REMEMBERING WOODSTOCK 40 YEARS ON

Richmondite Steve Carver Was 14 When He Attended the 3-Day
Show

"We are stardust, we are golden, and we've got to get ourselves back
to the garden." Woodstock, Joni Mitchell

Forty years ago today, 14-year-old Steve Carver arrived at a 600-acre
farm in New York State for an outdoor concert.

Little did he know the Woodstock Music Festival would become the
cultural apogee of the '60s.

"I turned 15 there -- it was my birthday party," says the 55-year-old
Richmond resident. "Nobody dreamed it would have turned out to be what
it was. It was just mind-blowing, the amount of people who were there.

"It was just a magical event. It affected me deeply. I dreamed about
it for years afterwards."

Held over three days, from Aug. 15 to 17, 1969, the Woodstock festival
is remembered today as both a musical extravaganza featuring 32
performers and a counter-culture high water mark. Organizers, who
expected a maximum of 200,000 concert-goers, were overwhelmed when
500,000 people showed up, with the late-comers getting in free.

Carver, who was born and raised in the Boston area and later
immigrated to Canada, had heard about the Woodstock festival from a
friend who convinced him it would be a good way to celebrate his birthday.

So he shelled out $18 -- a small fortune for a 14-year-old in those
days -- for a ticket.

He still has the ticket stub -- his only proof that he was there,
since his friend later died, and he took no camera with him.

Carver's father drove the boys to Max Yasgur's farm, where the concert
took place. Even though they got there a day before the concert
started, the highway was already jammed, so the two boys set out on
foot and walked the last few miles with their tent, some food and water.

"We ran out of food right away," Carver said. "The concessions were
hopelessly inadequate and the roads were all closed. But we were too
blissed out to worry about food."

Carver's memories of the event are both vivid and vague. Over the
years, he has watched the Woodstock documentary film, and is no longer
sure just how much of his recollections are his own.

"I don't know how much of it is real," he said.

He remembers torrential rain turning the farm into a massive mudhole.
He somehow missed Janis Joplin's performance, but recalls sitting on a
milk jug in the mud listening to Crosby, Stills and Nash. (Neil Young
joined in for only a portion of the performance).

He also recalls a "spectacular" performance by The Who. Carver said
the concert ended anti-climactically, at 4 a.m. in the morning, with a
performance by Jimi Hendrix in front of a much-diminished crowd.

"Hardly anybody was left," he said. "It's just sad -- the end of a
magical thing."

Woodstock was not just a defining moment for the '60s generation, it
was also a defining moment for Carver, who ended up living the hippie
lifestyle for several years. "I went the peaceful route my whole
life," he said.

Carver ended up travelling around, riding the rails in Mexico and
picking fruit in B.C., where he later ended up settling down. He now
lives in Richmond and works in Delta as a machinist.

Attempts to recreate Woodstock never quite succeeded. The Altamont
free concert in December 1969 was marred by drug- and booze-fueled
violence.

Woodstock anniversary concerts were held in 1994 (which drew 350,000
people and included several of the original Woodstock performers, plus
a few, like Bob Dylan, who missed the first one), and again in 1999.
The 30th anniversary concert drew 200,000 people, some of whom torched
supply trucks and looted concession stands.

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FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS:

The original Woodstock music festival became the subject of a
documentary and album. It inspired Canadian-born songwriter Joni
Mitchell to write a song -- Woodstock -- that became a hit for Crosby,
Stills, Nash and Young. Ironically, Mitchell did not perform at
Woodstock, as she declined an invitation to appear because she was
already booked to appear on the Dick Cavett show.

Other noteworthy no-shows included Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Led
Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, the Byrds, Procol Harum, the Moody Blues and
the Doors.

Hippie-activist Abbie Hoffman made the mistake of trying to commandeer
the stage for a political rant during a performance by The Who,
invoking the ire of guitarist Peter Townshend, who rammed Hoffman in
the back with his guitar, shoved him off-stage. Townshend said "I can
dig it," (agreeing with the cause Hoffman was trying to champion) but
later allegedly slapped Hoffman upside the head. It was one of the few
expressions of violence at the concert.

Two people died and two were born. One death was from a heroin
overdose; the other victim was run over by a tractor while sleeping in
a hayfield.

Performers included Jimi Hendrix, The Band, Janis Joplin, Ten Years
After, Johnny Winter, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Santana, Joe Cocker, Sly
and the Family Stone, Jefferson Airplane, Creedence Clearwater
Revival, The Grateful Dead, Joan Baez, Ravi Shankar, and Crosby,
Stills, Nash and Young.