Sunday, August 16, 2009

Woodstock Anniversary

This weekend, there much reminiscing and commentary on the fortieth anniversary of the Woodstock music festival in upstate New York in 1969. (Commemorative web sites here , here and here) The festival has become known as the iconic cultural event of an era, though it probably more reflected the (good and bad) trends of that time, some of which still affect society today.

One thing I find interesting is that an event that totally broke down logistically, leaving many thousands stuck in rain and mud for three days, was and is celebrated as an experience of peace and community. It's hard to imagine such an organizational calamity would occur today without flaring tempers, massive lawsuits, and numerous postmortems on TV and radio news and talk shows.

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