Meighan Byron's Woodstock entry
The documentary portrayed a huge cultural and generational gap between the “square” townspeople of Bethel, New York and the “hippies” who poured in from all over the country to see the event. What surprised me what that the hippies’ presence was welcomed. The impression was that the economy in and around Woodstock and Bethel was struggling and that people cheered on the hippies in order to make a buck. So maybe the local townspeople didn’t buy into the idea of peace, love and acid, but they tolerated their existence because they were “such nice young people.” There is no doubt that the reason many of them were so nice is
1. Their traditional upbringing in a more conservative American than we know it today
2. They were on drugs. A man even comments in the film that maybe the world would be a better place if everyone was on ‘dope’. I loved that he used the word dope. No one I know uses that word anymore for any drug.
There is no doubt that Woodstock was an event of historic cultural importance. After watching the documentary I was, the movie changed my impression of the time. I thought Woodstock was three days of sex, drugs, rock music, debauchery and indulgence. After watching the film and going through the readings, the musical festival was far from it. Supplies were low, too many people showed up, the military even had to step in because, from what the movie said, it had been declared a national disaster. Yet through all this turmoil and bad planning, half a million people remained calm, and riot free in a big open field in New York.