Music festivals are a cultural milestone of the human race. They are a collection of ideas and expression, melding into a unified spirit aimed towards change or revolution. That was the goal of Woodstock in 1969, an idealistic portrait of counterculture. It was then replicated in a similar fashion in 1994. The promoters of the latter program, specifically John Scher, went for the hat trick in 1999. Unfortunately, the tenets that made the original Woodstock, arguably the most famous music festival of its time, so attractive were not to be found thirty years later. Instead of peace, love, and unity symbolized by a community of cohesion, the enduring legacy of Woodstock ‘99 is dark cloud of animalistic ruin, sexual abuse, and greed. It started with confidence and ended in literal flames.
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That is the thread running through the documentary Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage directed by Garret Price, currently streaming on HBO Max. The documentary isn’t perfectly executed, as it does wobble back-and-forth with which story thread it wants to put front and center. But it is magnetic. There’s something captivating about watching a train wreck unfold. I can clearly remember when this three-day festival was being held. I was only 13-years-old, influenced daily by doses of MTV. Woodstock ‘99 seemed like the greatest show on Earth with its lineup and marketing. The network itself had a huge hand in promoting the festival, held at the closed Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York, approximately 100 miles from the site of the original festival. Talking heads from MTV such as Kurt Loder and Carson Daly were on-site to give play-by-play coverage of the event which boasted over 100 acts, many of which were current residents of both MTV and the Billboard charts.
Another MTV veteran, Dave Holmes, is among the many members of the press who are interviewed throughout the doc. Price also sits with various festival attendees and artists, each talking about their perspective of how quickly things went off the rails, as soon as 4 hours into the first day. The narrative quickly dives into two threads: the ill-equipped and mismanagement of the festival crew, and how that lack of accountability enabled so much disgusting behavior of the patrons attending. As I said, the beats are shaky as you try to decide for yourself who was right and who was wrong at the end.
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Price looks to answer the hard questions, though. I respect the path he chose to dive headfirst into, how quickly poor planning equals poor execution. The idealistic view the promoters had that once the festival begins “everything will fix itself” was blown wide open. The crucial touchpoints were the lackadaisical security protocols, the flexible morals of many of the staff allowed drugs and booze to slide for a price, but didn’t allow personal food or water to be brought in. By day three, the cost for water was criminal, coming in at $4 a bottle. The waste services never caught up to the demand of approximately 220,000 attendees, leading to mass leakage. This was 1999, and without cell phones, staying in contact with your party was a challenge. After splitting up, many attendees didn’t see their friends for hours or days. One particular group of friends never met up again. This was in late July, and it was extremely hot. Many of the emergency medical services dealt with dehydration and overheating. In total, there were only 10,000 staff members to handle and care for the entire festival. Simply, too much work, not enough hands.
These worsening conditions led to a spiraling tribal behavior that afflicted many young men at the festival. On more than one occasion, archive footage shows attendees reference Lord of the Flies as to what has become of the festival. But are the conditions entirely to blame? Promoter John Scher argues not. He maintains it was rowdy acts inciting the crowd to be destructive. Acts such as Limp Bizkit and Rage Against the Machine were blamed for being catalysts for the wrecking of Woodstock edifices and instigating obscene behavior. Then again, Scher partially blames the women for dressing down as to why many became sexually assaulted. His position doesn’t surprise me in the least, however. In many clips from press coverage events during Woodstock ‘99, he doesn’t respond confidently or responsibly when the press grills him about the ongoing circus his little festival has become.
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While the many issues presented at surface level as the main problems, Price digs further into existential territory. Woodstock ‘69 was about coming together for a cause bigger than the individual. The problem with the budding Generation Xers is that they didn’t have anything to truly be angry about or to rebel against. The root of what Woodstock stood for didn’t exist in peace-time, pre-9/11 1999 America. The average concert-goer was a white male in his early 20s, young men still looking for their own identity and finding a space where they felt purpose. This precarious path had been examined just a few months prior in the wake of the Columbine school shooting. The speculation from some of the interviews is that toxic masculinity had nowhere to put itself or be held in check. Therefore, the perfect storm that brewed inside the grounds of Woodstock ‘99 led to inevitable destruction of property and exploitation of women. At the end of the documentary, some statistics fly on the screen: three deaths and quite a handful of sexual assaults, with speculation that even more took place. Being sexually assaulted bears a stigma now in 2021, but was even worse in 1999. Thankfully, Liz Polay-Wettengel, an attendee interviewed for the doc, stood up an organization called “fanseverywhere.org” to be a haven for support for those who were assaulted but have never come forward.
I feel Price and HBO attempted to be as objective as they could here, as some stories just tell themselves. However, some detractors might look at this documentary as an attack by the “woke,” calling it unfair to hold these people accountable decades later. I respectfully disagree. Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage showcases what toxic masculinity can morph into if the conditions allow it. The revelation of character filmed here is something to be studied, and a painful reminder that we have the ability to devolve to our base instincts and mob pressure within 72 hours. But it’s not my place to tell a viewer how they should interpret what they find here. Only that it happened, and it couldn’t edge further away from peace and love if it tried.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual abuse, free and confidential support is available 24/7 through the National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-HOPE and RAINN.org.
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