Celebrating Woodstock 40 years On

Woodstock, the event billed by promoters as ‘An Aquarian Exposition’, promised ‘3 days of peace and music’.

In a time of war, it was a counter-cultural statement by a dissatisfied young generation. According to legend, goodwill reigned as food was shared among festival-goers, babies were born, and not a punch was thrown.

But beneath the folklore, there was also a darker side, with some artists so intoxicated they could hardly perform, and drug-taking festival-goers suffering the effects of ‘bad-acid’.

Steve Turner is a writer, poet, and rock historian from the UK, who was a teenager at the time of the Woodstock festival. He joined Sheridan Voysey at Open House to talk about this historical cultural event.