Organisers
The four men who put it on. Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, Joel Rosenman and John Roberts, the venture that was meant to fund a recording studio, the permits refused in Wallkill, the contracts and the fees, and the money that took them a decade to pay back.
Part of Woodstock
31 moments in this segment.
- - Artie Kornfeld before Woodstock. Artie Kornfeld (left), one of the four Woodstock Ventures organisers, with Steve Duboff of The Changin' Times. A period portrait taken in 1965, four years before and away from the festival.
- - The May 1969 advertising flyer. A magazine advertisement for the festival listing Joan Baez, The Band, the Jeff Beck Group and Keef Hartley, published three months before the event. A period document, not a photograph of the festival.
- - The Woodstock poster. Arnold Skolnick's 1969 poster for the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, with the dove on the guitar neck and the 'three days of peace & music' line.
- - A ticket to three days of peace and music. An original admission ticket for the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, 15-17 August 1969, held by the rock'n'popmuseum in Gronau. A period document, not a photograph of the festival.
- - Kornfeld and Lang at the festival. Footage of Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang at Woodstock in August 1969, as it appeared in the Warner Bros. film.
- - Artie Kornfeld and the roots of Woodstock. Author Domenic Priore traces the path from Los Angeles pop production through Artie Kornfeld to the founding of Woodstock Ventures.
- - Artie Kornfeld on the first conversation. Co-creator Artie Kornfeld describes the initial conversation with Michael Lang that led to the formation of Woodstock Ventures.
- - Michael Riedel interviews Michael Lang. New York Post columnist Michael Riedel sits down with Woodstock co-creator Michael Lang about how the festival was assembled.
- - Michael Lang at the Taking Woodstock premiere. Woodstock co-creator Michael Lang (right) with James Schamus, Ron Nyswaner and director Ang Lee. A modern photograph from 2009, not from the festival.
- - Taking Woodstock: renting the El Monaco. Clip from Ang Lee's 2009 feature dramatising Elliot Tiber's role in bringing the festival to Bethel.
- - Lang and Kopple recount the planning. Associated Press interview with organiser Michael Lang and filmmaker Barbara Kopple about planning the festival and their documentary 'Woodstock: Now and Then'.
- - Elliot Tiber and the Bethel permit. Elliot Tiber, whose family ran the El Monaco motel, describes producing the local permit that let the festival relocate to Sullivan County after Wallkill.
- - Michael Lang looks back forty years on. Guardian interview with Michael Lang, the promoter who conceived the 1969 festival, reflecting on how it came together. Filmed for the 40th anniversary.
- - A Tale of Two Posters at Bethel Woods. Museum at Bethel Woods film on its exhibition of the poster work of David Edward Byrd and Arnold Skolnick, the two designers commissioned for Woodstock.
- - Michael Lang and Baron Wolman on Woodstock. The festival's creator and its Rolling Stone photographer talk about the event, on the release of Wolman's book of photographs.
- - A Shure Unisphere 565 from the Woodstock stage. A modern photograph of a Shure Unisphere 565 microphone of the type used on the Woodstock stage in 1969. This is an object photograph taken in 2019, not a festival photograph.
- - Skolnick on designing the poster. Studio interview with Arnold Skolnick, recorded in 2017, about the commission and the making of the 'Three Days of Peace and Music' poster.
- - Joel Rosenman, Woodstock producer. PBS American Experience clip on Joel Rosenman and John Roberts, the financiers who joined Kornfeld and Lang to form Woodstock Ventures.
- - The poster was just another job. Skolnick describes designing the dove-and-guitar poster on a tight deadline, and how the image outgrew the festival it advertised.
- - Artie Kornfeld - Oral History. C-SPAN's oral history with Kornfeld on signing the artists and the business arrangements behind the film.
- - Michael Lang dies at 77. Local news report on the January 2022 death of Michael Lang, co-creator of the 1969 festival and driving force behind the abandoned Woodstock 50.
- - Michael Lang and the story behind the festival. Feature-length documentary following Lang and Woodstock Ventures from the initial idea through the event itself.
- - Remembering Michael Lang. Willie Geist's Sunday TODAY tribute to Michael Lang, who with three partners conceived the festival and billed it as three days of peace and music.
- - Death of the poster's designer. Report on the death of Arnold Skolnick on 15 June 2022 at 85, and the afterlife of the image he made in a few days in 1969.
- - Arnold Skolnick, who drew the dove and guitar. Public television profile of the graphic designer behind the 1969 poster, filmed at his Easthampton studio and rebroadcast after his death in June 2022.
- - What the acts were actually paid. A walk through the fees paid to the 32 acts booked for the festival, from Jimi Hendrix down to the smallest names on the bill.
- - The Woodstock Oral History Project. Julia Fell, curator of exhibits and oral history at the Museum at Bethel Woods, presents the museum's programme of recording first-hand accounts of the festival.
- - Why Led Zeppelin turned Woodstock down. Account of the management decision that kept Led Zeppelin off the 1969 bill despite the invitation.
- - An original 1969 Woodstock bus poster. Heritage Auctions presents a rare surviving 1969 bus-sign advertisement for the festival, one of the few original promotional artefacts to reach auction.
- - A podcast tribute to Michael Lang. Hosts revisit their 2020 interview with Michael Lang after his death, replaying his own account of the festival.
- - Michael Lang's own account, recorded 2020. Full interview with Michael Lang about how he made the festival happen, recorded before his death.