- Interviewer: What do you think about the kids?
- Police Officer: From what I've heard from the outside sources for many years I was very, very much surprised and I'm very happy to say we think the people of this country should be proud of these kids, not withstanding the way they dress or the way they wear their hair, that's their own personal business; but their, their inner workings, their inner selves, their, their self-demeanour cannot be questioned; they can't be questioned as good American citizens.
- Interviewer: That's kind of surprising coming from a cop.
- Police Officer: [smiling] I'm not a cop, I'm the Chief of Police.
- Max Yasgur: [to crowd, puts up the peace sign] I'm a farmer. I don't know - I don't know how to speak to 20 people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But, I think you people have proven something to the world! Not only to the town of Bethel or Sullivan County or New York State, you've proven something to the world. This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place. We have had no idea that there would be this size group. And because of that, you had quite a few inconveniences, as far as water and food and so forth. Your Producers have done a mammoth job to see that you're taken care of. They enjoy a vote of thanks. But, above that, the important thing that you've proven to the world is that a half a million kids, and I call you kids because I have children not older than you are, a half a million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing *but* fun and music, and I God bless you for it!
- David Crosby: This is our second gig.
- Stephen Stills: This is the second time we've ever played in front of people, man, we're scared shitless.
- Hugh "Wavy Gravy" Romney: Good morning! What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for four hundred thousand.
- Hugh "Wavy Gravy" Romney: Now, people been sayin' that some of the acid is poison. It's not poison! It's just bad acid. It's manufactured poorly. So, anybody that thinks they've taken some poison: forget it! And if you feel like experimenting, only take half a tab, okay? Thank you.
- Chip Monck - Stage Announcer: I was gonna wait awhile, but, before we talked about it. But, maybe we'll talk about it now so you can think about it. Its a free concert from now on! That doesn't mean that anything goes. But, what that means is we're gonna put the music up here for free. What is means is the people who are putting, backing this thing, who are putting up the money for it are gonna take a bit of a bath - a big bath. That's no hype, that's truth! They're gonna get hurt. But, what it means is these people have it in their heads, that you're welfare is a hulluva lot more important and the music is, than a dollar.
- Blue Bandana Girl: About 30 hours at least.
- Interviewer: Thirty hours straight? No naps?
- Blue Bandana Girl: No naps.
- Interviewer: Are you on speed?
- Blue Bandana Girl: No. I'm not on anything.
- Interviewer: On blind faith.
- Blue Bandana Girl: Blind Faith is a groovy group.
- Artie Kornfeld - Music Promoter: Somebody was saying this is the second largest city in New York. There's been no police. There's been no trouble. If you check the statistics out, you'll find out these people at three hundred plus thousand people have lived together peacefully.
- Interviewer: What are they doing?
- Artie Kornfeld - Music Promoter: They're dropping, they're dropping flowers and dry clothes.
- Interviewer: From the helicopter?
- Artie Kornfeld - Music Promoter: Out of the helicopter.
- Interviewer: You're in the red?
- Artie Kornfeld, Music Promoter: Oh, the company? Financially, it's hard to think on those terms, when you're talking about something like this. Financially, this is a disaster.
- Interviewer: But, you look so happy?
- Artie Kornfeld, Music Promoter: I'm very happy.
- Micheal Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: Look what you got there, man. You couldn't buy that for anything.
- Artie Kornfeld, Music Promoter: Sure. This is really beautiful, man.
- Micheal Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: These people are communicating with each other. That rarely happens anywhere, anymore.
- Artie Kornfeld, Music Promoter: It's got nothing to do with money. It has nothing to do with tangible things.
- Stephen Stills: Hey, man, I just gotta say, that you people have gotta be the strongest bunch of people I ever saw. Three days, man! Three days! We just love ya. We just love ya.
- Male Bethel Resident #2: Saturday night we got word over at WVOS that a lot of kids in town didn't have anything to eat. Word went out that everybody should contribute food. We went over to the park and the village permitted them to camp there. A police car come up the street here with loud speaker and told the kids to come up there. And we fed them Saturday night and all day Sunday. Excess stuff was taken over to the school and they flew it to the site.
