The festival that was meant to be a revival of its peaceful predecessor 30 years prior, but ended in a flaming riot. Perhaps youâve seen the Netflix documentary or have heard whispers of Fred Durst crowd-surfing plywood, but if youâre looking for a crash course on one of the most culturally defining moments of the nineties, youâve come to the right place.Â
The concept of the festival was brought up by Michael Lang, the same man who created the original Woodstock, and his incredibly Trump-like colleague John Scher (both of whom worked on Woodstock â94.) The problem with the attempted Woodstock â94 in their eyes was that it made no profit. The fence came down and everyone and their mother who wanted to see The Cranberries and Nine-Inch-Nails were suddenly able to for free– entirely covered in mud.Â
The abundance of mud was perhaps what led to the climate of Woodstock â99. An air force base built entirely on asphalt for three days of high 90s temperatures in Rome, New York, surrounded by industrial fencing with the two main stages being a mile and a half apart. This alone would be enough to cause disaster, but it was only the beginning. The lineup consisted of artists that practically begged every frat guy in North America to come do drugs and think he could take on the world. With acts like Korn, Metallica, Kid Rock, DMX, Megadeath, and Insane Clown Posse, it was difficult to imagine anyone else showing up. This is the narrative often pushed by documentaries but there are acts that donât show up much in the documentaries. Alanis Morisette, Counting Crows, and The Grateful Deadâs Mickey Hart made lesser-known appearances.Â
Grab your cargo shorts and red bandanas because youâre in for the ride of a lifetime one way or another. At the gate, attendees were stripped of any food or water they had on them. However, slipping money to the âPeace Patrolâ was a quick and easy way to bring any number of drugs in.Â
James Brown kicked off day one in a crisp 97-degree heat and the crowd of about 200,000 who had actually bought tickets pressed body to body, raising temperatures to a degree I donât even want to think about. With following acts such as Sheryl Crow, Buckcherry, The Roots, ICP, Jamiroquai, DMX, and the Offspring, the hot and sweaty afternoon began to grow cooler.Â
With anticipation for the night’s penultimate act growing, all anyone could talk about was Korn. Playing on the East stage after the Offspring, Korn unleashed what they describe to this day as their best performance of all time. Coming on stage to the intense buildup of their song Blind, the crowd, which stretched beyond the horizon point from the stage, became a mass of undulating baseball caps.Â
Not only was it reported as the roughest crowd of the entire weekend with people entering the medical tent at unprecedented rates, it wasnât even the last event of the night. Bush followed, with a shirtless Gavin Rossdale trying to calm the rowdy crowd before they were sent to the rave hangar for the night where Moby serenaded the ecstasy-filled crowd until the sun came up.
Saturday began with Kid Rock and Counting Crows for two acts that couldnât contrast more, complete with misogyny from Kid Rock and awful hair on Adam Duritz as always. Perhaps the strangest lineup of the weekend was the order of acts on the East stage. Alanis Morisette, directly to Limp Bizkit, into Rage Against the Machine, finished off with Metallica. Halfway through Limp Bizkitâs set, the sound was shut off from backstage until Fred Durst promised to tell the crowd to calm down (which he didnât,) and the crowd proceeded to rip the plywood siding off the sound tower and crowd surf across it, crushing people in the process. The band is often blamed for the riots that ended off the weekend, but itâs debatable whether or not this is true considering they played over 24 hours before the festival ended.Â
This brings us to the bitter end. On the morning after another night of raving where Fatboy Slim was forced to leave the premises because of violence in the crowd, Willie Nelson sang Amazing Grace to a crowd of sweaty, exhausted, sunburned kids. It was the eye of the hurricane before the end all be all of the weekend. The festival had been handing out candles to be lit for a vigil against gun violence at the end of the Red Hot Chili Peppers set. With the promise of a special musical guest finale, attendees held out hope for something that would make all their suffering worth it. As The Chili Peppers closed out their set with Jimi Hendrixâs Fire, fires began to pop up at the back of the crowd. The âspecial actâ that was set to end the festival turned out to be a video of Jimi Hendrixâs Star Spangled Banner which played as the fires began to take over along with mob mentality.
43 arrests were made before Monday came. ATMs were destroyed and vendor booths that had been selling water at a whopping $12 ($22.65 today) burned to the ground as the rage at the treatment of everyone there boiled over. The merchandise trucks exploded as they caught fire and Rome burned as Rage Against the Machineâs lyrics were screamed. The police came somewhere around 3 in the morning and escorted the rioters out. By Monday morning the place was nothing but burnt tents, booths, stages, trucks, and some graffiti saying things like âDown with profit-stock.â a war zone of the weekend that had been.
While my morbid curiosity about this festival will never end, itâs important to note that it was both a tragedy of the times and a marker of what life was like for women. An environment where men can do whatever they want with no repercussions not only ended in carnage but was terrible to the women the entire weekend. Even to this day, John Scher blames the women who were assaulted for ânot wearing enough.â Heather Liposky in the Netflix documentary will always be my favorite interview. She sums it up better than anyone elseâs stories Iâve heard. She says while yes she was pissed at the culture that was present, she would do it again in a heartbeat. A 14-year-old girl who got to see her favorite bands of all time all together in one weekend.
From a girl who was also once a 14-year-old obsessed with Korn, I will always wonder what it would have been like if I had been there. While itâs a very niche obsession to have, my brain is a library for facts about this festival so if you ever find yourself wondering more, I’m the girl to ask.
And with that, Iâll see you at Woodstock.