Not quite Woodstock!
What they didn't get was Woodstock, the place. The New York town was a renowned centre for the arts and the promoters had originally wanted to stage the festival there. But they couldn't find a large enough venue. Instead, a farmer named Max Yasgur made his land available. Yasgur's farm was near a town called Bethel, around 400 miles south-west of Woodstock. Nevertheless, the organisers decided to keep the Woodstock name because of its arty connotations.

At least 400,000 people (some observers claim the figure was nearer 500,000) turned up between August 15 and 17, 1969, for a show that brought the entire sixties counter-culture to an unforgettable climax. Around 180,000 tickets had been sold but so many people converged on the site that the promoters turned it into a free festival instead.

There weren't enough food outlets, toilets or other facilities but no one cared, because the line-up included Jimi Hendrix, The Who, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Santana and Joe Cocker.

Peace, music and lots of rain!
The festival was a tribute to peace and music but not to foresight. When it rained - and it rained a lot during Woodstock - bands playing electric sets couldn't perform. The running order was delayed by several hours and Jimi Hendrix found himself playing to a much reduced crowd early on the Monday morning.

The promoters lost their shirts at Woodstock but they made money out of the immensely popular documentary film of the same name, directed by Michael Wadleigh and released in 1970. The film is a fascinating record of the event, cutting between top acts on stage and the spaced-out audience. It rightly won an Oscar, thanks in part to the skills of Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese, who worked on the film as an editor and assistant director.