Woodstock... and commercialism... and best bits... and stuff....oh, and crystals....long post... beware!
Now - Woodstock.... I don't know much about what happened cos I keep on missing the news - all I know is that there was a mass riot and heaps of stuff got trashed and burned.....so I have to go on guess-work a bit....
... as to why it happened? well, trying to recreate a magical event that happened 30 years ago, is always fraught with danger I think. Why was the original Woodstock so magical and why has it been turned into the stuff of legend? And why was this year's event so different?
I believe that Woodstock was a once-in-a-lifetime event because it kinda made itself. Here's this bunch of hippy organisers - all young and fairly inexperienced - who somehow captured a moment and made it happen. No way did they ever expect so many people to turn up, for a start. Remember that famous quote of Arlo Guthrie's on the Woodstock movie?
"Yeah it's far out man.... I don't know like how many of you can dig how many people there are, man. Like I was rapping to the fuzz - can you dig it? Man, there's supposed to be a million and a half people here by tonight. Can you dig that? New York State Thruway is closed, man. Yeah. Lotta freaks!"
They came out of nowhere. No big business or corporates telling them to go, no mass TV ads or TV satellite coverage, no McDonalds, just thousands and thousands of freaks converging on a farm miles from anywhere - and making the party their party. No-one else's - just theirs - with no expectations of what it was gonna be like or how world-changing it was gonna be. Being there together, this enormous mass of humanity, isolated from the rest of the world, and realising, perhaps for the first time, that there were thousands of freaks, just like them, and that they were all there together.
That first Woodstock didn't go exactly smoothly either - the fences got torn down, they had to make it a free party, it pissed it down with rain, they had to helicopter food supplies in from miles around and it was declared a disaster zone at one point, the stage and towers threatened to collapse in the wind... but somehow they held it together and the million and a half people who were there made that happen.
I think the era was an element in its success - many of those people were the flower children, they were used to playing together and playing in a peaceful way - that was the way they did things (except of course if they were protesting...). but here they were together in love....
The drugs were probably an element too. Strong acid, lots of weed - not things that naturally make you wanna go out and break things or set fire to stuff. How many riots do you get at events where drugs like acid and pot are the norm? You don't. Look at New Year parties - alcohol's the main aggro-raiser, not drugs. As Murray said, they allowed alcohol into this Woodstock. It musta made a difference, I'm sure. I don't know if there was much booze at the first Woodstock. I'm sure there was alcohol there, but I think it must have been a much less important element in terms of what people were choosing to use to get their jollies.
Then there's the music. I actually don't know who played this year (so out of touch - too many film festival movies I guess), but look at who played in '69 and what kinda music they played and how people responded to it then. Remember wimpy old hippy John Sebastian announcing that a baby had just been born onsite and then singing a song for the new child? Or Arlo singing about smuggling dope into the country? Or Santana going for it so tripped-out they didn't hardly know they were there - and playing like magnificent avenging angels? Or mad old Joe Cocker flailing around in his starry boots? Country Joe and the Fish playing Rock and Soul Music "Your love is like a rainbow"...? Or Country Joe's VietNam protest song "Gimme an "F"! Gimme a "U"!"? Ten Years After going crazy on the guitar... and all those thousands of people just sitting and digging the music with great huge grins on their faces or dancing hippy dances in the midst of all that.... it's very different to how "rock" audiences behave - far less aggressive, far less volatile energy flying around back then....
I think even the weather made a difference. This year's event was hot as hell. People baking in the sun, with not much shade I guess. Makes you mad sometimes. Look at the soaring suicide and violent crime rates in NY in the summer - or even in ChCh when the northeasterly is blowing. Contrast that with the original Woodstock. Wet, cold and windy - at least some of the time. That kinda weather makes you huddle up to the person next to you. It might make you miserable, but it doesn't generally make you mad. Also - think about how people band together in times of crisis - or even in times of extreme weather - like how you might talk to the person next to you at the bus stop if you've both awoken that morning to a world of snow, or how you smile at the person running down the street if you're both battling to stay upright in the wind.... Sure, sunshine makes you happy, but too much gives you a headache and gets you pissed off.
