Woodstock - Amanda Palazzo
When reading the blog questions in preparation for watching Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music, I already had a preconceived notion as to how the townspeople would react to the Woodstock Festival and those who attended it. I was expecting most of the townspeople to feel they were being invaded by a swarm of dirty hippies (which they were)…I just expected them to feel less than favorable about this. I was quite surprised, therefore, to hear the nearly overwhelmingly positive response from the locals. Almost everyone interviewed had nice things to say about the concertgoers, calling them “lovely children” and stating that they were polite and friendly. The locals were also very accommodating, banding together as a community and contributing food to feed the attendees. Even one old couple, who despite being a bit cantankerous, was willing to let the kids have some water and use the phone (had it actually worked). The concert was also great for the local economy, as the influx of people attending provided unfathomable new business opportunities.
There were only a few dissenting townspeople opposed to the festival and those attending. Some, like the old couple previously mentioned, were upset because the traffic disallowed the truck, used to collect the milk from the farm, from getting through. Another man was disgusted because he felt it wrong that young people were out smoking pot and sleeping in the fields.
After seeing the mountains of garbage strewn across the fields, I was quite surprised the Max Yasgur, the farmer who owned the land in which the concert was held, had such a laissez-faire attitude about the whole thing. The stereotypical farmer is generally quite politically and morally conservative, so it was rather novel to hear Yasgur talk about how “you people have proven something to the world…that a bunch of kids can get together and have three days of fun and music, and only three days of fun and music.” He was proud of the peaceful nature of the concert and supportive of the young people who made it happen.