Woodstock: The Free Festival That Wasn't Meant to Be

In early 1969, four young men—Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, John P. Roberts, and Joel Rosenman—hatched a plan not for a cultural revolution, but for a business. They formed a commercial partnership, Woodstock Ventures, with a straightforward goal: to raise enough capital to build their own recording studio in upstate New York. The entire enterprise was bankrolled by Roberts, an heir to a dental adhesive fortune. Their plan was to host a three-day music festival for an expected crowd of 50,000 people. Advance tickets went on sale in the spring for $18, sold through mail order and at local record stores. But the response wildly outpaced their expectations. Before a single note was played, the promoters had already sold around 186,000 tickets, more than triple their initial estimate. The for-profit venture was already a logistical behemoth, and the organizers had no idea how much bigger it was about to get. The plan for a manageable, ticketed event was already starting to unravel before a single roadie arrived on site.