Even the Smithsonian can get it wrong:
"Organizers expected about 50,000 young music lovers to descend on the rural New York Farm that summer."
Nope.
They figured they could double the Mimi Pop Festival's 25k attendance number, so that's what they based their initial planning (and ticket sales) on.
Prime mover Michael Lang BTW had cut his teeth organizing those and that's why he was able to obtain backing investors
.***(edit 7/25)
From the
usual source with a citation:
Woodstock was designed as a profit-making venture. It became a "free concert" only after the event drew hundreds of thousands more people than the organizers had prepared for. Tickets for the three-day event cost $18 in advance and $24 at the gate (equivalent to about $120 and $160 today[17]). Ticket sales were limited to record stores in the greater New York City area, or by mail via a post office box at the Radio City Station Post Office located in Midtown Manhattan.
Around 186,000 advance tickets were sold, and the organizers anticipated approximately 200,000 festival-goers would turn up.[18] "
When the organizers were under the gun to find a new location they disingenuously told the Bethel City Township council they expected 50,000:
"Growing alarmed at the lack of progress, Roberts and Rosenman took over the search for a venue, and discovered the 300-acre (0.47 sq mi; 1.2 km2) Mills Industrial Park (41.648088°N 74.179751°W) in the town of Wallkill, New York, which Woodstock Ventures leased for $10,000 (equivalent to $68,000 today) in the Spring of 1969.[1] Town officials were assured that no more than 50,000 would attend."
AND:
"The organizers once again told Bethel authorities they expected no more than 50,000 people."
The dirty little secret and charade Abbie Hoffman would have loved to have pulled off himself.
The big surprise to the organizers (and the whole rest of the country) was how far hugely they busted their
200,000 estimate.
And that little inaccuracy doesn't "invalidate" the article as a whole, so thanks!
***OK that was an oversimplification.
Lang and partner Kornfeld wanted to build a recording studio in the vicinity and their lawyer suggested they contact a couple of guys who were in the process of building a studio in Manhattan.
From the same source quoted above:
"Unpersuaded by this Studio-in-the-Woods proposal, Roberts and Rosenman counter-proposed a concert featuring the kind of artists known to frequent the Woodstock area (such as Bob Dylan and The Band). Kornfeld and Lang agreed to the new plan, and Woodstock Ventures was formed in January 1969."
I prefer Flea with his clothes on. I have the same equipment he has and do not need to see it.
yeah, i can no longer follow this thread, it is just disgusting.
C'mon, it was a
joke, and besides, it's an artist at work.
Be glad I didn't use one of the returns I got from Burning Man Festivals.
THAT was inflammatory.
So to speak.
:topsy_turvy: