50 things you didn’t know about Woodstock on its 50th anniversary year

Melanie Safka, who performs under the name Melanie, was only 22 when she performed at Woodstock. Relatively unknown at the time, her performance made her a star. But she was so terrified during her performance that she recalls an “out-of-body experience,” though without taking any drugs. “I was completely alone, and so terrified. I was certain this was my doom and I left my body.”

The 1970 documentary film, Woodstock, directed by Michael Wadleigh, was Martin Scorsese’s launching pad as a filmmaker. Having been hired as an assistant director, he was given the opportunity to do some editing work on the 120 hours of footage that had been taken. “I went to Woodstock as a schlep, and I came back as a schlep, but now I’m an assistant editor,” he’s quoted as having said in the aftermath.

“Since 1969, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s performance…has been glaringly absent from all documents about the festival – including the Academy Award-winning documentary the following year,” wrote Billboard magazine. “We weren’t in the movie on purpose,” Fogerty tells Billboard, because they didn’t like the music clip the documentarians had chosen to represent their performance.

That’s not a typo. There were “no more than a dozen police officers to keep an eye on 500,000 people,” notes History.

Political activist, “hippie icon, flower geezer, temple of accumulated error,” and founder of California’s Hog Farm commune, Wavy Gravy (born Hugh Romney) was flown in by Woodstock’s organisers to provide security, which consisted of unorthodox but largely amusing tactics like saying “please” and threatening to throw cream pies at unruly audience members.

Not only did Wavy Gravy’s Please Force provide (some semblance of) security, they also set up a playground for children. Yes, there were children at Woodstock, and it’s possible that overall, they were better behaved than most of the adults.

A total of 32 acts performed, according to Biography, which lists all and names the top acts as:

Havens

Guthrie

Joan Baez

Santana

Grateful Dead

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Janis Joplin

The Who

Jefferson Airplane

Joe Cocker

Blood, Sweat and Tears,

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Hendrix

In addition to Bob Dylan, the following acts were among those notably absent:

Jethro Tull

The Doors

Joni Mitchell, because her then-manager, David Geffen, had her booked on The Dick Cavett Show for Tuesday, August 19 and was afraid the traffic would keep her from getting back in time.

John Lennon, who reportedly had immigration issues

Led Zeppelin

The Moody Blues as they were performing in Paris that weekend

Chicago

The Byrds

Iron Butterfly was scheduled to appear but experienced airport delays

The Rolling Stones, as Mick Jagger was in Australia filming the movie Ned Kelly.

Hendrix was paid $18,000 for appearing at Woodstock, making him the highest-paid performer there. The next in line were:

Blood, Sweat and Tears at $15,000

Joan Baez at $10,000

Creedence Clearwater Revival at $10,000

The Band, Janis Joplin, and Jefferson Airplane, at $7,500 each

Quill was paid $375 for performing. Others at the bottom of the Woodstock pay scale include:

Santana at $750

Sha Na Na at $700

Keef Hartley at $500