Woodstock is widely regarded as one of the most important events in music history. The festival, which took place in August 1969, drew about half a million people and was headlined by now-legendary acts like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, Joe Cocker, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Many of the sets have since gone on to not only become classic moments in those artists’ respective careers, but also representative snapshots of America’s counterculture during that time.

It makes you wonder, then, how much a concert of that magnitude and influence would cost, right? As we saw last year, many of today’s biggest artists easily rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars per event. For example: Bob Dylan has a price tag range of $150-200K; Adele is worth $750K; Drake will set you back $300-500K; Arcade Fire can be bought for $150K; and Justin Timberlake’s gigantic booking fee of $1 million will easily put you in debt for decades to come. One would imagine that Woodstock’s illustrious lineup would cash in these kinds of big bucks (if not more!), but according to these archived documents, it wasn’t exactly the case.



As the monetary breakdown shows, Hendrix earned the most money from the festival, pulling in about $18,000. (For reference, that’s roughly $112,000 in 2015). Blood, Sweat and Tears ($15,000), Joan Baez ($10,000), Creedence Clearwater Revival ($10,000), and The Band ($7,500) rounded out the Top 5 earners. Other A-listers such as The Who and Joe Cocker took home $6,250 and $1,375, respectively. There was a lot of cash to go around, to be sure, but the event wasn’t as steep as some of today’s big-budget productions. Here’s one way to look at it: The in-demand deadmau5 is currently 2x more expensive to book than Hendrix was at his prime. Check out the full listing below.

1. Jimi Hendrix – $18,000

2. Blood, Sweat and Tears – $15,000

3. Joan Baez – $10,000

4. Creedence Clearwater Revival – $10,000

5. The Band – $7,500

6. Janis Joplin – $7,500

7. Jefferson Airplane – $7,500

8. Sly and the Family Stone – $7,000

9. Canned Heat – $6,500

10. The Who – $6,250

11. Richie Havens – $6,000

12. Arlo Guthrie – $5,000

13. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – $5,000

14. Ravi Shankar – $4,500

15. Johnny Winter – $3,750

16. Ten Years After – $3,250

17. Country Joe and the Fish – $2,500

18. Grateful Dead – $2,500

19. The Incredible String Band – $2,250

20. Mountain – $2,000

21. Tim Hardin – $2,000

22. Joe Cocker – $1,375

23. Sweetwater – $1,250

24. John B. Sebastian – $1,000

25. Melanie – $750

26. Santana – $750

27. Sha Na Na – $700

28. Keef Hartley – $500

29. Quill – $375

Below, revisit Hendrix’s famous Woodstock performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner”.