The 50th Anniversary of Woodstock

I have to admit that I really don't remember the Woodstock Music and Art Fair (also known as the Bethel Rock Festival and the Aquarian Music Festival and more simply known as "Woodstock"). In August 1969 I was only 6 years old and my parents were of an age that they would take little interest in a rock music festival. At best I vaguely remember some murmurings from older adults about "hippies" and "New York," but those memories may be of something else entirely. Regardless, it was fifty years ago yesterday that Woodstock began. I have already written an in-depth, two part post on the festival on the occasion of its fortieth anniversary (you can read it here--please forgive the lack of images, as something wiped the images on my posts several years ago). Here I will discuss some of the festival's impact on pop culture.

While neither children nor older adults took  much interest in Woodstock at the time it took place, there can be no doubt that it was a seminal event for Baby Boomers (sometimes called "the Woodstock Generation") and rock music. Many of the acts that performed at Woodstock would become legends, including Ritchie Havens, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, The Band, and Jimi Hendrix. The event was also remarkable in the sheer number of young people gathered in one area with no reported incidents of violence. Not only have there been a number of documentaries on the festival (beginning with the official documentary Woodstock in 1970), but Woodstock has played a role in the plots of several movies and TV show episodes.

What is more, the impact of Woodstock on pop culture was felt almost immediately. The character of Woodstock in the comic strip Peanuts had first appeared in 1966, but remained unnamed until Charles Schulz named him "Woodstock" after the festival. The festival was naturally parodied in Mad magazine in 1970 with a poem by Frank Jacobs and illustrated by Sergio Aragonés titled "I Remember, I Remember The Wondrous Woodstock Music Fair" that references the traffic jam on the way to the festival and the difficulty of getting close enough to actually hear the music. National Lampoon would also parody Woodstock in their 1973 stage show Lemmings. Among the show's sketches were "Welcome to the Woodshuck Festival: Three Days of Peace, Love, and Death; plus band introductions throughout." A live album of the show would be released in 1973 and a video recording of one of the shows would be released years later. The Simpsons episode "D'oh in the Wind" featured Abe Simpson, his wife Mona, and young Homer at the festival.

Woodstock would also be remembered in song. The most famous song about the festival may be "Woodstock" by Joni Mitchell. What might be the most famous version of the song was released by Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1970. That same year Melanie, who performed at the festival, released , "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)," based on her experience of the event.

Like the Apollo 11 moon landing earlier in 1969, Woodstock would not be referenced in many movies and TV shows in the Seventies and Eighties. Among the earliest was the movie The Omega Man (1971). In the film the protagonist, Neville, watches the documentary Woodstock in a theatre. While there would be several documentaries about the festival over the years, the festival would not be referenced in many narrative movies and TV shows until the Nineties.

Perhaps because it was the year of the festival's thirtieth anniversary, 1999 would see the festival referenced both in a film and on television. Not only does the Apollo 11 moon landing play a role in the movie A Walk in the Moon (1999), but so does Woodstock. In the film Pearl Kantrowitz's husband Marty (who has been working away from home) cannot return home because of the traffic jam caused by the festival. As to Pearl herself, she goes to the festival, as do her children (without her knowledge).

It was also in 1999 that Woodstock played a role in two TV movies. A portion of the TV movies The '60s followed a family through important events of the decade, including Woodstock. VH1 aired a biographical film on the band Sweetwater, who played at Woodstock. As might be expected the movie covered the events of the festival.

A 2010 episode of the TV show Cold Case departed from history in homicide detective and cold case expert Lilly Rush investigating the murder of a GI at Woodstock (as noted earlier, there were no violent incidents reported at the festival). That same year the Canadian film Frisson des collines  (2010) was released. The film followed a twelve year old boy as he tried to travel from his small town in Quebec to Woodstock in order to see his idol Jimi Hendrix. More recently the DC's Legends of Tomorrow episode "The Virgin Gary" had the Legends travelling in time back to Woodstock to deal with a historical anomaly there.

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was one of the pivotal event of the 20th Century and it has been referenced in many more movies and TV shows, even when its events are not pivotal in the plot. As time passes there can be no doubt that its impact on pop culture will only grow.