cannabisnews.com: Light My Fire!





Light My Fire!
Posted by FoM on July 26, 1999 at 04:47:05 PT
The Peace and Love of 30 Years Ago Go Up in Smoke 
Source: Washington Post
ROME, N.Y., July 26—Woodstock '99, a sprawling three-day festival marking the '60s counterculture's epic celebration of peace and love, ended badly.
During the Red Hot Chili Peppers set Sunday night, concertgoers lit fires, vandalized the food trucks, set a vending area on fire and pulled down one of the sound towers near the East Stage.Initially the fires seemed to be just another of the dozens of spontaneous celebrations occurring offstage, starting small as concertgoers ignited scraps of cardboard, pizza boxes and plastic bottles. They grew into bonafide conflagrations when sections of the wooden "Peace Fence," erected by promoters to keep gatecrashers out, were added to the flames. A vending tent was torched and people began looting, taking T-shirts and distributing them throughout the crowd. Twelve tractor-trailers were set ablaze, their contents of soda and merchandise stolen. Police in riot gear arrived to protect the vendors' remaining property.Even as the potential for serious injury increased, a festive atmosphere prevailed. At one point, a merry prankster's voice came over the loudspeaker: "Please pick up all garbage and throw it into the fire." Soon after came another announcement: "Woodstock is now under martial law. Anyone here who has a good time will be shot. Anybody with a Woodstock MasterCard will be spared"--a reference to the commemorative credit card being peddled during the festival.Police were vastly outnumbered by the thousands in attendance, and not all the concertgoers were pleased by the turn of events. "I hate it. I don't want Woodstock to be remembered for this. Up until now, this was peaceful--no fights," said James Baker, 20.Even before the fires, the festival seemed characterized by belligerence. If the essence of the 1969 original could be distilled into a single gesture--the two-fingered peace sign--Woodstock '99 might be best represented by a raised middle finger. The thousands of people amassed Saturday to hear Detroit metal rapper Kid Rock greeted him with his customary one-finger salute. During Everclear's set, frontman Art Alexakis sent out "a big [expletive] you to the people who tried to make this a commercial venture." But Limp Bizkit vocalist Fred Durst best summed up the spirit of Woodstock '99: "This is 1999 . . . . Stick those Birkenstocks up your [expletive]." Still, there was more to Woodstock '99 than expletives and ashes. The festival, which drew more than 200,000 people to a former air base now known as Griffiss Park, offered a wide range of music: the testosterone hip-hop of DMX, the girlie folk of Jewel, the neo-swing of Brian Setzer, the electronic wizardry of the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim. There was also a wide array of drugs to choose from. "Basically, you have all the food groups represented here," said one emergency medical technician. "Marijuana, acid, mushrooms, crystal meth. Ecstasy seems to be very big. And hallucinogens--a lot of hallucinogens." Maybe searching for a larger meaning behind Woodstock '99 is an impossible endeavor. The purpose of this installment of the Woodstock festival was not as clear as it was back in '69, when the original, rightfully famous festival at Max Yasgur's farm helped define a generation.Maybe the meaning of Woodstock is like notions of integrity, God or good manners, concepts that mean different things to different people. The Woodstock '99 experience was largely shaped by what drugs you consumed, what music you listened to, whether you moshed or raved, where you slept, whom you slept with or whether you slept at all. Most people seemed to get what they were looking for, whether it was music, mushrooms or just a good time."This is not about peace or anything like that," said Vincent Sainato, 24. "It's one big party.""We're not here to recapture the spirit. We're not here to redo what they did in '94," said Charlie Saunier, 23, a student at Clemson University. "We're here to make our own mark in the millennium. In a society where all you hear about is murder and death, here's all these people that can get along and have a good time."Backstage on Friday night, two members of the Los Angeles hard-rock band Buckcherry talked about the meaning--or lack thereof. "We're really glad to be part of a historic event," deadpanned guitarist Keith Nelson, who clearly didn't mean it. "Seriously--Woodstock is a really good excuse to have a party." Vocalist Joshua Todd corrected him. "It's just somewhere to sell some acid," he scoffed.Robbie Bellon, a 21-year-old from Brooklyn, N.Y., took in the all-night rave early Sunday morning. "What does Woodstock '99 tell the world about us? It says we all wanna be naked all the time. It says we're drug addicts. Half of these people are