It was billed as "3 Days of Peace & Music" 54 years ago this weekend, over 400,000 people descended on Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, about 43 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York. During the sometimes rainy weekend, 32 acts performed outdoors including; Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Santana, Jimi Hendrix and many more.
The festival is also famous for the acts that either declined or missed connections; Bob Dylan, The Jeff Beck Group, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, The Byrds, Chicago, at the time still known as the Chicago Transit Authority, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Moody Blues, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, just to name a few.
In honor of the anniversary, check out a few trailers below.