Social And Political Events Of 1969: The Woodstock Civil Rights Movement

On August 15, 1969, one of the most recent historical events took place. This event united music, social, and political issues all in one. From the event, itself to the changes it caused for the future to come. The Woodstock music festival was one of the most evolutionary events that set forth many presidents that shaped music and social views to come. This can be seen through the unity of the people, political factors that helped shape the music, and the examples that Woodstock set forth. In the 1960’s many social and political issues arose that caused turret or rampant emotions in the American people. Woodstock gave the people a way to escape society’s mindset of what Americans should be. By Woodstock being created, it gave

One artist, for example, Bob Dylan performed a song called, “The Times They Are-A Changing”, in this song Dylan is explaining the Vietnam War and how it affects Americans. One of the lines states that “There’s a battle outside/it’s Ragin’.” He’s saying that the war was vicious and awful. Another line comes back to the counterculture, “don’t criticize/what you can’t understand.” By saying this he means if you can’t understand someone’s way of life, you really have no right to judge them. Another influential artist being Jimi Hendrix when he closed out the festival with an electric guitar rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The performance included various techniques on his instrument, resulting in explosions and gunfire. Hendrix also used the honorary song “Taps” to emphasize the performance. The powerful mashup brought the crowd together in peace. Which was the main message of Woodstock. Jefferson Airplane’s song “White Rabbit” refers to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the song was one of the first to get away with drug references over the radio, most of the countercultural movement was doing drugs. This song led “hippies” to try different drugs as a way to socialize with one another. Santana was another artist who influenced people of the

Unfortunately, a teen got ran over by a tractor and killed and another died of a drug overdose. With close to half a million people at the festival, there wasn't enough first-aid tents and bathroom facilities to accommodate everyone, people described the atmosphere chaotic and unorganized. Shortage of food was also a problem for the festival attendees. Of course, there were concession stands where food and drinks were sold, but all food items were sold out by Saturday. Some people would stumble on fruits or random snacks and shared with all they could. This has allowed for festivals today to evolve from the mishaps that occurred at this festival. Today, there are multiple things that make modern festivals safe and secured. Festivals such as Vans Warped Tour, Coachella, Carolina Rebellion, and SXSW, have many elements that make festivals safe and secured by implementing safety regulation that allows festival goers to have a fun time without any serious or unfortunate events happening. The main issue with Woodstock was the weather conditions, another part of that is that the stage techs and stage managers let the performers play in the rain with unsafe