wired," he said.His friend Nick Terzis, 23, was enjoying a slightly different experience. "I got hit in the head during Metallica's set," he said. "It hurt for a second, but that was it. Then I noticed all these people were staring at me and taking pictures of me. So I had to go to first aid, and I missed the last four songs. But people were really helpful, handing me towels, spraying me with water. That says a lot about the crowd."Giving Peace a Chance Not everyone came to party. Omed--who uses only one name--lives at Basin Farm in Bellows Falls, Vt. He rode the "Peacemaker Bus" here along with other members of his religious community, known as the Twelve Tribes. "We live out the word of the Son of God. The result of living out His life is that there's a place people can live and love each other in a practical way."We came here to share the hope that we have with others. The crowd that's here has been degraded a lot in their conscience. They've chosen to live a life that doesn't represent the character of God."Omed, 31, and his fellow community members worked in a cafe near the West Stage, but they did not enjoy all of the music. When the shock rappers Insane Clown Posse performed, he said, "every word was a cuss word. It was almost degrading to listen to. They've strayed so far from their humanity. But we got through it. We kept our peace."The tent set up by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals featured videotapes of farmers assaulting a lame sow with a cinder block. Then there were Defenders of Wildlife. Defenders of Mumia Abu Jamal. Defenders of pot smoking. Fight racism! Boycott Home Depot! Drown the Debt!David Bryden, 31, the community director of Jubilee 2000, an organization devoted to erasing Third World debt, came from Mount Rainier, Md. "Most of the kids who come by the booth are really supportive and sympathetic," he said. "But a few of them are like, 'Oh, just bomb those poor countries!'"But I think these kids are more active than they're given credit for. The issues of personal freedom that are natural for them to be concerned with are censorship and medical marijuana. In the '60s, there was a focus, there was a war. Just because there isn't a national focus for activism of that kind doesn't mean that activism doesn't happen."Hundreds of vendors hustled more tangible things--tie-dyed T-shirts, natch, but also tie-dyed tuxedos. Jewelry. An array of hemp products. Clove cigarettes. Rolling papers. So many bumper stickers: "Save the Planet. Kill Yourself." "I Killed Kenny." "A Fool and His Money are Soon Partying." Festival-goers could also acquire a Woodstock commemorative MasterCard--3.9 percent APR financing, no annual fee. Lewis Lux, 23, of Eugene, Ore., filled out an application. "This is capitalism at its finest," he said. Lux has never had a credit card before. "I don't know if I'll use it. Maybe just for emergencies. Maybe I'll keep it for a souvenir."Next to the MasterCard booth was a colorful array of bongs.On a DrumrollPerhaps the most classically Woodstockian aspect of the festival was "Drumstock '99," a drummers' circle that began spontaneously at around 1:30 a.m. Saturday about halfway between the East and West stages. By midday Saturday, more than a dozen metal trash cans had been co-opted by a ragtag group that banged and thumped with fists, sticks, rocks, plastic bottles--whatever participants could get their hands on. "Some guys just turned over a trash can and started banging on it. Some people joined in, and it just kept going," said Dave Murphy. At times the ruckus sounded like the amplified pattering of raindrops. Other times, the steady beats suggested a gaggle of jackhammers. Several hundred people were gathered around, jerking convulsively to the deafening rhythms.Saturday afternoon, Kris Keyes, a muscular member of the band Gargantua Soul, whose body was painted a fluorescent orange, jumped on top of one of the cans and danced. He thrusted his pelvis to the rhythm, his head thrown back, arms lifted. His Mohawk was dyed yellow. Blue flames were painted on his face and along one arm. The drummers banged harder, louder. He danced for maybe five minutes, then jumped on his skateboard and headed toward the West Stage. As he skated off, he removed his bright orange earplugs.Craig Richard, a 29-year-old PhD researcher from Philadelphia, drummed for several hours dressed in a Santa Claus suit. To him, the beats sounded like "cardiac fibrillation." Why Santa? "Santa is the ultimate benefactor," he explained, "the ultimate symbol of free love and giving from the heart."Bosom Buddies Woodstock was not a Utopia. Despite the presence of such hip-hop acts as Jamiroquai, DMX and Wyclef Jean, the festival-goers were overwhelmingly white. Many in the crowd complained that the event and the food were too expensive. By Saturday, the Woodstock wall erected to keep concert crashers out was decorated with graffiti