August 15th-17th will be the 1969 Woodstock music festival's 55th anniversary!

Crosby, Stills, and Nash debut at Woodstock 1969

In the summer of 1969 America was reeling. Political turmoil, political violence, and The Vietnam War meant hippie hope was disappearing.
The lyrics in rock music reflected many of the ideals of the late 1960s. Songs with messages about cooperation towards a common goal had replaced song about cars, and being teenagers. Now song messages were meant to raise awareness, enlighten spirits, and create communal connection.

Woodstock Music and Art Fair 1969

But what did it all mean, and where will it lead the hippies?

The answer came together at the Woodstock music and art festival in Bethel, New York, on August 15th, 16th, and 17th of 1969.

Nearly 500,000 hippies attended, transforming a farm field into one of the largest cities in the world overnight. It was declared a national disaster area, food and clothes were flown in, people took care of and fed each other, and it worked.
Another estimated million tried to attend but couldn't get to the field due to road blockage.

What went right at Woodstock?

Some people described extremely uncomfortable crowded conditions, which they endured to hear the music they loved.
Rain and lots of mud also led to the disaster.
Despite the lack of general amenities like food, water, and bathrooms, people helped each other out.
There was no violence, just peace and love.

Most hippies who attended were on a large amount of drugs to help forget about the general unpleasantness and left Woodstock enjoying it.
Loving it even.

The audience members refused to let Woodstock go down in history as a catastrophe.

Flower Power

It was the largest gathering of people ever in America, and it was obvious that something much larger was taking place than just a rock music festival.
Hippies saw themselves as a tribe, linked together by the shared idealism of changing the world with love and flowers also known as flower power.

Woodstock was the ultimate gathering of the tribes, and the closest the hippies had come to achieving and perfecting the hippie ideal.
The hippies had proven to the world that a half a million people could come together for 3 days of peace and music without violence, guns, police, or riots.

Introducing Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young played on day 3 of Woodstock from 3:30-5am. Well, it was technically day 4. This performance was the second time they ever played live in front of an audience.
As Stephen Stills would say “We are scared shitless".

Not only was their performance at Woodstock a magical one, it catapulted them as a group to stardom. Their music would be a central theme of the Woodstock film.

CS&N Woodstock 90 minute set list:

1. Suite: Judy, Blue Eyes
2. The Beatles' Blackbird
3. Helplessly Hoping
4. Guinnevere
5. Marrakesh Express
6. 4 + 20
7. Mr. Soul
8. I'm Wonderin'
9. You Don't Have to Cry
10. Pre-Roads Down
11. Long Time Gone
12. Bluebird Revisited
13. Sea of Madness
14. Wooden Ships
15. Find the Cost of Freedom
16. 49 Bye Byes

Overall, a killer set list.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young before Woodstock

Crosby, Stills and Nash’s debut album was released 3 months prior to Woodstock in May 1969. No one knew who they were as a group yet. Before forming CSNY they had success in other bands.

Stephen Stills and Neil Young were members of Buffalo Springfield, David Crosby The Byrds, and Graham Nash came from The Hollies.

The first time Crosby, Stills, and Nash sang together was an impromptu jam session at Joni Mitchell’s party in Laurel Canyon a year prior. The first time they sang those magical harmonies they knew “they had something special”.
They had vocal chemistry.

The Dick Cavett Show after Woodstock

Crosby, Stills, and Nash after Woodstock

Friend and colleague Joni Mitchell wrote the song Woodstock, even though she wasn’t there. CS&N popularized the song and it would become an anthem for a generation.

 But sadly, Woodstock was the beginning of the end for the flower power hippie era. All good things must come to an end eventually.

With decades of hindsight, the festival is often referred to as the peak of the idealistic 1960s counterculture and its one last party before the flower power dream dissolved into a post Vietnam era taken over by violence and Hells Angels at Altamont.
(A story for another day.)
Over 50 years later we are still celebrating Woodstock as a cultural and musical phenomenon.

 Any of our hippie products on our website will help channel your inner flower child!