Was there really that much crime at Woodstock 1969?
In the modern world, we don’t associate America with being the home of the music festival.
Now, European festivals like Glastonbury and Primavera rule the roost, while Coachella’s reputation falls far behind, but it wasn’t always like that. In fact, the one festival that arguably started it all was born across the pond, and it was called Woodstock.
Capitalising on 1969’s Summer of Love, it was supposed to be the ultimate celebration of all things liberal. Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, The Who, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were just a few of the names on this seismic bill that sought to change the face of live music forever. They would unknowingly set out a stall for future festivals to follow, where mud-bathed mosh pits would become normalised.
However, it wasn’t all it seemed, and despite attempts to market it as a mecca of liberalist ideas, it ended up raising more questions than answers. Heavy rainfall and technical hiccups were one thing, but the mood on the ground was another, and according to The Who’s Roger Daltrey, it wasn’t exactly what you may have thought.
“Woodstock wasn’t peace and love,” he boldly claimed, “There was an awful lot of shouting and screaming going on. By the time it all ended, the worst sides of our nature had come out. People were screaming at the promoters, people were screaming to get paid. We had to get paid, or we couldn’t get back home.”
Daltrey did concede though the music on show was as fascinating as we might imagine and brilliantly showcased a golden age of music: “What was interesting about the music that was being made in those years was how quickly and rapidly it progressed. The sounds, the musicianship, the styles. It plateaued toward the end of the ’70s, and then you can hear the commerciality creeping in, rather than inventiveness.”
With Daltrey’s experience in mind as the artist, it begs the question, just how bad did it get? Shouting and screaming is a byproduct of any widespread event, but one might wonder, did it descend into something more illegal?
Was Woodstock 1969 that crime-laden?
There were plenty of arrests made at Woodstock ’69, reported to be around 100, but most of them were for drug charges, which is rather unsurprising.
However, large parts of them weren’t made on the grounds; they were made upon entry and exit to the event in surrounding areas. This is to be relatively expected when it comes to the festival, which has built its legacy on a loose outlook towards drug use and abuse.
Two deaths also sadly occurred at the festival, but they were deemed non-criminal. One was caused from a suspected heroin overdose that was later disputed as myocarditis, and another involved a 17-year-old who died after being run over by a tractor while he was sleeping.
Despite Daltrey’s claims, it was, for all intents and purposes, a well-spirited celebration of love and music. While there was what he claimed as shouting and screaming, there was nothing quite as dark as the Woodstock 1999 festival that acted as its infamous follow-up.