critical of the event: "$150 TOO MUCH," "THE FOOD REVOLUTION. END OF PROFIT$TOCK," "PEACE, LOVE AND COMMERCIALISM.""People are a little upset about the prices of food and stuff," said Kevin Huston, a 20-year-old welder from Nebraska. Tickets cost $150 plus a hefty service charge. A small bottle of water sold for $4."I haven't seen too many blacks or Hispanics here at all, but that may be because of the choice of the music. It may also be a money thing," Sean Saunders, 22, who came with a group of friends from New Jersey.Another wall sign read, "Keep Corporate Hands Off Our Music," an odd sentiment given that most of the acts that performed are signed to major labels. "Some people, like one of the bigger female artists who played Sunday, are complaining about how commercial this is," said Buckcherry's Nelson. "But they're cashing their checks, right?"Nudity was very big at Woodstock, which made the event a Utopia for some people but not for others. The crowd was peppered with cardboard signs urging women to bare their breasts. By Saturday evening, Rachel Odessky and Julie Bonner, both 20, had had enough of such exhortations--and of the women who obliged them. "I think it's less about free expression and more about getting attention," said Odessky. "The guys' behavior is bugging me. . . . It's like everyone's regressing." Odessky shrugged. "I guess everyone is rebelling, but in a different way. Back then, people were rebelling for social problems. Now we're . . . " she paused, trying to come up with the right words."Trashing the place," said her friend, Mike Francavillo, 19. "Yeah, I guess that's about right," she said.Rage Against . . . What? Saturday night on the East Stage, what many considered the centerpiece of the festival began with metal heavies Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine and Metallica. Halfway through Limp Bizkit's set, the music stopped. Medical personnel ran into the massive crowd and returned with injured fans. The moshers had torn down a barrier around a sound tower, injuring people in the process. Medics told journalists they were treating spinal injuries and fractured ribs before their supervisors herded the press away.At the following morning's news conference, a reporter from MTV compared the medical tent during Limp Bizkit's set to "a Vietnam triage unit" and criticized what she accurately described as a "violent atmosphere." "If you indeed work for MTV," snarled promoter John Scher, "you should be more sensitive to the sociological issues around groups like Limp Bizkit." Whatever that means. When he was finished chewing her out, the assembled press applauded him. Music journalists can be such sycophants.Let It Rain While Metallica thrashed in the East, a different vibe took hold more than a mile away on the West Stage. During the Chemical Brothers deejay set, dancers scampered around, arms flailing. Huge video screens depicted a stained-glass-styled image of Jesus and two apostles. A powerful gust of wind came out of nowhere, and the iconic images froze on the screen. A soft rain poured down for two minutes, and everyone glistened. They raised their arms, heads tipped back. And then the rain stopped. After the Chemical Brothers set, exhausted but happy dancers trudged toward the Emerging Artists Stage. A thin young man rode a bike in that direction. He was naked, save for the orange traffic cone on his head. A Long, Strange Trip Dan Burleson, 20, took a bus here from Minot, N.D. He had a long ride, but it was worth the trip. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing," he said. "I can say I've been to Woodstock." He wasn't disappointed, and yet . . . "It's a great show, but it doesn't represent freedom like it once did. A lot of the meaning was lost. I guess the '60s was about trying to make a difference. The '90s is just about trying to get away."We're trying to get away from the way things are in our society. Everything is just going down. The '90s have metal-detector-at-the-door type stuff. When your president can barely hold standards, that's pretty bad. It seems like all the values in our society don't really mean anything now."Burleson said the festival lacked a spirit of unity. "Different things separate people now. In the '60s, it was war and race. Now the college kids here are walking around with fat wallets. I came here with barely anything. But I guess that gives me something to grab for."But he's still not sure what that is. Right now, he works in a hotel, booking room reservations by telephone. He hasn't gone to college. He's not sure if he will. "I guess I'm Generation X. