Woodstock ’99 is one of the most infamous musical events in all of popular music. The culmination of irresponsibility from the promoters and organizers. Combined with the vendor price gouging. And a full generation of enraged counterculture young adults. What could possibly go wrong? Apparently, everything.
The complete lack of security, obliviousness from the organizers, the line ups, the general disregard for dignity and humanism. To the weather and location. It all culminated in a nightmare that reflects the worst of humanity. Now, before we really get into it, I just want to say, it’s easy to blame the artists. But they were just doing what they do. Many of which couldn’t even make out the carnage that was taking place. To them, it seemed like a huge sea of people. And they were going to rock them.
This included acts such as Korn. Who headlined the opening Friday night, before Bush brought the energy down afterwards. Frontman, Johnathan Davis still accounts the night as one of the best of his entire career. And you know what? Woodstock ’99 did start out all well and good. The crowd, for the most part, was at least under control. But that all changed the next Saturday evening, July 24th. After a day of unruly heat, price gouging for food and water, the crowd was getting pissed off. Dehydrated, full of booze and a myriad of drugs, the audience began to revolt during Limp Bizkit’s legendary set. Tearing apart the scaffolding for the sound booths, the audience began to crowd surf with the plywood boards. As well as throwing unreal amounts of trash onto the stage. Bizkit just kept keeping on with what they do. Until they were pulled from the stage by the promoters.
The rage continued through the night during the rave set lists provided by Moby and Fatboy Slim. This is where the crowd really started getting crazy. It’s a massive group of people. Most of whom don’t do raves. Drugged up, feeling the heat and acting crazy. This is where the dignity of the crowd really took a downturn. Multiple reports of molestations and sexual harassment were reported after the festival. There was even an RV that made its way into the 60,000 plus sized madness. When the vehicle was brought under control. Unconscious girls with their pants down were found while dudes were pulling their pants up.
But even the horrors of those realities would be only the tip of the iceberg. After the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ set, the closing band on Sunday, all hell truly broke loose. The band was asked to perform their cover of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Fire.’ Honoring the vibes and mentality of the original Woodstock. Held 30 years earlier. But this request was on the heels of irresponsible promoters. Who handed out 100,000 candles in solidarity of the Columbine shooting. While the Chili’s played their first encore, ‘Under the Bridge,’ a sea of people can been seen protesting gun violence. Which ironically, quickly divulged into madness when ‘Fire’ followed. The enraged audience were using the candles to light gigantic fires. It quickly got out of control.
There were rumors of a major surprise act following the Chili’s. Some thought it was going to be The Rolling Stones. Some thought there was going to be a Guns N Roses reunion. Some thought the remaining members of The Beatles were going to reunite. However, the crowd was met with a video of Jimi Hendrix playing his set from Woodstock ’69. The crowd went ballistic and began to effectively, quite literally, tear the place apart. The air field base in Rome, NY turned into a post apocalyptic mob. By this time, MTV and festival staff had pulled out due to safety concerns. TRL host Carson Daily even stated, ‘I thought I was going to die.’ Scaffolding was torn down, lit on fire and destroyed. The vendor booths torn apart. While crazy, drugged up xennials threw themselves around in what they thought was mud water. But was really shit water from a pipe that broke near the overflowed toilet facilities. Eventually the National Guard had to be called in to get the mob under control. Before they flowed into the town of Rome and started tearing that apart.
So who’s to blame? Frankly, I think the responsibility lies squarely on the promoters: Woodstock creators Michael Lang, John P. Roberts and Joel Rosenman. Who had lost their way from the original festival they created 30 years prior. Their cluelessness to the cultural climate of the late 90’s. Combined with their greed, dishonesty (they got busted lying to the press about the success of the festival), corner cutting and lack of security is what allowed this monstrosity to happen. You put a bunch of pissed off, toxic people together. Then bring in bands like Rage Against the Machine, Korn, Limp Bizkit and the like. What the hell did you think was going to happen? A perfect storm of the worst that humanity has to offer.
Decades later there’s still documentaries reminiscing on the disaster that was Woodstock ’99. HBO Max’s ‘Woodstock ’99: Peace, Love and Rage’ and the newest deep dive docuseries from Netflix, ‘Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99’ offer a glimpse into this brief moment in history. To educate people on how to not throw a festival. Nothing like Woodstock ’99 has happened since. And hopefully it never will.
