WINTER | COVER FEATURE
WOODSTOCK
The 60s counterculture movement defined 'the
teenager' as an identity in its own right. And the
resulting domino cascade found its world-changing
crescendo in 1969 at Woodstock, where the youth’s
complex relationship with the United States and the
world found its focal point.
The event's spirit was embodied in Hendrix’s epic
performance of Star Spangled Banner – the electrified
notes of which the rang out far beyond the confines of
the dairy farm in Bethel, New York, where it took place.
Over its four days, 15–18 August, Woodstock
demonstrated the impact that a single live event can
achieve in a manner rarely matched throughout history.
Around 500,000 people united to watch 32 acts evoke a
yearning for love, peace and an end to warfare.
One of its founders, Michael Lang (co-creator, musical
concert promoter, artistic manager, Woodstock) says he
was the product of a generation that wanted to change
the world. “Things were terrible in 1968. Martin Luther
King Jr and president Robert F. Kennedy had been
assassinated, and we wanted to make a last ditch effort
to go out into nature and see if we could make things
work on our own. And we did, on steroids.”
“The 60s was a different time to be young, we were
empowered, coming out of the Civil Rights Movement,
into women’s rights and protesting a war (the Vietnam
war) we felt should be stopped. When we created
the model for Woodstock it was about uniting our
counterculture and behaving in a better way than the
world was.”
Woodstock was set to have an iteration in 2019 to mark
its 50th anniversary, billed as Woodstock 50. Just prior
to its cancellation, it was announced the event had been
reduced from three days to one day. It was cancelled
on 31 July, 2019, after a series of permit and production
issues, venue relocations, and artist cancellations.
Lang discussed the event’s MO: “A lot of the new talent
emerging now is very exciting, and we wanted the
event to nod to our original roots, skipping the 70s, 80s,
90s, and 00s, and just focusing on now and the 60s. We
booked Santana, which for me was a thrill.”
Also producing New York’s AmsterJam, Lang remains
an aficionado of festivals worldwide. “We’ve always, as
a Woodstock brand, tried to make the world a better
place, and will continue to do that through action and
fundraising. I still attend festivals, and most recently
attended Coachella. I must say I appreciated much about
it: the site is amazing, and the organisers do well and are
efficient, plus the sound is great everywhere.”
Film is now Lang's chosen medium, as a producer/
director. Thsi is fitting as it was a hit documentary film,
36
Woodstock (1970), which helped immortalise the 1969
event. Just under a decade later, filmmakers would gain a
further boost from event-minded individuals in the form
of Access' next top festival the now legendary Sundance
Film Festival.
SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
Sundance kicked off in true style in Salt Lake City in
August 1978, known then as the Utah/US Film Festival.
The festival aimed to attract more filmmakers to Utah
and was founded by Sterling Van Wagenen (then head
of Wildwood, Robert Redford's company) and John Earle
(serving on the Utah Film Commission at the time).
Deliverance, A Streetcar Named Desire, Midnight Cowboy,
and Mean Streets headlined the event, which featured the
prestigious Frank Capra Award.
In 1979, Robert Redford became the festival's inaugural
chair. Four years later, in 1984, the event became known
as Sundance, after Redford's character the Sundance Kid
from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Sundance Film Festival festival director John
Cooper says the event rode the wave of independent
film becoming viable in the market place, supporting
companies like Miramax, Strand, October Films. “We’re a
community that has formed something of a wave and the
festival has supported that. We think that stories change
the world, and theories divide us. You have to open up
people’s hearts and minds.
“I believe films, and conscious documentaries make
you reflect on life. They make you say, ‘I never thought
of it that way’, so you’ll emerge as a changed person, and
vote differently or perhaps be a better person.”
Cooper is passionately dedicated to the medium of
film (“I’ve watched around 500 movies in the last two
months,” he says) and, while he is keen for Sundance
"When we
created the
model for
Woodstock
it was about
uniting our
counterculture
and behaving
in a better way
than the world
was.