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm here.""Outcast" is tattooed on his stomach. But when Korn played its thudding, heavy blend of metal and rap on Friday night, Burleson felt different for a little while. The outcast feeling went away. "It was really great. All the people were into it at the same time. It made me feel happy."The Cops By 2 o'clock this morning, Griffiss Park was an otherworldly phantasmagoria of flames set to a cacophony of drumming and chanting, all under a pall of acrid smoke. State police had secured the western half of the concert grounds; several hundred troopers with batons and rubber gloves stood in a massive phalanx, keeping the remaining festival-goers out. Nearby, scores of attendees defiantly continued "Drumstock" despite taunts from police at the fringes of the crowd. "Why don't you just go home? Go home!" an officer shouted."Right now," said 24-year-old Patrick Hurst of Harrisburg, Va., "it's kind of tense with the police line and everybody drumming. I don't know what's going to happen."Police Lt. Robert Patnaude knew what he wanted to happen. "We want to get them away from the propane tanks in the vending area," he said. "Hopefully they'll just pound those drums till they fall asleep." By Alona WartofskyWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, July 26, 1999; Page C01 © Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
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Comment #7 posted by Katie on January 14, 2001 at 13:06:55 PT:
Our chance
I'd just like to say that, as a "kid," we weren't trying to recreate the original Woodstock. We wanted to have the same spirit, but not the exact same. It is impossible to achieve the same as Woodstock '69, and we know that. We are a different generation who have experienced different things. We don't have a war to protest. The best we have to fight against is our President who can't keep his hands to himself, and why should we spend our energy on him? The riots at our Woodstock were caused by 200-500 fans out of 220,000. A lot of the weekend was not violent. We have been criticized for our drug use, but how is that any different than the 60's and 70's? Yes, the promoters of the event messed up. The placed the heavy bands one right after another on Saturday night, creating a sense of violence and anger among the crowd due to the music. They over-charged on water and food. They simply weren't prepared to handle 220,000 people. But we can't blame everything on the money-hungry prommoters. There were some fans that gave our generation a bad name. Not all of us are violent, high pyromaniacs, but we have all been branded that because of the actions of so few. 
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Comment #6 posted by holly on April 07, 2000 at 11:38:30 PT:
maryjane
If legalize marijuana and we will be peaceful.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on July 26, 1999 at 11:05:51 PT:
Long Haul In Back Of A U-Haul 
http://www.timesunion.com/By ALAN WECHSLER, Staff writer First published: Monday, July 26, 1999  Brian Cooke of Alberta, Canada really wanted to drive his six friends to Woodstock in a Winnebago. But they couldn't afford to rent one. So they settled for the next best thing: a 14-foot U-Haul truck.Trying to make the two-day ride comfortable, they threw three old couches in the back and took turns sitting in the hot, dark and noisy compartment. On the way, they looked for empty bottles to return for the deposit so they could buy gasoline and picked up a hitchhiker who kept talking about 8-inch knives and court dates. But the drive, Cooke said, was worth it.On Sunday morning, sitting in a pile of empty bottles and sweat-stained clothes, the 19-year-old Cooke declared their trip a success."We had a dream,'' he said.James, 36, of Knoxville, Tenn., wanted everyone at Woodstock to have a toke and a smile. Or at least a toke.He packed about 25 marijuana joints with his camping equipment before he left. And every time a band began to play, he lit one and began passing it around to strangers. On Sunday afternoon, he was still going strong, passing hits at the Brian Setzer Orchestra show.'I'm trying to be cool and share,'' he said. 'That's what the world used to be about.''Hardcore-metal-rap musicians Sevendust scored a big hit Sunday afternoon, luring more people to the West Stage than the crowd that watched the more-famous Jewel at the East Stage.But they weren't much of a hit at the press tent, where they had the misfortune of holding a conference during deadline time. When no one appeared to have any questions, the man who passed the microphone around ended up asking them himself.Give Sevendust's singer Lajon Witherspoon credit, though, for spontaneously evoking the curious duality of Woodstock: peace and love, mixed with some of the most violent and intense music around.During their performance on stage, a rainstorm skirted the site and the sun came out. Witherspoon, during a break between songs, pointed out across the audience and told them look at a rainbow. Copyright 1999, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y. 
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on July 26, 1999 at 11:00:21 PT
Really Bad!
