the New York Thruway to close, creating one of the nations worst traffic jams ("Peace Mecca" 10). People walked as many as twenty miles to get to the concert, all the while singing songs of peace and love and carrying placards displaying their hippie sentiments. Among the many were "Keep America Beautiful-Stay Stoned", "Love is Power", and "Flower Power". Flowers, along with a dove perched upon a guitar became the symbols of the festival. These images were painted on cars, clothes and even bodies ("Rock Audience"). Their shabby clothes were a symbol of their freedom, their uniforms being faded jeans and worn tee shirts. They wore beads and feathers with their long hair pulled back in bandannas and beaded headbands Had the festival lasted a little longer, as many as one million of these colorful youths might have made the pilgrimage to Bethel ("What Happened" 8). The lure of the festival was an all-star cast of top rock artists, including Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jefferson Airplane. But the good vibrations of the good groups turned out to be the least of it. What the youth of America, and their observing elders saw at Bethel was the potential power of a generation that had in countless disturbing ways rejected the traditional values and goals of the U.S. Thousands of young people, who had previously thought of themselves as an isolated minority realized now what power they had as a group over society (Fass 3). Shakoor 4Woodstock was the brainchild of four young entrepreneurs who wanted to put on a "great Rock and Roll show for America" In 1968, the four men, Michael Lang, Artie Kornfield, Joel Rosenman, and John Roberts, made a visit to their friend Max Yasgur who lived on a farm near Bethel, New York. They had chosen the town of Bethel for their concert because of the symbolic biblical reference in its name. The four managed to convince Yasgur to let them hold their concert on his 600-acre farm. He agreed t...
