Don't Bum Me Out, Man, I'm Live-Blogging Woodstock

How different would the Woodstock Festival have been if we'd had today's communications technologies 40 years ago? It's hard to imagine -- and not because "if you remember the '60s, you weren't there!" I was there.

I was 17, stumbling around Yasgur's farm and continually losing my buddy amid 350,000 other buddies. Though fairly sober (I'd stayed away from the brown acid), it was still scary to keep getting separated. Imagine how groovy if we had cell phones and tweets -- friend-finders even in the hugest of crowds slogging through the thickest of mud.

No one felt more completely abandoned than the young and hip who couldn't get to the mother of all rockfests. Ask my ex-wife, then 14 and stuck in Queens because her mom refused to let her go. With today's technocopia, she would've been totally plugged in, following the event song by song through twitter, live blogposts and video circulating across a million cell phones and computer screens faster than you can say "Look, Kramer is using the N-word onstage!"

GOOD NEWS: Santana's astounding performance goes instantly viral.
BAD NEWS: So does the chant of blissed-out hippies yelling, "NO RAIN, NO RAIN."

GOOD NEWS: Online sales smoothly distribute 350,000 tickets in hours.
BAD NEWS: Out of luck are those who show up ticketless expecting to walk in free over the fence (as I did).

GOOD NEWS: Cell-phone warnings about the brown acid avert dozens of bummers.
BAD NEWS: Paranoia over missing phones and dodgy reception causes dozens of bummers.

GOOD NEWS: Cell-phones eliminate the need for announcements from the stage about missing little sisters.
BAD NEWS: It's impossible to ditch little sisters and little brothers.

GOOD NEWS: Handheld devices and cells direct people to Port-O-Sans toilets without long lines.
BAD NEWS: No media technology can do anything about the smell.

GOOD NEWS: Without needing to wait 2 hours to get at limited pay phones, young people have no excuse to not call their parents.
BAD NEWS: Young people have no excuse to not call their parents.

GOOD NEWS: Accurate blogposts from the scene tell the world -- in real time -- about an amazingly beautiful, peaceful event.
BAD NEWS: We miss out on mainstream media caricatures, like the New York Times editorial -- "Nightmare in the Catskills" -- scorning "maddened youths" and asking: "What kind of culture is it that can produce so colossal a mess?"

GOOD NEWS: So much live video streams out of the festival that millions who aren't there see the riveting performances instantly.
BAD NEWS: Millions get these performances on handhelds through tiny screens and speakers.
WORSE NEWS: Few turn out later to see the path-breaking "Woodstock" documentary full-screen, fully-loaded in theaters.

GOOD NEWS: Pictures of two beautiful babies born at Woodstock that weekend (with birth info) spread warmth across a million screens.
BAD NEWS: Decades later, the two star in an obnoxious reality show: "Woodstock Babies."

Jeff Cohen lives near the village of Woodstock, NY, and directs the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College.

Comments

[LaylaD]

Oh forgot to mention....a few years later a much larger festival took place in Watkins Glen NY where 650,000 showed up to catch the Almond Brothers, the Band and the Greatful Dead...even with 650,000 folks -- it was peaceful and loving -- just people getting together once again to enjoy the outdoors, great music and some lovin.

I truly miss those days.

[LaylaD]

Sorry Jeff...Woodstock would never had happened as smoothly as it did if technology was involved. The beauty of this most amazing event was word of mouth and true blue music lovers gathering together for 3 days of fun, peace and music. Yes the drugs helped and the brown acid was bad...but there was plenty of purple sunshine and window pane that made the 3 days memorable. I enjoyed the mushrooms! Woodstock was one of its kind -- top performers, mellow flowerchilds, freedom to be and to enjoy with out any authority...in today's world this is virtually unknown. So for those who missed it -- check out the original movie, for those who were lucky enough to be there -- we have great memories of a time and space that no longer exits. A time to be free & know true peace & love...How sad for the newer generations that will never experience music at its best.

[LeonBNJ]

You could never have a 'Woodstock' today. Recently there was a large outside 3 day series of concerts 'All Points West" held at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ, Yes the cell phones services were jammed and there were problems with rain, but there was access to mass transit, performers getting paid, as far as I know no arrests, plenty of good rock and related music by international and local groups, no mass use of illegal drugs or abuse of alcohol. The uncontolled and spontainous situation of Woodstock while wonderful in some respects was something that cannot be repeated as times have changed.

[oldandintheway1]

If Woodstock happened today..BAD NEWS...None of the groups that performed then would perform now..American Idol would see to it that we had LOTS of Mediocre talent to perfom...