- Interviewer: How do you feel about it?
- Male Bethel Resident #2: Very good. I have a 19 year old myself. He's out on the coast and I felt you gotta give 'em a fair shake here. If kids are hungry, you gotta feed 'em.
- Country Joe McDonald: Gimme an F!
- Crowd: F!
- Country Joe McDonald: Gimme a U!
- Crowd: U!
- Country Joe McDonald: Gimme a C!
- Crowd: C!
- Country Joe McDonald: Gimme a K!
- Crowd: K!
- Country Joe McDonald: What's that spell?
- Crowd: FUCK!
- [first lines]
- Interviewer: Okay. Go ahead.
- Sidney Westerfield, Local merchant: My name is Sidney Westerfield. I'm the owner of this antique tavern, Mongaup Valley, New York State. I was here when this crowd really came. We expected 50,000 a day and there must have been a million. I, myself, was hungry for two days because I couldn't get any food! I couldn't go out to buy any food.
- [laughs]
- Sidney Westerfield, Local merchant: I was eatin' cornflakes for two days. And the kids were wonderful. I had no kick. It was, "Sir, this" and "Sir, that" and "Thank you, this" and "Thank you, that." Nobody can complain about the kids. This thing was too big.
- [laughs]
- Sidney Westerfield, Local merchant: It was too big for the world. Nobody has ever seen a thing like this. And when they see this picture in the news-, in the, well, over the, moving pictures, they'll really see something.
- Interviewer: Are you in charge of the whole thing?
- Micheal Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: Yeah.
- Interviewer: But, you got backers.
- Micheal Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: Yeah. Partners and backers.
- Interviewer: Yes. Where are you gonna go from here? I mean, are you gonna do another one?
- Micheal Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: If it works!
- Jerry Garcia: It's really amazing, man, it looks like some kind of biblical, epical, unbelievable scene. They're all, you know, you see these cars, they're all like strewn on the sides of the roads, from the helicopter, in all different angles. They look like jack straws and stuff like that. There's just this continual flow of people, just right in the street, just going along.
- Interviewer: About numbers, tell me, about how many do you expect?
- Michael Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: Two hundred thousand.
- Interviewer: Two hundred thousand people here over the three days.
- Michael Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: Right.
- Interviewer: Where will you put 'em?
- Michael Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: We have contracted for land surrounding the area. Setting up camp grounds, water facilities, toilets, electric. food.
- Interviewer: What does it cost to put one of these things together?
- Michael Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: A fortune!
- Interviewer: You have to make two million dollars to break even?
- Michael Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: Well, if we are going to break even, you know. The point is that it's happened and it's working, you know.
- Interviewer: Yeah.
- Michael Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: And that's enough for now.
- Chip Monck - Stage Announcer: We apologize for the, em, the noise of the choppity-chop... It seems there are a few cars blocking the road. So, we're flying everybody in! I almost made the worst pun of the world about high musicians, but, we'll skip that.
- Chip Monck - Stage Announcer: The warning that I received, you may take with however many grains of salt you wish, that the brown acid that is circulating around us, is specifically not too good. It's suggested that you do stay away from that; of course, it's your own trip, so, be my guest. But, please be advised that there is a warning on that one.
- Richie Havens: [singing] Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, A long way from my home. Singing freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom...
- Hugh "Wavy Gravy" Romney: Yeah. Yeah. My name is Hugh Romney. I'm with the Hog Farm. And I'm workin' on a scene some people call it bum trips. I don't think there's such a thing as a bum trip. We're working with hobo voyages. A half an hour after we release anybody from our section we turn them into doctors and they care for people that were trippin' like they were when they came in.
- Joan Baez: Who's on?
- Festival Staff: I guy named Bert Sommer and, I think, Timmy Hardin is going on next.
- Joan Baez: So, the order of everything is just kapooey?
- Festival Staff: You close tonight. You're closing.
- Joan Baez: Okay. Maybe they'll be a few more people here by then. I don't don't want to close a puny gathering like this.
