It was on this day,  August 15, 1969, the Woodstock Music & Art Fair kicked off on a dairy farm in Bethel, NY. Over half a million people came to Max Yasgur's  600-acre farm to hear 32 acts (leading and emerging performers of the time) play over the course of four days (August 15-18). Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, the Who, Janis Joplin and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were among the line-up. Who could forget Country Joe & The Fish, and Joe's slightly adapted and famous "Fish Chant" (gimme an F, gimme a U, gimme a C, etc.") Three days of rain, twenty miles of blocked roads, three deaths, two births,  six miscarriages, bad acid, little food or drink, clothes discarded, and bands transported in and out by helicopter. Still, Woodstock is known as one of the greatest happenings of all time and –perhaps- the most pivotal moment in music history.

 

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