WOODSTOCK 25 YEARS AFTER // A New Generation Migrates to the Festival "Nation"

In the 25 years since the three-day "Aquarian Exposition" invaded MaxYasgur's farm, the word "Woodstock" has become synonymous with amassive communal celebration of diversity and transcendence throughmusic. In other words, rock 'n' roll at its very best. Butdespite the presence of rock legends such as the Who and JimiHendrix, the music wasn't what made the event symbolic of a cultureand an era. There had been massive music festivals before -including the vastly superior 1967 International Pop Festival atMonterey, Calif. - but they went largely unnoticed outside the rockworld. What made this festival different was that it didn't work.In many ways, the festival was a spectacular failure. But out of theadverse conditions of three days of peace, music and mud came afeeling of community - "the Woodstock Nation" - that has come tosymbolize the entire '60s. "Woodstock only seemed to mean that,`Now we're ready to run the world,' " said Paul Williams, foundingeditor of the rock magazine Crawdaddy and the writer who covered thefestival for Playboy. "It was just a particular moment in timewhere it seemed like some kind of critical mass had been reached. Itwas an illusion, but it was an extraordinary illusion to be in themiddle of." Williams and others have said that musically, thefestival was a disappointment. (Jerry Garcia let Williams crash inhis hotel room, but that didn't stop the critic from noting that theGrateful Dead played horribly.)

Many of the other major acts - including Janis Joplin, the Band,and Hendrix - complained that their performances were ruined by stagemonitors that didn't work and helicopters that drowned out the music.

Robbie Robertson told biographer Barney Hoskyns that, "As amusical experience for the Band, we were like orphans in the storm."

The show was also an organizational disaster. Michael Lang andhis co-promoters were unprepared for the half-million people whoshowed up. (They expected 200,000.) Control broke down early on and,much to their chagrin, the fences were torn down. Ordeal for concertgoers

"There were water-main breaks and an increasing need for moredoctors and helicopters," Lang wrote in Woodstock FestivalRemembered. "Most people didn't know that there was a National Guardplatoon standing by in Albany with helicopters in case the crowd gotout of hand, but they saw that the plan was not feasible."

A highlight of the epic film "Woodstock" was promoter BillGraham offering his solution: digging trenches around the site,filling them with oil and setting them on fire to keep out those whodidn't have tickets. (That plan wasn't feasible, either.)

Time after time, those interviewed in Michael Wadleigh'sOscar-winning documentary talk about the traffic shutting down theNew York State Thruway, as if that accomplishment was on a par withstopping the war in Vietnam.

These days, traffic jams are something to be avoided. Lang andthe other promoters of Woodstock '94 have actually gotten theauthorities - the Man! - to close several exits on the Thruway.Concertgoers will park miles away and be bused to the site.

In 1969, New York State officials declared Sullivan County adisaster area, and the Army was called in to help feed the masses ofhungry, wet music lovers.

In 1994, the Fine Host corporation is manning 900 food boothsunder an exclusive agreement with Woodstock Ventures. There areplans for several hundred automatic teller machines on the site, butcash will only be good for buying special script that can then beexchanged for food, water, souvenir T-shirts or Haagen-Dazs, theofficial ice cream of Woodstock '94.

This time, 12 miles of secure fencing ring the concert site, andit won't be coming down.

The differences between the first concert and the 25thanniversary are more than just ironic examples of the times they area-changin'. They get to the heart of why we remember the original atall.

Idealists talk about the festival proving to the world that500,000 young people united by music could form a community - a cityof their own - that could function in peace and harmony even in theface of hunger, rain and a lack of portable toilets.

There was one death at Woodstock but, yin and yang, there wasalso one birth.

But the optimism spawned at Yasgur's farm was short-lived. Onlyfour months afterward, the Rolling Stones' free festival at AltamontSpeedway in California ended in violence because of similarly poorplanning and lax security. More lucky than good

Lang and his fellow promoters had simply been lucky.

Twenty-five years later, we remember Lang's Aquarian Expositionnot because it was bigger than Altamont or Monterey Pop or any of theother music festivals before or since. We remember it because of themedia coverage.

The festival was the first time the media covered youth cultureas more than just a novelty, like bobby-soxers fainting at the sightof Elvis or the Beatles. The passion inspired by those artists couldbe dismissed as teen hysteria, and the demonstrations in Chicago in1968 could be attributed to the instigation of a small but vocalgroup of radicals.

But reporters had to take Woodstock seriously. It shut down theThruway!

"It was an extraordinary event and the media picked up on it,"Williams said. "After that, it was over-hype."

The media didn't necessarily get the facts right. Remember: It was the press that substituted the now-ubiquitous "Woodstock" forthe festival's actual title.

Nevertheless, America stared in awe at the colorful picturestransmitted from Yasgur's farm. And what it saw was a generationripe for marketing.

The recurring comment by Sullivan County residents in Wadleigh'sfilm is that those weird-looking young people were actually verynormal and polite - and they were great for the local economy.

Within months of the '69 festival, there were Woodstock-likecommercials featuring throngs of young people holding hands, teachingthe world to sing and drinking Coca-Cola. Now, Pepsi ismanufacturing commemorative Woodstock Cola.

After Woodstock and Altamont, outdoor concerts became anindustry. Twenty-five years later, people paid $118 to see theEagles at the World Music Theatre in Tinley Park.

In 1969, Lang sold the film rights for the festival to WarnerBros. for $150,000. (The company went on to make $35 million on themovie.) Big profits

This time, the promoter is retaining a piece of the $135 ticket,the $49 pay-per-view cable special, the PolyGram CD and the proposedmovie, and he hopes to spin off a line of Woodstock clothing and achain of restaurants to rival the Hard Rock Cafe.

"Back in the 1960s, there was some small sphere of our livesthat was still outside the marketplace, and that's what Woodstock wasall about," said Sut Jhally, professor of communications at theUniversity of Massachusetts at Amherst. "But the marketplace seemsto have triumphed over everything, including Woodstock."

Sorry, but this is just nostalgic baby boomer myopia.Commercial concerns don't necessarily detract from music or communalexperiences. Witness Lollapalooza.

The lesson of Woodstock is that marketing, media, youth cultureand rock 'n' roll are inextricably linked. And they were even in theAge of Aquarius.

Contributing: The Los Angeles Times