The anger that broke out is one of the things that concerns me about the younger people. There will never be another Wood Stock because we all had hope back then. I believed that marijuana would be decriminlized soon after the 69 concert! Wrong! These kids rioting and destroying expensive equipment just slows the whole process down and they'll shut down concerts if they can't get a grip on a little self discipline. Just my opinion.
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Comment #3 posted by Ally on July 26, 1999 at 08:24:24 PT
Once again...But there never will be one like '69!
Saw some of it on Friday-Saturday night! I am sorry everybody got crazy at the last minute...They may try but they can never create another '69 concert...I know it was very hot there, and the ABC radio said that the contractors were arguing over who was going to clean up...Shalom, Ally
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 26, 1999 at 07:03:42 PT:
Festival Ends With Fires, Looting!
http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/A young man uses a pipe to break into a hardware tractor trailer parked in the campground area of Woodstock '99, early Monday morning, July 26, 1999, in Rome, N.Y. ROME, N.Y. (AP) -- After almost 72 hours of peace and love, Woodstock '99 ended in blazing chaos Sunday night as hundreds of concertgoers turned into vandals, starting fires and looting. What began as scattered bonfires toward the end of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' festival-closing set escalated into several infernos that took hours to contain. State police said the situation inside the venue had been stabilized by early Monday, and most of the fires had been extinguished. Police said most of the concertgoers had been herded off the grounds. A man stands in front of a bonfire at the 1999 Woodstock Festival, Sunday, July 25, 1999, in Rome, N.Y. [AP photo] John Scher, a concert promoter, said early Monday morning that there had been no deaths or serious injuries. He said he was not aware of any arrests. "It's a great shame that this happened because in so many ways it was so uplifting," Scher said. "It puts a permanent blemish on what happened here." The three-day concert climaxed into a frenzy about a quarter mile from the main stage when several concertgoers set fire to 12 parked tractor-trailers. Several people pulled cases of soda and merchandise from the trucks and fed the flames with debris. Others toppled light stands and speaker towers, while another group tried to destroy a radio station truck. "These kids are animals. It should never have gotten this far," Ruth said Mahorn, 36, of Binghamton, as she walked quickly away from the disturbance with her friends. "They're jerks," said Karen Thomas, 24, of Massachusetts. "It's been great all weekend. People were cool, and now this is how people will remember Woodstock." Hundreds of state troopers in riot gear moved in to protect other vendors' booths. County deputies and city police were deployed to protect other areas of the former Griffiss Air Force Base, now a business and technology park. Earlier in the day, many campers were already pulling up stakes and stashing gear in their cars Sunday morning in hopes of making a quick getaway once their favorite band finished up, but it didn't look promising. "We all have got to work in the morning," said Mara Kugler of Baldwin, N.Y., a sleeping bag tucked under her arm. "It's been a long week, but worth it." State police said that by late afternoon more than 70,000 people had departed with few delays. The exodus was expected to take up to a day since more than 225,000 packed the site. By afternoon, the New York State Thruway was full with concertgoers, but traffic was moving at a steady clip. Rest areas along the Thruway were jammed, and police were directing traffic through rest area parking lots. Slightly over 100 people decided early Sunday that stripping was better than grabbing an extra hour or two of sleep and turned out for a massive nude photo shoot as a brilliant orange sun began to light up the sky. Flyers announcing the escapade were circulated over the weekend by photographer Spencer Tunick, who is well known for his photos of nudes in public places. "I just want to see the expressions that the photos could bring for decades to come," said Sarah Warner of Allston, Mass. "Picture your kid going, 'Grandma, was that you? You were hot!"' Things turned somewhat ugly in the mosh pit Saturday night while Limp Bizkit was playing. A mob of more than 200 threw bottles, smashed a barricade and nearly trampled sound system components. One woman suffered a serious head cut from a thrown bottle. Away from the two mammoth stages, a man carrying $16,000 in cash was arrested Saturday in the campground for selling psychedelic mushrooms, state trooper Jim Simpson said. The arrest was one of 31 made at the festival, troopers said. Pubdate: July 26, 1999© Copyright 1999 St. Petersburg Times.
Festival Ends With Fires, Looting!
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on July 26, 1999 at 05:29:08 PT:
No Peace? Psychiatric Workers On Call At Concert
Related Wood Stock Articles.
No Peace? Psychiatric Workers On Call At Concert-7/25
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