Woodstock ’99 is the topic of a brand new documentary exploring how the music pageant modeled after the unique in 1969 erupted into chaos that led to riots, followers rolling round puddles of human feces, mosh pit rapes, and deaths.
Premiering on Friday, HBO’s Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage takes an in-depth take a look at the carnage from the three-day occasion that was arguably extra disastrous than the notorious Fyre Competition that made headlines in 2017.
‘In telling the story of Woodstock ’99, it will have been very easy to construction this as a comedy, poking enjoyable in any respect issues late Nineteen Nineties — the best way folks dressed, the music they listened to,’ director Garret Value mentioned in his introduction of the documentary. ‘However in actuality, as that weekend unfolded, it performed out way more like a horror movie.’
HBO’s new documentary Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage takes an in-depth take a look at the carnage from the three-day music pageant with interviews and archival footage
The music pageant was an try to pay homage to the counterculture idealism that made the unique Woodstock in 1969 a pivotal second in musical historical past
After an extended weekend of violence, vandals lit fires on the final night time of the present
The nightmarish musical pageant kicked off on July 22, 1999, with about 220,000 music followers arriving at a former Air Power base exterior of Rome, New York, which was roughly 100 miles from the positioning of the unique Woodstock.
Woodstock ’99 was an try to pay homage to the counterculture idealism that made the 1969 pageant a pivotal second in musical historical past. Held 30 years later, it was billed as one other three days of peace, love, and music — it was something however.
‘It was not your mother and father Woodstock,’ one man defined within the trailer for the documentary, which options interviews with attendees, journalists who lined the occasion, and musicians who carried out.
The movie additionally depends on archival footage from the pageant itself to color a transparent image of anarchy, violence, and poisonous white masculinity.
‘There’s a sixth sense that you simply develop while you spend your life going to venues. I can let you know 100 toes away what the power in that venue’s gonna be like,’ the musician Moby mentioned within the movie. ‘We acquired off the bus, and I used to be like, “One thing’s not proper.”‘
‘We acquired off the bus, and I used to be like, “One thing’s not proper,”‘ Moby (pictured) mentioned of the disastrous live performance
Temperatures soared to 100 levels Fahrenheit, and festivalgoers had been left to bake on the tarmac
Roughly 220,000 folks attended Woodstock ’99, however there weren’t sufficient bathrooms, showers, or safety for the crowds
Water bottles price $4 apiece, and the traces for the free fountains had been lengthy as a result of there have been so few of them
Concertgoers are pictured washing up at one of many few places with working water at Woodstock ’99
Typically described as ‘the day the Nineties died,’ the tone of the occasion was set by the oppressive, inescapable warmth.
Temperatures soared over 100 levels Fahrenheit with few areas of shade on the defunct Air Power base. Competition goers had been left to bake on the scorching tarmac with little reprieve.
Company greed led to exorbitant costs, with folks having to pay $4 — roughly $7 at this time — for a bottle of water.
The free fountains that had been on website had large traces that led to pissed off folks breaking the pipes to get water, inadvertently creating mud pits.
Folks had been passing out due to warmth exhaustion and dehydration, and archival footage exhibits folks mendacity beneath vans simply to flee the blaring solar. However the warmth wasn’t the one damning environmental issue at play.
Porta-potties rapidly turned clogged and overflowing with waste, making them unusable
Damaged pipes and overflowing bathrooms led to puddles of human sewage that individuals mistook for mud
Clueless festivalgoers rolled round within the muddy water, not realizing it was stuffed with human feces
A mud lined live performance fan is pictured posing for the digicam on the pageant
In Spin‘s 1999 story in regards to the disastrous occasion, writers David Moodie, Maureen Callahan, and Mark Schone described how promoters reduce corners wherever they may.
Venders weren’t supplied ample plumbing, and there weren’t sufficient porta-potties or showers for the crowds. The bathrooms rapidly turned clogged and overflowing with waste.
Concertgoers rolled round in puddles of human sewage, principally unaware that they had been protecting their our bodies with feces.
Aggressive rock bands similar to Limp Bizkit, Insane Clown Posse, Child Rock, and Metallica fueled the chaotic power within the crowds that finally reached its breaking level.
‘The legal guidelines of regular society simply do not apply right here,’ one man defined throughout an interview on the pageant.
Child Rock (pictured) was one of many aggressive rock performers who riled up the viewers
Injured folks had been carried out of the mosh pit in makeshift stretchers
One body-surfer (not pictured) was reportedly gang-raped within the mosh pit throughout one of many performances
Overwhelmed and understaffed safety guards had been unable to manage the outbreaks of mayhem
Some ladies embraced the sexually-free attitudes of the late ’60s and went topless on the occasion
Two ladies posed for the digicam carrying Woodstock ’99 bumper stickers throughout their chests
‘The legal guidelines of regular society simply do not apply right here,’ one man defined throughout an interview on the pageant that was featured within the documentary
There have been numerous sexual assaults over the lengthy weekend and eight reported rapes. One gang rape was mentioned to have occurred within the mosh pit throughout Korn’s efficiency on the primary night time.
‘At one level I noticed this lady, a really petite lady, perhaps 100 kilos, who was body-surfing above the gang and both fell in or was pulled right into a circle within the mosh pit,’ volunteer David Schneider informed MTV on the time.
‘These gents, most likely within the 25–32 age vary, seemed as if they had been holding her down. They had been holding her arms; you can see she was struggling.’
On day two, the gang turned to violence throughout Limp Bizkit’s efficiency of their tune ‘Break Stuff’ — a sentiment that was taken actually. Injured folks had been carried out of the mosh pit in makeshift stretchers.
Overwhelmed and understaffed safety guards had been unable to manage the outbreaks of mayhem, which got here to a head on the pageant’s final night time on July 25, 1999.
An anti-gun violence group often known as PAX handed out ‘peace candles’ to folks with the intention of them being lit in the course of the Pink Sizzling Chili Peppers’ efficiency of the tune ‘Below the Bridge.’
On the final night time of the pageant, the crowds used ‘peace candle’s they got to gentle bonfires that grew uncontrolled
Two persons are pictured looting an ATM machine after the chaos ensued
One man is pictured utilizing a pipe to interrupt into an Ace {hardware} tractor trailer parked within the camground
Folks climbed the water tower and tore it down because the rioting continued for hours
A person is pictured standing in entrance of an out-of-control bonfire on the pageant
Roughly 10,000 folks wanted medical therapy, 44 had been arrested, and two concertgoers died at Woodstock ’99. One of many deaths was because of heat-related sickness
Nevertheless, because the band performed a canopy of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Hearth,’ the crowds used the candles to gentle bonfires that blazed uncontrolled. Looting quickly adopted as rioters got down to destroy something and all the pieces of their paths.
Vandals flipped over automobiles, climbed the audio system, and pulled down the Woodstock Peace Wall’s plywood panels to feed the fires. New York State Troopers and native law enforcement officials had been known as in to fight the uncontrollable violence.
Roughly 10,000 folks wanted medical therapy, 44 had been arrested, and two concertgoers died at Woodstock ’99. One of many deaths was because of heat-related sickness.
‘It was harmful to be round. The entire scene was scary. There have been simply waves of hatred bouncing across the place,’ MTV’s Kurt Loder informed USA At the moment after reporting from the scene.
‘It was like a focus camp. To get in, you get frisked to be sure to’re not bringing in any water or meals that might forestall you from shopping for from their outrageously priced cubicles. You wallow round in rubbish and human waste. There was a palpable temper of anger.’
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