Woodstock Music and Art Festival
... Instead of three hours of music there were three days of music lined up. ... Woodstock transcended expectations of being a concert to be remembered for years and became a true American icon. ... Woodstock started out as the brain child of John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang. ... They had no idea that their idea of pitching Woodstock so that it appealed to their peer’s sense of independence would pay off so big. ... Woodstock became one of the biggest gatherings in concert history and has since grown to stand for a lot more than just entertainment. ... In Woodstock we rebelled against “the Man.” Woodstock became a sounding block for all the frustration and oppression felt by an entire generation which was tired of being held back just as the Boston Tea Party was a vivid outcry of a past generation also trying to throw off the bonds that kept them from their goals. ... At Woodstock a generation partied to express their desire to keep this nation in peace. I’m not saying that Woodstock is the same caliber of political campaign as the fight for a nation’s freedom. ... The youth in 1969 expressed their displeasure in the oppression of society by going so far as to construct a free school, free kitchen and free stage at Woodstock. ... Similarly, Woodstock is not just an icon to those that attended but also to the families, friends and loved ones of the 500,000 guests who attended and the people affected by the twenty mile long traffic jam. Woodstock is an icon of Murphy’s Laws at work (everything that could go wrong did), it is an icon of an immature generation going to a party and discovering responsibility when they had to fend for themselves, take care of each other, rush each other to the medic tent when someone stepped on a broken bottle or someone else was having a bad trip.