Rock Hall Celebrates 40th Anniversary of Woodstock with New Exhibit

CLEVELAND (June 23, 2009) – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will celebrate four decades of the influence of one of the most significant eras in rock and roll with its newest exhibit WOODSTOCK: The 40th Anniversary. The exhibit will open July 3, 2009, in the Museum’s Ahmet M. Ertegun Main Exhibit Hall, and run through November 29, 2009.

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was billed as three days of peace and music. Over the course of a weekend—August 15 to 17, 1969—it defined a generation, landmarked an era and validated the ethos of a movement.  The weekend hosted performances from an unprecedented array of artists, including Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, the Band, Santana, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly and the Family Stone and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, along with Joe Cocker, Arlo Guthrie, Johnny Winter, Joan Baez and Richie Havens.

This exhibit tells the story of the festival, utilizing a vast array of artifacts from Woodstock executive producer Michael Lang and many of the artists who appeared at the festival.

Featured collections pieces include:

• Michael Lang Vest
Michael Lang, the co-founder and producer of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, designed and wore this vest during the month prior to the Woodstock festival and during the festival itself.

• John Sebastian Tie-Died Cape and Jacket
In 1968, John Sebastian left the Lovin’ Spoonful and embarked on a solo career. His five-song Woodstock set took place on Saturday afternoon, August 16. Sebastian wore this jacket for his performance.

• Press Release
This press release addressed concerns regarding security when the festival was still scheduled to take place in Wallkill. It notes, “Woodstock does not figure on gate crashers.”

• Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young Performance Contract
The trio of Crosby, Stills and Nash formed in July 1968. Following the release of their debut album, Stills’ former Buffalo Springfield bandmate Neil Young joined. With a hit record under their belt, Woodstock was the quartet’s second-ever performance. Taking the stage at approximately 3 a.m., Crosby, Stills and Nash performed a 10-song acoustic set. Young, with bassist Greg Reeves and drummer Dallas Taylor, then joined them for a seven-song electric set.

• Original Handwritten Plan for the Woodstock Festival
This plan was handwritten by Michael Lang in February 1969. This plan shows the management and operations structure that Lang created for the festival.

• Letter from Apple Corps Ltd. to Michael Lang
The Beatles’ company, Apple Corps, offered two Apple Records artists—James Taylor and Billy Preston—to perform at Woodstock. They also offered the Plastic Ono Band, which was described as “a series of plastic cylinders incorporated around a stereo sound system.” None of the acts appeared at Woodstock.

Michael Lang had produced the Miami Pop Festival in 1967, and he envisioned an event that would attract 300,000 to upstate New York. The area near Woodstock was chosen because it had garnered a reputation as a bucolic haven for the counterculture, but the festival was never meant to be in the town itself. Lang and his partners—Artie Kornfield, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman—had settled on a farm owned by Howard Mills near the town of Wallkill in Orange County as the site. Even though it was only 50 miles from New York City, Wallkill was a conservative town, and the town fathers immediately objected. With tickets already on sale, the town council denied Lang and his partners the necessary permits a month before the event. Another location was soon found in the Village of White Lake, near the town of Bethel in Sullivan County. Max Yasgur, a dairy farmer whose land formed a natural amphitheater, leased his property, and the entire operation relocated.

The Woodstock project was massive. Organizers had to make provisions for security, portable lavatories, camping sites, medical facilities, staging, sound, lights and food and water for a medium-sized city. The art fair portion of the festival took place in a village within the grounds. Although ticket sales were strong, no one involved anticipated the crowds that attempted to descend on the site. Nearly 500,000 attended the show, and another 1.5 million were stalled in their attempts by the scale of the crowds. The New York State Thruway was shut down.

Nevertheless, the main focus of the attendees was the entertainment. The lineup represented the best of the era. Despite challenging technical conditions, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and numerous other artists delivered career-defining performances. Woodstock lived on for those who didn’t, or couldn’t, attend through a feature-length movie and two soundtrack albums, which propelled the careers of Ten Years After, Richie Havens, Joe Cocker and Sha Na Na, among others.

After it was over, in spite of overwhelming odds and inconveniences, what remained was three days of genuine peace, music and love, and that message has lasted until this day.
Along with the WOODSTOCK: The 40th Anniversary Exhibit, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will also celebrate the anniversary of Woodstock with a weekend long series of events from August 22-24. Please visit http://www.rockhall.com/calendar for details on this event as they are announced.

About the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is the nonprofit organization that exists to educate visitors, fans and scholars from around the world about the history and continuing significance of rock and roll music. It carries out this mission both through its operation of a world-class museum that collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets this art form and through its library and archives as well as its educational programs.

The Museum is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. On Wednesdays (and Saturdays through Labor Day), the Museum is open until 9 p.m. Museum admission is $22 for adults, $18 for adult residents of Greater Cleveland, $17 for seniors (65+), $13 for youth (9-12), children under 8 and Museum Members are always free, for information or to join the membership program call 216. 515.8425. For general inquiries, please call 216.781.ROCK or visit http://www.rockhall.com.  The Museum is generously funded by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

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