- Joan Baez: [Talking to the audience about her husband] I was happy to find out that after David had been in jail for two and a half weeks, he already had a very, very good hunger strike going with 42 federal prisoners, none of whom were draft people.
- Chip Monck - Stage Announcer: Maybe the best thing for everybody to do, unless you have a tent or some place specific to go to, is carve yourself out a piece of territory, say goodnight to your neighbor, and say thank you to yourself for making this the most peaceful, most pleasant day anybodies ever had in this kind of music.
- Chip Monck - Stage Announcer: It looks like we're going to get a little bit of rain; so, you better cover up.
- Chip Monck - Stage Announcer: The forecast for this afternoon is: intermittent entertainment between intermittent showers.
- Michael Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: What you have here is this culture and this generation away from the old culture and the older generations, you know. And you see how they function on their own. Without cops. Without guns. Without clubs, Without hassles. Everybody pulls together and everybody helps each other. And it works! Its been working since we got here and its going to continue working. And no matter what happens when they go back to the city, this thing is happening and it proves that it can happen! That's what its all about.
- Artie Kornfeld, Music Promoter: What's really important, the fact that, that if we can't all live together and be happy, if you have to be afraid to walk out in the street, if you have to be afraid to smile at somebody, right? Well, what, what kind of a way is that to go on through this life?
- Female Payphone Caller #1: I'm going to call my mother and father. Because, oh, they think that this is gonna be like another Chicago, you know, like I'm gonna get my head beaten in and they're terrified. So, I'm going to call and tell them, "Ha ha. I fooled you. I'm alive."
- Chip Monck - Stage Announcer: Somebody may have noticed or all of you may have noticed, our familiar colored helicopter over there. The United States Army has lent us some medical teams and giving us a hand. They're with us, man! They are not against us! They're with us and they're here to give us all a hand and help us.
- Chip Monck - Stage Announcer: There are 45 doctors or more. I know of at least 45 who are here without pay, because, they dig what this is into.
- John Sebastian: The press can only, can only say bad things, unless there ain't no fuck-ups. And it's lookin' like there ain't gonna be no fuck-ups. This is gonna work!
- Interviewer: Well, you're doin' a good job here.
- Port-O-San Maintenance Man: Thank you very much. Glad to do it for these kids. My son's here too and I got one over in Vietnam too. He's up in the DMZ right now with all the flying helicopters.
- Chip Monck - Stage Announcer: Alright, everybody, just sit down, wrap yourself up, we're going to have to ride it out. Hold on to your neighbor, man. Please get off those towers. We don't need any extra weight on 'em.
- [sound of thunder]
- Chip Monck - Stage Announcer: Please move away from the towers. The lamps might give us a problem. Everybody who's in the back, please move back! Please move back. We have to get away from these towers. Please move away from the towers.
- [to the roadies]
- Chip Monck - Stage Announcer: Put that mike stand down on the floor. Cover all the equipment.
- Sly Stone: What we would like to do is sing a song together. And you see what usually happens is you got a group of people that might sing and for some reasons that are not unknown anymore - they won't do it. Most of us need approval. Most of us need to get approval from our neighbors before we can actually let all hang down. But, what is happening here is we're going to try to do a sing along. Now, a lot of people don't like to do it. Because they feel that it might be old fashioned. But, you must dig that it is not a fashion in the first place. It is a feeling. And if it was good in the past, it's still good. We would like to sing a song called, "Higher." And if we could get everybody to join in, we'd appreciate it. Everybody do it can on.
- [singing]
- Sly Stone: Want to take you higher!
- Sly Stone, The Family Stone: Higher!
- Sly Stone: [talking] See, like that what we do. Is to say higher and throw the peace sign up it'll do you no harm. Still, again, some people feel that they shouldn't, because, there are situations where you need approval. You get in on something that could do you some good.
- [singing]
- Sly Stone: Want to take you higher!
- Woodstock Audience, Sly Stone, The Family Stone: Higher!
