By far, the most controversial of the three Woodstock festivals, the thirtieth anniversary event occurred July 23-25, 1999. Known as Woodstock '99 , the festival was held at Griffiss Airforce base in upstate New York 's Mohawk Valley outside Rome, New York . Michael Lang and John Scher were the producers, along with Ossie Kilkenny , an Irish band manager. Lang's partners in Woodstock Ventures , John Roberts and Joel Rosenman , served as the licensors of the festival.
The site was planned with the best intentions. "Griffiss was well suited should it rain," Lang says, "and the logistics there were fantastic: hundreds of buildings to house our crews and staff; hundreds of acres for parking, camping, and performances; and easy access to the site."
Again, plans were made well in advance to organize the festival so that things would run smoothly; and ticket prices were set for $150 . A New York Times report on the preparations for Woodstock '99 was entitled "Woodstock Arrives and Mood Is Mellow." There were three stages - two for the big-name acts and one for emerging artists, more than 45 performances in total. Diverse artists were booked, including jam bands, classic rock, metal, pop, hip-hop, country, singer-songwriter, Latin rock, funk, world, soul, punk, thrash, electronica - and even swing, the '40s music that had been popularized again by groups like The [[Brian Setzer Orchestra ]]. Wavy Gravy was back to host the festival, and one concert goer told film maker Barbara Kopple , "It's a family tradition - everybody, my aunt, my mom, and my dad have all been to Woodstock."
There were some notable old-school performers at Woodstock '99 : The Godfather of Soul James Brown and eclectic country artist Willie Nelson , both of whom began their careers in the 1950s. Funk pioneers Parliament/Funkadelic also filled the stage with their huge ensemble of party-down performers. As for the audience, one young guy said to Kopple's film crew, "The mission is to have as much fun as possible and forget about life for a while." Part of that included moshing and crowd surfing, even during sets by jam bands like Dave Matthews . Most injuries at the festival occurred in the mosh pit, and later reports of rape surfaced, though no perpetrators were ever successfully prosecuted.
Unfortunately, it was an extremely hot weekend, and 200,000 people spread out over the concrete airstrips could not find shelter from the sun. This time, the rain was missed.
Things began peacefully, though. "There's so many different types of people here," one young woman told Kopple on camera. "Everybody has their own styles, whatever they want to do, and nobody cares, everybody's cool with it." Another festival goer exclaimed, "This is probably the biggest thing that will ever happen to us!"
"We're the re-generation of the generation of the '60s," said another. Kopple's 2001 film, My Generation, documented the festival and juxtaposed it with the original Woodstock and Woodstock '94 .
Reflections of 1969's Woodstock were also part of the '99 event, thanks to a multimedia tribute to Jimi Hendrix , displayed on a massive screen. In addition, some artists paid homage to their 1960s predecessors: Wyclef Jean did a version of " The Star Spangled Banner " as a nod to Hendrix, and Creed played The [[Doors ]]' " Roadhouse Blues " with Robby Krieger joining in. (Krieger was the only member of the Doors who attended Woodstock in '69.)
At 7 p.m. on the final evening, the Mayor of Rome and various county and state officials held a press conference to congratulate the producers on the well-organized event and to invite them back. A few hours later, though, as the festival was winding down with the Chili Peppers performing Hendrix's "Fire," an unruly mob in the back of the audience began lighting bonfires. Soon a group of about fifty or more kids, bent on provoking the crowd, began torching a line of supply trucks, then went through the concession stands, "liberating" whatever they could. The police came in to quell the melee.
Lang's theory on the chaos: " Maybe it was the times; young people were going through a period of feeling disenfranchised and frustrated at having little effect on the world they were about to inherit." Except for the unfortunate episodes of violence at the end, Lang was pleased with the earlier part of the weekend. "I thought most of it was a positive experience for everybody, although the last few hours on Sunday cast a shadow over everything."
