The Woodstock Music Festival was held in Sullivan County. The property belonged to dairy farmer Max Yasgur, after the initial permits for the event to be held in Wallkill, New York were revoked. Yasgur was paid $75,000.

David Edward Byrd was responsible for the design of the original and official Woodstock Festival posters rarely seen today. It is the posters of a white dove resting on a guitar that’s commonly associated with the festival.

It was still called Woodstock, but late changes had the festival held in Bethel, New York, which is 43 miles southwest of the actual town of Woodstock. His 600-acre farm ended up being a suitable venue for this huge crowd.

Ken Kesey, who was author of “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” lived with the self-named Merry Pranksters. The group began a cross-country tour in 1964 in the school buss named “Further.” The group ended up traveling to Woodstock in 1969 without Kesey himself.

Richie Havens was the opening act while Jimi Hendrix was the closer. Hendrix’s Gypsy Sun & Rainbows didn’t perform until Monday morning but his rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” has become the most memorable part of the event.

An estimated 400,000 people attended the rainy festival with over 32 musical acts. Woodstock was scheduled for August 15-17, but went on to August 18, thanks to the weather which included a three-hour delay on Sunday due to thunderstorms.

The 32 acts who performed featured major artists such as Ten Years After, The Who, Ravi Shankar, Joan Baez, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Sly, and the Family Stone, Joe Cocker, The Band, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Jim Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Mexican guitarist Carlos Santana, and many more musicians.

All those legendary musicians performed for over 550,000 people even though only 164,000 tickets were sold.

Even though it was a record breaking crowd, only 33 people were arrested on possession charges during the event. This is actually a low percentage when you think about the number there. It makes you wonder about the stereotypes of the times not being quite so accurate. Or, perhaps they were just really good at hiding things from the officers.

There were way more people than tickets sold so naturally, supplies ran low. A Jewish community center stepped in and made sandwiches with 200 loaves of bread, 40 pounds of deli meat, and two gallons of pickles because of the food shortage.

The organizers spent nearly $3.1 billion dollars on the festival but only brought in $1.8 billion dollars. Only in the ’80s did organizers Rosenman and Roberts finally cover their debt.

Despite the number of things going on against the law, the festival still was a peaceful event. In this picture a pop-up jam session inspired a group to form a dance circle at the free stage.

Woodstock never prioritized sanitation and cleanliness since they weren’t that important to festival-goers. But a refreshing dip in the pond or one of the nearby rivers was a great way of staying clean and cool through the duration of the festival.

It took almost 10 years for the festival to get back the money that was spent and this includes the video and audio rights from all the recordings. Organizers took on a lot of debt to book the lineup of stars. The first group who agreed to play was Creedence Clearwater Revival for $10,000.

400,000 people or so attended the festival which meant that there was a lot of trash on the ground. Festival workers would even tiptoe barefoot through mud and sleeping bags just to pick up garbage at Woodstock.

Woodstock had two women give birth. It didn’t happen on the actual festival grounds but these women didn’t want to miss a historic event. Imagine the stories told today by those kids: “I was born AT Woodstock.”

Many people were concerned with the weather, fearing that the performers would get electrocuted on stage. It rained for most of the festival with heavy thunderstorms overnight. Attendees made do with what they had, braving the rain and enjoying the event.

Max Yasgur’s farm was the perfect destination since the land formed a natural bowl shape which sloped downwards to Filippini Pond. The stage was set up near the pond, allowing festival-goers to see everything even from afar.

It was like those open-space amphitheaters in ancient times and it worked to the organizers’ advantage.

There were conflicting reports of what was actually confiscated though there were plenty of subtances not allowed at the time. Even though there was overcrowding, only one accident took place involving a 17-year-old teen who got run over by a tractor while picking up trash in a nearby area.

An unidentified man watches the performance at the Free Stage while a woman stares at the cameraman. The Free Stage functioned as a space for the scheduled performers to have a jam session. But if the mic was free, any festival attendee to do as they wished.

Rainy conditions, lack of proper sanitation, and shortages of food would have turned any crowd mad. But despite their reputation in the 1960s, the youth in attendance maintained peace, harmony, and just went with the flow.