- Sly Stone: [talking] If you throw the peace sign up and say higher, you get everybody to do it. There's a whole lot of people here and a whole lot of people that might not want to do it, because, if they can some how get around it, they feel there are enough people to make up for it. On and on. Et cetera. Et cetera. We're going to try higher again and get everybody to join in we'd appreciate it. It'll give you no harm.
- [singing]
- Sly Stone: Want to take you higher!
- Woodstock Audience, Sly Stone, The Family Stone: Higher!
- Sly Stone: [talking] Way up on the hill, what's happening. Let's give it up.
- [singing]
- Sly Stone: Want to take you higher!
- Woodstock Audience, Sly Stone, The Family Stone: Higher!
- Sly Stone: Want to take you higher!
- Woodstock Audience, Sly Stone, The Family Stone: Higher!
- Sly Stone: Want to take you higher!
- Woodstock Audience, Sly Stone, The Family Stone: Higher!
- Michael Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: Music has always been a major form of communication, only, now, the lyric and the type of music is a little bit more involved in the society than it was.
- Interviewer: If you could tell me that if I could run your voice over while this music's playing, what that music is saying, kind of, what that music's about?
- Michael Lang, Exec Producer of Woodstock Festival: It's about what's happening now. If you listen to the lyric and you listen to the, to the rhythm, and what's in the music, then you'll know what's going on with the culture. I gotta split on you.
- Interviewer: Great. Groovy. Thanks.
- Chip Monck - Stage Announcer: Can those of you in the back - hear well? Raise your hands, please. It's alright? Thank you.
- Richie Havens: There are a hundred million songs gonna be sung tonight. All of them are going to be singing about the same thing, which I hope, everybody who came, came to hear. Really. And it's all about you. Actually. And me and everybody around the stage and everybody that hasn't gotten here and the people that are gonna read about you tomorrow. Yes! And how really groovy you were. All over the world! If you can dig where that's at.
- Artie Kornfeld, Music Promoter: Just to see the lights go on last night, man, and to see the, to see the people stand up, man, it makes it worth it. It's a, you know, I mean, you know there will be, I mean, there's people out there that really don't dig it. Very few of them man. But, you know, it really is to the point where it's just family, man.
- Interviewer: Are you two going together or are you just hitching together?
- Eleanor, Festival Goer: Eh, no, eh.
- Jerry, Festival Goer: We've lived together for about four months or five months and eh...
- Eleanor, Festival Goer: With a lot of other people.
- Jerry, Festival Goer: You know, with a lot of other people. Kind of what you call a communal thing or someone else would call a communal thing. But, it's just, eh, we just live together, so, we just decided to come down together, because we were coming here.
- Eleanor, Festival Goer: And like, but, there's nothing, no definite thing that we're not necessarily going to be together through out the whole thing.
- Interviewer: Are you two going together?
- Jerry, Festival Goer: No.
- Eleanor, Festival Goer: No.
- Interviewer: But, you come up here together.
- Jerry, Festival Goer, Eleanor, Festival Goer: Yeah.
- Interviewer: You like that.
- Jerry, Festival Goer: Yeah. I like her. I love her. I enjoy her.
- Interviewer: What do you think about, Eleanor?
- Eleanor, Festival Goer: Well, the way I look at it, eh, like, I've known Jerry for what, four or five, six months now when he moved into the, like, the family group that I was already, that I already knew for quite awhile. And, eh, in that time I got to know him real well and I've grown to love him. And, um, like we ball and everything, but, like, it's really a pretty good thing because I have, there's plenty of freedom, because we're not going together and we're not "in" love or anything like that, you know.
- Swami Satchidananda - Guru: America leads the whole world in several ways. When I was in the East, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi met me and asked me, "What's happening in America?" And I said, "America is becoming whole. America is helping everybody in the material field; but, the time has come for America to help the whole world with spirituality also."
- Sha-Na-Na: [singing] Bah-bah-bah-bah, bah-bah-bah-bah, Bah-bah-bah-bah, bah-bah-bah-bah, at the hop! Well, you can rock it you can roll it, You can stop and you can stroll it at the hop...
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