History Club Commemorates Woodstock

Members of the John T. Coughlin History Club had a groovy start to their fall semester by celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Woodstock festival with a tie dye party. The students dyed their shirts while listening to music from the concert and learning about the cultural significance of those three days of “peace, love, and music” in Bethel, NY.

Over the weekend of August 15-18, 1969, on a private farm in upstate New York, the Woodstock Festival took place, bringing almost 500,000 people out of their suburban living rooms for three days of peace and music. To say that Woodstock went off without a hitch would be a gross understatement of the trials that came along with the concert. Among other issues, an evening of torrential rain on August 15 made for a very muddy time. One Woodstock attendee explained that Woodstock worked precisely because of all of those hiccups. Due to the crushing number of people, there was a lack of food and resources to accommodate them all, but the camaraderie concertgoers experienced at Woodstock would come to define the generation. Despite the bad weather and deficit of resources, the peace and music loving people of Woodstock shared a feeling of acceptance and goodwill with one another. It is said that “if you can remember Woodstock, you weren’t there.” Although concert attendees may not remember much about that weekend, they can remember the good vibes they shared.

To learn more about the events that happened during the summer of 1969, stop by the History Department (Hilsdorf Hall Room 303) and check out the bulletin board display “Summer of ’69.”