There's another lovely quote in the Woodstock movie that goes something like this....
"This is something that I was gonna wait a while before we talked about but maybe we'll talk about it now so you can think about it. Because you all - we all - have to make some kind of plans for ourselves. It's a free concert from now on. That doesn't mean that anything goes. What that means is we're gonna put the music up here for free. Now. Let's face the situation. We've had thousands and thousands of people come here today. Many many more than we knew or even dreamt or thought would be possible. We're gonna need each other to help each other to work this out because we're taxing the systems that we have set up. We're gonna be bringing the food in. But the one major thing that you have to remember tonight when you go back up into the woods to go to sleep or if you stay here. Is that the man next to you's your brother and you'd damned well better treat each other that way because if you don't then we blow the whole thing, but we've got it - right there."
... and I think that sums it up. Woodstock '69 worked because the people there made it work. It had never been done before and they all made it up as they went along. They didn't go trying to recreate something, they made their own vibe, They knew how to take care of each other, to some extent anyway, and so it belonged to them, not to the corporates, not to faceless grown-ups trying to make a buck, and it wasn't piped live into millions of living rooms around the world. It was a special, magical event, and things like that only happen once. Once in a lifetime, and only because everything at that precise moment is right and perfect and spontaneous.
Perhaps this explains also to some extent why The Gathering works so well in its own small way. You make it happen. You care about each other. You don't do alcohol, you may or may not use drugs. Our music is for dancing and smiling and joyful sharing, it's not about moshing, or crashing into each other, or getting violent. The Gathering is a festival of participation, we've always said that, and although I am by no means trying to compare our wee party with Woodstock (I wouldn't dare!), some people in the media have done, and on more than one occasion. Perhaps what they see is that same kind of vibe, that same kind of spirit - or maybe they just see our colourful clothes, and imagine they see the drugs, and it's an easy and shallow comparison to make... who knows?
What I'm trying to say is that you are seeing in this mailing list a wonderful development of the "participation" theme, of Unity Through Diversity. That's what Simon's talking about when he says that you can make things happen for yourselves, and not always expect us to do it all for you. And that's what you're responding to when you discuss bubble-making techniques, or travelling together in convoy, or coming up with beautiful ideas of what YOU can do to make this Gathering the best ever. That's the secret, and virtually every person who comes through those gates onto Canaan Downs knows that - or somehow, if they don't know it when they arrive, they sure do by the time they leave.
Did you know that the police reckon Nelson's become a much more peaceful place at NY since TheG began? Why should that be? Could it be because at least some of the people who would in the past have staggered drunkenly through town, breaking windows and causing mayhem, have instead chosen to come to TheG? And that once they enter our magical space they become magical beautiful people and they realise that there's a choice - and that they don't have to get pissed and cause fights in order to have fun? I don't know - I still don't know why it happens - but I do know that there's nowhere in the world I'd rather be than at The Gathering, surrounded by all of you, smiling and happy, playing like little kids and being the best that we can be.....
... and maybe Simon's right when he says it's the incredible crystal energy of the Marble Mountain, or the ley lines converging.... or the healers who come to TheG site before the event begins, and again after it's over - to bless the space, to bury crystals and to perform their rituals - and who feel immense golden energy converging from the four corners of the site into a pillar of light... or my friend Graeme who told me that he knows there are greater beings than ourselves who watch over TheG and keep us safe.....
.... or maybe it is simply that.. you do know that the man next to you's your brother, and the woman next to you's your sister, and you don't even need us to tell you that, because you know it already and you treat each other and the space you're in with respect and love.....
... and I'm sounding more and more like an old hippy every day... but there you go...