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Hippies advocated nonviolence and love, a popular phrase being “Make love, not war,” for which they were sometimes called “flower children.”

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Hippies advocated nonviolence and love, a popular phrase being “Make love, not war,” for which they were sometimes called “flower children.”

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Hippie, member, during the 1960s and 1970s, of a countercultural movement that rejected the mores of mainstream American life.

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Hippie, member, during the 1960s and 1970s, of a countercultural movement that rejected the mores of mainstream American life.

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They felt alienated from middle-class society, which they saw as dominated by materialism and repression. Hippies developed their own distinctive lifestyle, whereby they constructed a sense of marginality 

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They felt alienated from middle-class society, which they saw as dominated by materialism and repression. Hippies developed their own distinctive lifestyle, whereby they constructed a sense of marginality 

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Hippies often practiced open sexual relationships and lived in various types of family groups

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Hippies often practiced open sexual relationships and lived in various types of family groups

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Woodstock 1969: 10 things you didn’t know about the legendary festival

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Woodstock 1969: 10 things you didn’t know about the legendary festival

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Like Glastonbury, Woodstock was held on a dairy farm

It’s estimated that more than 400,000 people attended Woodstock festival, which took place between Friday 15 and Monday 18 August 1969. That’s the size of two Glastonburies. And the 1969 festival took place on farmer Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York state, in the same way that Michael Eavis opens his place of work in Somerset each June. Despite pleas to run the festival again in 1970, Yasgur went back to being a dairy farmer, selling the site in 1971. He died in February 1973.

The Beatles were invited to perform

The inevitable rumour at Woodstock was that the Fab Four were going to turn up and perform live in front of the hundreds of thousands of festival attendees, capping the decade that made them famous. As the figureheads of the counterculture, it seemed appropriate… but it didn’t happen, of course. The Fabs were actually in the studio in London putting the finishing touches to their Abbey Road album - and Paul MCartney spent Sunday recording a single for his protege Mary Hopkin.

The festival site was declared a disaster area

Woodstock started as a standard ticketed festival, but a late change of venue meant that fences and ticket booths weren’t ready for the start of the weekend, leading the organisers to declare it a free festival. Hundreds of thousands of people showed up and made their way onto the site, which was hit by rain and mud and a lack of food and drinking water.

Sullivan County declared the festival was a state of emergency and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller was so alarmed by the crowds, he planned to send the military in - but was talked out of it by organiser John Roberts.

32 artists performed across the weekend

The music kicked off just after 5pm on Friday evening with singer-songwriter Richie Havens, while The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, The Who and Jefferson Airplane performed on the Saturday.

Jimi Hendrix was the final artist to play… on Monday morning

By the time Hendrix took to the stage, half of the crowd had started their journey home, but he played for two hours anyway. Towards the end of his set, Jimi played his version of the patriotic American anthem The Star Spangled Banner - which the world took as an searing comment on US politics of the time. He then ripped into his hit Purple Haze and closed the festival with his trademark cover of Hey Joe.

Two people died during the festival

Incredibly, considering the number of people attending the festival, only two people were officially reported as dying at Woodstock. One was 18-year-old Richard Bieler, who was due to head off to Vietnam - his death is often attributed to a drug overdose, but Time magazine investigated that he could have had a heart problem brought on by hyperthermia.

The other death was sadly 17-year-old Raymond Mizsak, who was run over in his sleeping bag by a tractor collecting rubbish.

It’s claimed two babies were born… but nobody’s sure

Singer John Sebastian announced “some cat had a baby and it’s going to be far out”. Most reports about Woodstock claim that at least two babies were born over the weekend, but when the San Diego Tribune investigated in 2009, but at the time it couldn’t find a single person who reckoned their mother brought them into the world during the show.

The couple on the album cover and film poster are still together

This is nice - Nick and Bobbi Ercoline had only just started going out when photographer Burk Uzzle snapped them wrapped in a blanket. The memorable image was used to promote the film and LP of the event, and it’s sweet to know that the pair were married in 1971, had two kids and will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in 2021.

The lighting designer also introduced the acts

“Chip” Monck was the man who designed the lighting rig at the Monterey Pop Festival, alongside shows by The Rolling Stones and The Byrds at the Hollywood Bowl. He was paid $7.000 for ten weeks work to get Woodstock up and running, but the late change of venue caused a few problems - not least the fact that there was nobody around to actually introduce the artists on stage.

Monck was drafted in to make stage announcements, including the famous warning that “the brown acid that is circulating around us is not specifically too good. It's suggested that you do stay away from that”.

There was at least one monkey at Woodstock

Bizarrely, one of the photos taken at the festival shows a couple with their pet monkey - shades of Ross from Friends and Marcel. This seems cruel today, but this was 50 years ago and animal rights was in its infancy. Wonder if the monkey had a good time?

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They commonly sought spiritual guidance from sources outside the Judeo-Christian tradition, particularly Buddhism, Hinduism, and other Eastern religions, and sometimes in various combinations.

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They commonly sought spiritual guidance from sources outside the Judeo-Christian tradition, particularly Buddhism, Hinduism, and other Eastern religions, and sometimes in various combinations.

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One enduring image of the counterculture movement is that of “hippies,” who were mostly white, middle-class, young Americans. Many felt alienated from their parents’ lifestyles, which they viewed as too focused on material goods and consumerism. That tension drove a “generation gap” that became a hallmark of the 1960s. Hippies often let their hair grow long, and many men had facial hair. The title track of the musical Hair, first performed in 1967, captures this style with the lyrics:

My hair like Jesus wore it
Hallelujah, I adore it
Hallelujah, Mary loved her son,
Why don’t my mother love me?

Hippies wore colourful clothes and typically donned sandals. They eschewed regular jobs, many had vegetarian diets, and some engaged in “free love.” Hippies often traveled the country, sometimes in Volkswagen Microbuses, dubbed “hippie buses,” adorned with peace signs. One of their most famous slogans was “Make love, not war.”

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Rock music was an important part of the counterculture movement. Bands like the Grateful Dead—whose fans are known as “Deadheads”—had a strong influence on 1960s counterculture. The Beatles, the most influential band of the era, “helped make rock music a battering ram for the youth culture’s assault on the mainstream,” according to a New York Times article in 1975. The folk music icon Bob Dylan spoke for many alienated youth when in 1965 he sang, “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more.” Other artists and bands associated with the counterculture movement included Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane, the Velvet Underground and the Rolling Stones. A powerful counterculture song was “Almost Cut My Hair” (1970) by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. A song by the Who, “My Generation” (1965)—with its line “I hope I die before I get old”—practically became an anthem of 1960s youth. The era also produced rock musicals, including (in addition to Hair), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), and Jesus Christ Superstar (1971).

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shift in terminology from "beatnik" to "freak" and "hippie"

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shift in terminology from "beatnik" to "freak" and "hippie"

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colorful clothing, long hair, display of individuality

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colorful clothing, long hair, display of individuality

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Ken Kesey

Ken Babbs

Neal Cassady

Mountain Girl

Wavy Gravy

Paul Krassner

Stewart Brand

Del Close

Paul Foster

George Walker

and others