CHAPTER 1
A Concert
It was the 1960s. Hip musicians like Bob Dylan were moving to Woodstock, New York. It was a pretty town with trees and farmland, about 120 miles north of New York City.
A twenty-four-year-old music promoter named Michael Lang got an idea. Maybe he should build a recording studio in Woodstock. Musicians from nearby could record their songs in his studio instead of driving all the way into New York City. And running a studio would be fun!
Lang was a hippie with big ideas and confidence. Although a bit shy, he was good at talking people into things. He tried to get someone to invest money in his recording studio.
In November 1968 he met Artie Kornfeld. Kornfeld was a vice president at Capitol Records. He wasn’t sold on Lang’s idea. Also, he didn’t have enough money for the project. But Kornfeld knew lots of bands and people in the music industry. The two men ended up hanging out together and became friends.
While playing pool, they came up with a new idea. Wouldn’t it be groovy to have a big outdoor concert in Woodstock? They could sell tickets and use the money to pay for building a recording studio!
In February 1969, Lang and Kornfeld met two businessmen named Joel Rosenman and John Roberts. They were willing to invest—put money of their own—in cool ideas.
Rosenman and Roberts didn’t know much about hippies like Lang and Kornfeld. They had already invested in building a recording studio in New York City. So they weren’t interested in the idea of another studio. Not at first. But then Lang and Kornfeld mentioned their Woodstock concert idea. That caught the businessmen’s attention. A big concert could be a moneymaker and would be great promotion for the recording studio before it was even built.
Rosenman and Roberts thought it over. They were in! The four men—all in their twenties—formed a company called Woodstock Ventures Incorporated. Their event would be called the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Soon people would begin calling it the “Woodstock Festival” or simply “Woodstock,” for short.
Planning started for a concert with an audience of fifty thousand. The date was set for August 15–17. First off, they needed to pick an outdoor site. Locations in the town of Woodstock turned out to be too small. They went looking for a bigger site in towns nearby. They wanted someplace pretty, with grass and trees.
They would also need security guards, toilets, food, water, a stage, and lighting. And, oh yeah, music! Bands had to be hired. Their hope was that all the top singers and groups would sign contracts to play at their festival. A timeline and to-do lists were made. It was a lot to organize.
The team of four started out with high spirits, high hopes, and big plans. They just knew their concert was going to be outta sight!
