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The '''Woodstock Festival''' (originally the ''Woodstock Music and Art Fair'') took place August 15–18, 1969, in the town of Bethel, New York (outside of White Lake). The Festival was marked by widespread drug use, fornication, and denial of reality, as well as a search for a better one. The concert was peaceful, with rain storms, mud, hunger and insufficient toilets and shelter adding to the wilderness type experience for the crowd of mainly middle class youth. ''Time'' magazine marveled at “the agape-like sharing of food and shelter by total strangers.”<ref>Time, Aug. 29, 1969</ref>  

The '''Woodstock Festival''' (originally the ''Woodstock Music and Art Fair'') took place August 15–18, 1969, in the town of Bethel, New York (outside of White Lake). The Festival was marked by widespread drug use, fornication, and denial of reality, as well as a search for a better one. The concert was peaceful, with rain storms, mud, hunger and insufficient toilets and shelter adding to the wilderness type experience for the crowd of mainly middle class youth. ''Time'' magazine marveled at “the agape-like sharing of food and shelter by total strangers.”<ref>Time, Aug. 29, 1969</ref>  

The organizers had told Bethel officials that they were expecting only 50,000 people, though they thought the figure would be at least twice that, but nearly 500,000 people descended on the 600-acre dairy farm property of Max Yasgur to hear rock musicians such as [[Jimi Hendrix]], [[Janis Joplin]] (both of whom later died from drug overdoses) and others.  

 

The organizers had told Bethel officials that they were expecting only 50,000 people, though they thought the figure would be at least twice that, but nearly 500,000 people descended on the 600-acre dairy farm property of Max Yasgur to hear rock musicians such as [[Jimi Hendrix]], Janis Joplin (both of whom later died from drug overdoses) and others.  

The festival was conceived by Artie Kornfeld, 25, a hash-smoking vice president at Capitol Records, and Michael Lang at 2:00 AM after playing bumper pool and smoking [[marijuana]]. Lang was owner of a head shop in the state of Florida, and had produced the two-day Miami Pop Festival.  They were joined by John Roberts and Joel Rosenman as organizers of the Woodstock Festival. Roberts, who possessed a lieutenant's commission in the Army and had only seen one rock concert (by the Beach Boys), supplied the bulk of the funding, being heir to a drugstore and toothpaste-manufacturing fortune, with a multimillion-dollar trust fund. An organization was formed called Woodstock Ventures, Inc., after the little Ulster County town where Bob Dylan lived, from whence the Woodstock Festival received its name. After Ventures was turned down from playing in Wallkill, due to local opposition and alleged deception by Rosenman, the organizers contracted to pay Max Yasgur (December 15, 1919 - February 9, 1973), the owner of a dairy farm in Bethel, $75,000 for the use of 600 acres of land.

The festival was conceived by Artie Kornfeld, 25, a hash-smoking vice president at Capitol Records, and Michael Lang at 2:00 AM after playing bumper pool and smoking [[marijuana]]. Lang was owner of a head shop in the state of Florida, and had produced the two-day Miami Pop Festival.  They were joined by John Roberts and Joel Rosenman as organizers of the Woodstock Festival. Roberts, who possessed a lieutenant's commission in the Army and had only seen one rock concert (by the Beach Boys), supplied the bulk of the funding, being heir to a drugstore and toothpaste-manufacturing fortune, with a multimillion-dollar trust fund. An organization was formed called Woodstock Ventures, Inc., after the little Ulster County town where Bob Dylan lived, from whence the Woodstock Festival received its name. After Ventures was turned down from playing in Wallkill, due to local opposition and alleged deception by Rosenman, the organizers contracted to pay Max Yasgur (December 15, 1919 - February 9, 1973), the owner of a dairy farm in Bethel, $75,000 for the use of 600 acres of land.