was about this festival that made it stand out when it comes of every music event in the past 50 years,” says Goodman of his team’s approach. “It certainly wasn’t only because of the music, even though it was great. It was something else, and we wanted to explore what that something else was.”
The answer Goodman found lay in the firsthand experiences of the festival’s peripheral figures, with about 50 original interviews conducted which reveal never-before-heard insight into the creation of the festival and the drama and intrigue that surrounds it. Complementing the narrative is a treasure trove of footage that’s been locked away for a half-century. “The festival was shot by a group of hippie film-makers who put in their own money and captured everything from end to end,” says Goodman, noting that there were three dedicated crews who did nothing but film the crowd. “At the time, everyone was only focused on the performances so they never never entertained the thought of turning the footage from the crowd into a film.”.. read more:
