Woodstock 99

July 25, 2019 12:17 PM

Woodstock '99 Was a Violent Disaster That Predicted America's Future The well-documented, pervasive misogyny of Woodstock '99 is more relevant to America in 2019 than the "free love" politics of its original iteration.
posted by josher71 (25 comments total)

from article: “Sadly, the well-documented, pervasive misogyny of Woodstock '99 feels like a more relevant antecedent to America in 2019 than the “free love” politics of the original fest. (Even if free love as a concept was entirely illusory, with built-in power imbalances that allowed men to do what they liked under the auspices of an open mind, our nostalgic delusions about its success remain.)”

That is a very salient parenthetical there; I was going to say something about the "politics of the original iteration," but this says it better than I could.

Interesting article. Thanks, josher71.
posted by koeselitz at 12:24 PM on July 25, 2019 [7 favorites]

There's a Woodstock '99 podcast from Steven Hyden, 'Break Stuff,' which sounds interesting (but I haven't listened to it, because I'm a cheapskate (if you are also a cheapskate, The Ringer has text excerpts)), and another I just learned about, Podcast 99, that looks like it is.. also a podcast about Woodstock '99.
posted by box at 12:27 PM on July 25, 2019

2 people died at Woodstock ‘69
Nobody died at Woodstock ‘94
3 people died at Woodstock ‘99
posted by Huffy Puffy at 12:29 PM on July 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

"Reasons ranging from the heat, lack of grass, overflowing toilets, and uncollected trash to the overpriced ($4 a bottle)..."

Fear The Grateful Dead.

"the irresponsible encouragement of Insane Clown Posse, Red Hot Chili Peppers..."

Hey-Ho. my rose colored monocle.
posted by clavdivs at 12:36 PM on July 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

I graduated high school in 99 and thanks to social media I can see all of the horrifying guys who said awful ugly things to me, aggressively sexually advanced on me, and had "slap a ho" stickers on their trucks that they drive recklessly in, while blaring songs that promote violence and rape, now taking "cute" photos with their wives and kids in fields wearing matching outfits. i actually asked a friend last week, "do you think C asks his wife to "suck his f@#$%^& dick you f@#$%^& b@#$%" while they put up the Christmas tree? Those were some rough years.
posted by lextex at 12:48 PM on July 25, 2019 [59 favorites]

2 people died at Woodstock ‘69
Nobody died at Woodstock ‘94
3 people died at Woodstock ‘99

To be fair, one person died at the first Woodstock by getting run over by a tractor. Which could happen at any open-air music festival, when you think about it.

I'm looking at you, Lollapalooza
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:49 PM on July 25, 2019 [3 favorites]

i actually asked a friend last week, "do you think C asks his wife to "suck his f@#$%^& dick you f@#$%^& b@#$%" while they put up the Christmas tree?

i graduated from high school in '99 too and i know the type of dude you are talking about and yeah, sadly i think they are still talking like that to their wives (and whoever they're cheating on their wives with). a quick look at the kavanaugh confirmation tells us that you can put a suit (or judge's robe) and a few decades on it, but that doesn't change what's underneath.
posted by wibari at 1:20 PM on July 25, 2019 [14 favorites]

How many were sexually assaulted? Deaths are not the only harms these lawless festivals generate, seriously.
posted by agregoli at 1:41 PM on July 25, 2019 [6 favorites]

Oh, definitely. Just trying to highlight that Woodstock ‘69 wasn’t some sort of panacea.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 1:59 PM on July 25, 2019

Fortunately, sensible folks have correctly discerned the half-assitude of attempts to hold Woodstock '19.

Woodstock 50’s Permit Denial Heap Keeps Growing
posted by zamboni at 2:19 PM on July 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

I went to '94, went with a friend I had crushed out on in high school. It was ok, definitely a letdown from the insane expectations of the original. The huge thing in '94 was the "mud people." Rained as we were arriving. Mud everywhere, pretty gross. Lots of psychedelics, but nothing hard. In retrospect, especially after the '99 debacle, it's surprising things were so chill. The situation was definitely anarchy, especially with so many more people arriving than expected. I ended up having to carry my friend on my back from one of the aid stations back to the tent, who was tripping and missing a contact. Nothing happened, we went home and never spoke to one another again.

I liked the crazy experience of going there, but the performances were so-so, pretty corporate approach to the two stages, and I was too much of an introvert to get into much trouble there. Good sets from Green Day, Bob Dylan, Primus, RHCP, and Peter Gabriel. Blues Traveler did a pretty great harmonica cover of Hendrix's version of the national anthem the first day, a beautiful sunset overhead. I skipped all the great rave stuff, didn't get into electronica until '95 with the rise of jungle.

Nothing about that festival felt like a generational coming together. By 1994, most of the lustre had rubbed off of both grunge and alternative. Shannon Hoon was high as a kite for their set. Watching Pornos for Pyros, I was struck at how boring Farrell's luridness had become.

When I saw it was happening again in '99, I had no interest in going - it seemed like even more of a cash-in move than '94. I had graduated and moved to Seattle by that time. I looked up my friend on the webs. She'd gone off the grid, only one entry showing a grad school paper she'd written. I've never found her since.
posted by SoundInhabitant at 2:28 PM on July 25, 2019 [11 favorites]

I went to no Woodstock (I used to joke that I was the only five-year-old in the country who didn't go to '69), and WRT the would-be successors, Henry Rollins was probably right when he said, on stage at '94, that it was all about the hippies who were too stoned to make any money back in the day trying to make money off the legend.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:43 PM on July 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

"Reasons ranging from the heat, lack of grass, overflowing toilets, and uncollected trash to the overpriced ($4 a bottle)..."

From Wikipedia:

The concert was performed at the former Griffiss Air Force Base, a Superfund site.

I found the root-cause of this issue.
posted by mikelieman at 3:21 PM on July 25, 2019 [5 favorites]

I remember going to Coachella in 99, and the second night when Rage Against The Machine went off there was a giant riot where a $4 a bottle water stand was destroyed and set on fire. There was no free water ANYWHERE! Then Coachella got sued and so at subsequent ones they had one garden hose hooked up behind a tent at the perimeter where you could refill a bottle.
posted by Catblack at 4:18 PM on July 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

I was at '99. I remember the portajohns were in a sea of mud and piss, acres wide.

But more strongly I remember what it felt like when RATM started on Killing In The Name. I'm a woman, and standing in that crowd I felt a sudden, real terror. The thousands of men around me were Losing Their Minds. My lizard brain had never screamed DANGER that loudly before.

(I did buy a nice ring that I managed to hold onto until last year. So that's something!)
posted by kinsey at 4:28 PM on July 25, 2019 [9 favorites]

In 99 I was at the Phish festival in Oswego NY, where one could survive on $1 grilled cheeses and waters (there were also provided potable water buffalos, but they ain't ice cold right out of a hippie's ice chest strapped to a skateboard). There's a way to do music festivals that are vaguely humane.

Maybe the arc of history just curves dumb.
Indeed.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:57 PM on July 25, 2019

I wish I could find footage of Ed the Sock and Sook Yin Lee of MuchMusic taking shelter in a trailer during the riot (one of the riots?). "Ed" was doing his best to stay in character, but Lee seemed legitimately freaked out and you could hear constant yelling and stuff being thrown against the side of the trailer. I'm also pretty sure I remember seeing Ed trying to interview Willie Nelson before everything hit the fan, and Willie was hilariously not into it.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:17 PM on July 25, 2019 [5 favorites]

I always loved that Joni Mitchell wasn't there - I think her manager had persuaded her it was better to do a TV show that weekend
posted by thelonius at 5:19 PM on July 25, 2019

(I mean in '69, although I don't think she was at any of the others either)
posted by thelonius at 5:20 PM on July 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

destructive, arguably nihilistic, urge

I feel a bit attacked by this, tbh.

#notallnihilists
posted by klanawa at 5:24 PM on July 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

Some attendees' memories of the festival are positive; if the violence that surrounds you doesn’t affect you, empathy is a choice and, worse, kind of a hassle.

I wish I had summed up the zeitgeist of the 45 era this perfectly.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:53 PM on July 25, 2019 [11 favorites]

Ugh. They're now attempting to bring this stupidity to Columbia, Maryland, which they're describing as "Washington," in the grand manner of how outsiders fail to understand anything about local geography, and as much as I'm a giddy fan of huge, hilarious failures and mild humiliation for Columbia, which trades on Michael Chandon because that's all they've got, nothing good ever came from a mob and nostalgia is for idiots who've failed at the rest of their lives, so it would bring mixed feelings.

Do I surrender to my schadenfreude?

Hmm.
posted by sonascope at 5:13 AM on July 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

They're now attempting to bring this stupidity to Columbia, Maryland, which they're describing as "Washington,"

At least they're proposing Merriweather Post Pavilion, which is a well-established concert venue that knows how to host events like this. It's reasonable to call it a "DC Area" venue.
posted by toxic at 11:22 AM on July 26, 2019

I'm just glad I live ten minutes drive from there, so that when the rioting starts, I can get to the mall in time to loot the living fuck out of the Clarks store before we burn that mother down. I've always desperately wanted to riot.
posted by sonascope at 2:33 PM on July 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

Woodstock 50 is officially dead.
posted by peeedro at 12:15 PM on July 31, 2019