Thursday, December 11, 2008

Woodstock Revisited













As the 40th Anniversary of the original Woodstock Festival approaches, only one film tells the back story of how that festival truly came into being: "Woodstock Revisited."

In all truth, Woodstock was far from being the result of some cosmic anomaly that it is now portrayed as being.

The first Woodstock Festivals were called The Maverick Festivals and were put on in the teens and twenties.













Hervey White, the man who put on those festivals, is now considered by many to be the father of the hippie movement.
















Then later, between 1965 and 1967 or '68 (too much acid to remember well), a group of hardy Woodstockers led by Jocko Moffett started the first Woodstock Soundouts on a field between Woodstock and Saugerties.

These Soundouts featured many of the same performers and...atmosphere...(i.e. hippies tripping in the woods, a disappearing cover charge, later to be seen at The Woodstock Festival. In this clip from Woodstock Revisited, many native Woodstockers, including the founder of The Woodstock Festival, Michael Lang, reflect on The Soundouts.