Planned for 150,000 to 200,000 people, the festival attracted half a million people. And that doesn’t include those stuck in their cars on the clogged roads leading to Woodstock.
Look closely look at the grainy photographs of the sheer number of people. Following the riots of the previous summer, what should surprise you is the lack of
security and police!
The key to understanding this lies in the people who attended and their views of the world.
These hippies were members of the mid-sixties middle class counterculture. For them, the festival was about the sense of warmth and good vibes despite the lack of basic amenities and rain.
Woodstock created a template for future music festivals. But the event’s performers and attendees would consider these more recent events against their principles. So it’s no surprise that Woodstock wasn’t about the marketing and the merchandise.
Despite this, the music yielded a top Billboard soundtrack and an Oscar winning documentary that generated $50 million at the box office.
Further this explains why attempts to celebrate major festival milestones failed. They failed to capture what was at the heart of the original Woodstock, a movement and way of thinking of a generation.
By contrast, events like Coachella, Lollapalooza and other music festivals around the US and the world, involve marketing and merchandise. They’ve become part of the financial fabric of the locations where they’re held.
This shouldn’t surprise you as a marketer. Regardless of your reason for creating it, a strong promotion creates a need to match or exceed it in following years.
But one thing remains constant:
Adoring music fans need to feel a real-life connection.
This fandom is best epitomized by The Grateful Dead, despite their subpar Woodstock performance.
Unlike other bands, The Dead put their raving
fans at the heart of their performances. (BTW, David Meerman Scott agrees—he even wrote a marketing book about The Grateful Dead.
)
Instead of licensing deals, The Dead welcomed and encouraged fans to create and sell band-related merchandise at their concerts.
Further, bootleggers were given access to quality locations to record their concerts.