“Woodstock Nation” was the term used to describe the youth counterculture of the 1960s. The enormous crowd maintained peace throughout the festival and when it was over, the more than 400,000 attendees began their exit from Bethel, New York.

The festival was $1.3 million in debt and it took 10 years for the organizers to recover through royalties from the performances. Those songs and videos are still played today.

These two look completely absorbed by their music. Woodstock was also about self-expression and creating music, not just listening to it. The female flutist and her drum-playing companion seem so at peace while they perform. A similiar scene today is what someone might expect at Burning Man.

This young woman seems to be in a differnent place than the previous picture. She’s raising her arms to the sky as if it embrace the celebration and love around her. The people in the background are seeming to love and groove themselves to this unplanned performance.

Seven people on their way to the event, stop on the side of the road and pose for a photo. The diversity of the group and the peace signs proved how inclusive and welcoming it all was. They were all excited for the adventure of a lifetime. This merry group became part of one of the most important cultural moments in history.

The young fashionable hippe is wearing a buckskin top that covers barely more than a bikini. Lots of skin was on display during the even. In this time in United States history, this type of clothing was not considered appropriate.

This is the Hog Farm bus that was believed to be the longest running hippie commune in United States history. The Hog Farmers had a large role at Woodstock. They acted as security, set up a kitchen, and constructed the grounds. Notice the writing on the bus, especially the “God Loves America” message.

The main driving this Ford Mustange is all smile as he heads to Bethel, New York. The words “Live for Today,” “War is Not Healthy”, “Peace,” and “Love” are all written on his car. It makes you wonder if he was able to get any of the artists to autograph his Mustang while he was there.

Twenty-five years after the successful event, an anniversary festival took place in Saugerties, New York. It was known as Woodstock II, and featured musical acts like Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and newer acts, with bands such as Nine Inch Nails and Green Day. More than 300,000 people attended the event.

By the looks of things, this Woodstock attendee was certainly having a good time at the 1969 event. We wonder where she is now?

Performers were met by a breathtaking sea of humanity that seemed to go on forever in front of them. It inspired many performers to bring out their best and make the festival unforgettable.

As incredible as the Woodstock festival was, it was also a bit overwhelming. Some of the concert-goers needed to take a break and recharge even in the midst of all the awesome performances.

The true scope of Woodstock is shown in this overhead photo of the grounds. It show just how many people gathered in New York that historic weekend.

These two young men were looking for a ride back to Beantown after the event. “Peace, love, and understanding” can only go so far, hopefully no Yankee fans tried to give them a ride.

Woodstock didn’t really offer much in terms of seating, so many people used their vehicles to create their own rest spots. Vans were great for resting and standing up to see the stage.

Rhythm and blues guitarist Richie Havens was the opening act of Woodstock, and he made sure to go all out. Havens performed a version of the classic spiritual song “Motherless Child” to end his set.

Havens explained years later, “I’d already played every song I knew and I was stalling, asking for more guitar and mic, trying to think of something else to play – and then it just came to me … The establishment was foolish enough to give us all this freedom and we used it in every way we could.”

Woodstock attendees found shelter anywhere they could. This group wrapped in the United States flag is more symbolic than they could have realized at the time.

The organizers at Woodstock themselves had no idea how large the event would actually turn out to be. They thought it would be around 50,000 people but they really underestimated the actual number of more like 400,000.

The concert goers were quite the group. As we can see a little mischief here of someone jumping off a wooden structure right into a pile of hay.

Since the organizers didn’t really know how many people would actually attend the event, there were not enough arrangements made. People had to make do with whatever they found available to them. Some even bathed in a nearby river.

The organizers were shocked at the turn out so they did not have enough supplies and lacked arrangements for the sheer volume of people that showed up. So the crowd made do with what was available, relying on what they had and on each other. Some even bathed in the closest river.

There were so many preparations that needed to be made. In this photo the sound crew was being lifted up by a crane. But take notice of the barrels that were being used for the task.

As more and more people arrived for the concert, day three was when Crosby took the stage.