Managing Woodstock

My late brother-in-law, Richard, had a problem. He was sitting alongside John Sebastian and other members of the Lovin’ Spoonful in a hotel room on 6th Avenue in New York City. Richard had just spoken to the organizers of a music festival in upstate New York where the group was scheduled to play. Apparently, the travel time from NYC to Woodstock was more than eight hours for a trip which usually required no more than an hour. In fact, the traffic jam was turning into the largest one in US history, with the New York Thruway actually closed.

Scheduled to play that evening, the band's eyes were squarely on Richard, their business manager, expecting to find a solution to this problem. As he paced the floor, news reports flooded the room stating that, instead of the expected crowd of 50,000, over 500,000 music fans had assembled outside of Bethel, NY, and were streaming into Woodstock!

Desperate, Richard scanned the faces of the band. Finally, one of the Spoonful mentioned that a British band called the Incredible String Band had managed to snag a helicopter to make the trip to Woodstock. In an instant, Richard was to talking to his counterpart at the String Band, and amazingly, there was room for all on the helicopter.

The Lovin’ Spoonful contingent sped downtown to the landing pad at the foot of Manhattan Island and jumped aboard. The copter, carrying this merry band of musicians, swept above the Statue of Liberty and headed north into history. 

Years later, Richard still found it difficult to express in words what he witnessed from the air on his way to Woodstock that day in August 1969. He could see a ribbon-like roadway of cars stretching for miles along the turnpike, backed up bumper to bumper. As the helicopter angled towards the festival site, Richard could see people jumping out of their cars with their gear and hiking the last few miles to the site.

Then, over the horizon, a huge mass of humanity appeared shoulder to shoulder, enjoying what seemed to be a picnic for 500,000 swaying to the music of the best bands on earth. Whatever the organizers pitched to Max Yasgur to rent his dairy farm, it wasn’t this. From the air, it was completely evident to Richard that no one expected this! He couldn’t wait to arrive.

As the helicopter continued its descent to the fairgrounds, Richard could see Richie Havens on the huge stage. He would later learn that Havens, who had arrived early, was asked by the promoters to kick off the festival as no one else had arrived yet because of the traffic jam. Believing he would perform for at most a half hour, Havens strode onstage and broke into his anthem song “Freedom” featuring his acoustic guitar and distinctive voice. 

As the minutes passed, Havens kept looking over his shoulder to find a sign to wrap it up. None came. Richie Havens played for three hours that day at Woodstock in one of the most heroic performances in rock and roll history. Running out of material, he improvised. Exhausted, he took one look at his audience of 500,000 and was revived. Finally, it was Arlo Guthrie who came to his rescue, thanking Havens as he came onto the stage while breaking into his iconic song “Coming into Los Angeles” or on that day “Coming into Woodstock”.

Over the next three days, Woodstock unfolded as one of the most remarkable, indeed miraculous, cultural events of the baby boomer generation. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in July 1969; a month later, a different kind of moon landing took place at Woodstock. 

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