[nofanofheliumman]

1sparrow WTF are you talking about? Also, it's "nofanofheliumman". I will let you guess who that "man" is. The class of the masses is now and this young class is in trouble. If you are from the Woodstock era and can observe, you might know what I mean.

BTW, the only assassination I remember at a festival back then happened at Altamont. That festival was doomed from the moment of it conception. Today's version of Blackwater would have been a better choice for security. I would not have hovered over that thing in a helicopter.

[1sparrow]

nofanof helium -- you buggers in atlanta did not get asassinated. they did not influence the class of the masses.

[mimi85]

Thank goodness there wasn't any so-called social networks. I think they're actually anti-social, but that's another conversation. Sort of like UN-reality shows.

Woodstock was fun, but the Monterey Pop Festival was the best!

[nofanofheliumman]

I did not attend Woodstock but attended the Atlanta Pop Festival about 5 weeks earlier. There were about 150,000 people at Atlanta (not an official estimate and I have heard even higher, but it was well over 100,000).

Woodstock and its performing participants were announced at this festival and I am certain that had something to do with the amount of people in New York. I love the Woodstock lore and know one of the performers personally. He lives near the area now.

But since I had already seen Jimi Hendrix and The Doors elsewhere as well as the Jefferson Airplane and many others (and some of the same were in Atlanta--Janis Joplin being one), I am glad I didn't suffer through Woodstock. To my knowledge there was no bad acid in Atlanta--mine was nice sweet orange sunshine.

Plenty of heat and fire hoses for the Fourth of July weather but otherwise I look back on it as the "Forgotten Festival of the Sixties." It was my Woodstock. No food shortages; no serious water shortages. Great bands, great music, lots of fun.

[GeeBee]

I am so glad Woodstock took place back then. It was enough of a self-indulgent me-fest as it was, without all those people blathering on the ultimate look-at-me­-I'm-the-c­enter-of-t­he-univers­e tool, Twitter.

[leftionthenews]

GOOD NEWS (for some, anyway): Cell-phone picture of naked-breasted women get instantly distributed to millions of people all over the world.
BAD NEWS: Thousands of cell-phone photographers prosecuted as distributors of child pornography as one of the women is discovered to be under age.

GOOD NEWS: Attendees can text their song requests from their smartphones
BAD NEWS: Attendees miss many of the performances while listening to music on their smartphones, then fall into despair when their phones go dead after a day and they realize there's no electricity available to plug in their chargers.

Great concept, Jeff.

[RevBookburn]

This was funny, trying to tie together the festival with the technology of today. The music and state of the counter-culture of Woodstock were at an unprecedented high. While it is pointless to try to recreate the festival, it is worthwhile to go beneath the myths and cynicism of the media. Woodstock Nation by Abbie Hoffman, and Woodstock Consensus by Rex Weiner are essential for refleting on Woodstock, in addition to the music. Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta

[1sparrow]

i thought santana was under rated .. i think they tried to compare carlos santana with hendrix.. COME ON NOW... maybe thats what helped carlos live to today. carlos is good at talking. i bet he knows a little bit about karma. i think karma will squash all the evil, that killed hendrix an janis and morrison. and if you ever saw credence clearwater revival at woodstock, it is possible to play straight 3 minute songs. if you don't get me you may live a long time.

[jackwaddington]

The Hippie movement might return. Next time it will not be "flower power" but feelingful power. Drugs won't precipitate it; the total collapse of economics and money will. Then Woodstock will look minor by comparison. It will spread throughout the word ... fast: then we will realize "we are all one".

[Paw1]

More likely it will be the separatist movement. Millions of angry taxpayers (and former taxpayers, since real unemployment is well over 20% in America today) fed up with paying into a system that doesn't care for them or about them. Income inequality is at record highs. We are officially a banana republic. This will have nothing to do with politics, as all politicians are equally worthless. What we see today is just the tip of the iceberg. As jobs continue to disappear and corporate profits continue to rise, the chickens will eventually come home to roost.

[DevonTexas]

For one precious moment in time, we were all one. Far out man! Groovey!

[mvonkroeker]

Hmmm.... I wonder if any one of those acid induced hippies realized, on that day, that this generation would go on to bankrupt and sell out America, and it's citizens, to the highest bidder??? Talk about bad acid trip, man!! No wait--- THEY'RE STILL HAVING THAT BAD ACID TRIP, MAN!!!!!!!!!

[writerjohnny]

Obviously a member of the Twitter generation. Britney, Paris, Perez, reality shows and crystal meth. Seriously I need some acid immediately to deal with you.