Photos Of Woodstock’s Greatest Rock Concert That People Are Seeing For The First Time!

Woodstock has morphed the way that people see rock concerts. Can you imagine if there never was a Woodstock? Well, it almost did not happen. Its intended venue, New York City, decided against it. So, they asked Max Yasgur, a farm owner, if they could pay him ten-thousand dollars to have their rock concert on his grounds.

You are not going to imagine what the last-minute venue changed ended up looking like, click Start Slideshow to find out…

With the last minute change of venue, the organizers of the event did not have the necessary time to prepare. So, with three day left before the festival, they decided to not complete the ticket booths or the fencing around the premises.

On the next slide you will see just what a concert with no booths or seating looks like!

Instead, they put all their money into building a great stage for the festival. People began to arrive a week before the start date, thousands at a time. So, event staff decided to make the concert free.

You won’t imagine the crowd that this FREE concert drew in! Click Next to see…

It was a massive crowd that caused horrible traffic. Some people decided to abandon their cars and walk to the event. The traffic made news, even as far as Manhattan, which gave updates on T.V. and radio. The traffic was so bad the Arlo Guthrie announced that the Thruway was going be backed-up for days, and he would not make the concert. However, he did.

However, he did and the mega crowd that showed up is unreal! See next slide for an image of the massive crowd…

With a cast of mega-star artists, people always wondered how much the bands cost. Jimi Hendrix was paid a total of $30,000. The cap was originally for $15,000, but they asked him to play two sections, which made his total higher. Blood, Sweat, and Tears cost $15,000 and Joan Baez price-tag was $10,000.

There were some other bands that made the set list too…you may have heard of them?

Click next to see the other bands…

Some of the other bands included: Canned Heat for the cost of $6,500, The Who who received $6,250, Richie Havens for $6,000, Alro Guthrie with a $5,000 price-tag, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young for a grand total of five grand.

Some famous artists got paid even less, you won’t believe how much Santana got paid! Click next to find out…

Some artists had even lower stipends. Mountain and Tim Hardin both made two grand each. Joe Cocker was given $1,375. Sweetwater was totaled at $1,250, and John B. Sebastian, Melanie, Santana, and Sha Na Na all made $1,000 or less each.

You won’t believe where festival goers sat to watch the shows! Click next to see…

At the time, some of these bands were unknown, but now many of them are legendary. These were some of the other bands and their price-tags. Ravi Shankar rolled in $4,500. Johnny Winter made $3,750. Ten Years After ended up with $3,250. Both Country Joe and the Fish and Grateful Dead made $2,500 each, and The Incredible String Band topped off with $2,250.

What an amazing experience it must have been to play in front of the largest audience ever? Money was not an issue like it is now to get bands together. Artists like Janis Joplin started to gain popularity, and was wanted at every festival. Here were some other pay rates: The Band, Janis Joplin, and Jefferson Airplane each made $7,500, and Sly and the Family Stone made $7,000 even.

Do you wonder how the set list was set-up? Well, Friday, August 15th, started from 5:07 p.m. to 7 p.m. with Richie Havens. Next, came Swami Satch from 7:10 to 7:20. Sweetwater followed from 7:30 to 8:10, and Bert Sommer next from 8:20 to 9:15. The next band of the night was Tim Hardin from 9:20 until 9:45 p.m.

In this photo, Jerry Garcia looks into the lens, as the guitar player of the band Grateful Dead. The concert continued with Ravi Shankar from 10 to 10:35 p.m. and Melanie from 10:50 p.m. to 11:20 p.m. Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez finished up the day, going until two in the morning.

Saturday continued on with Quill from 12:15 p.m. to 12:45, followed by Country Joe McDonald from 1 to 1:30. Santana took the stage at 2 and played until 2:45.