Woodstock And Other Festivals That Turn To Disaster

Part of VOI's signature Series Writing, "Disturbing Musical Performances". In the article "Dark Clouds in the Spring Music Festival," we discussed the chaos of a number of musical events in the past 30 days. Throughout this article, take a look at other messes. Maybe, chaos is indeed part of the history of musical events in the world.

Perhaps, no musical event will ever beat the greatness of the Woodstock Festival, as there will likely be nothing more chaotic than the legendary music festival. Seeing the last event in 1999. That year's Woodstock Festival is even remembered as "the day of the deaths of the 90s."

Carrying the motto of "Peace, Love, and Happiness", Woodstock '99 has the ambition to restore the muruah of the glory of Woodstock 1969. Super musicians entered the list of performers. James Brown, Rage Against The Machine, Ice Cube, Metallica, Willie Nelson, Elvis Costello, to the energetic quartet from California, Red Hot Chilli Peppers make that ambition look like nothing.

Griffiss Air Force Base was chosen as the land of pleasure. It is estimated that more than 200 thousand people thronged the location. Griffiss Air Force Base is located in Rome, New York, about two hours from the lease belonging to Max Yasgur, where Woodstock was first held. Weather conditions and lack of logistics are seeds of chaos.

Instead of having fun, the party, which was held for three days - starting July 22 - turned into a mass survival effort. Under the scorching sun, bottled water and food were sold at a premium with limited supplies. Pizza, for example, is sold for 12 US dollars. It caused the audience to have dark eyes. ATMs are targets of theft.

Like inheriting the Woodstock chaos of '69, the occasion also led to a defecation issue. Flooded toilets. The damage that made humans that day turned wilder. The need for water makes the audience sabotage the distribution pipes to meet their individual needs. The 500 New York State Troopers police personnel stationed at the scene could not do much.

Woodstock

The Woodstock tragedy '99 started when Limp Bizkit got on stage. Four rapes occurred during the performance of the rap rock unit from Florida, United States. One of them was reported as gang rape.

Next, flames broke out. The candlelight action that was planned to be carried out to accompany the Red Hot Chilli Peppers action turned into a burnt action, including the target loudspeaker tower. In the following minutes, the looting intensified. The audience became more and more blurry in the dark.

During the three days of organizing Woodstock '99, police arrested 44 people. Meanwhile, another 1,200 must receive medical care. "I think people's memories (of Woodstock '99), namely a group of young men dancing around a fire, are even more dramatic than what happened," said the promoter, Michael Lang in an interview with Billboard in 2009.

"The problems that occurred at Woodstock erupted after the last band finished performing and only a hundred spectators were involved in the riot. I think the consequences of this incident are clear," Lang added.

There were no fatalities in Woodstock '99. However, all the chaos actually draws the memory back to the previous 30 years, when Woodstock '69 was held. The Woodstock event that year sounded very extraordinary. Performers such as Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, to the Rolling Stones illustrate how much Lang's desire that year.

In fact, so many people have dared to testify, Woodstock '69 is not just a musical event. Woodstock '69 is a counter-cultural movement in the United States. At that time, anti-war rejection echoed loudly. Young men took to the streets to protest the US invasion of Vietnam. They made flowers a symbol of their resistance. Since then, the flower generation, aka flower generation, started.

And Woodstock actually lies as a land for their flower generation. Woodstock '69 even carries the theme "Three Days of Peace and Music" which describes the unique resistance of the flower generation - through love and peace - to break down the walls of establishment and western-style capitalism. At least, 30 thousand people gathered. An amount that Lang Cs never imagined.

Perhaps Lang's biggest mistake was his failure to recruit official security. At that time, he even invited the violent motorcycle gang Hell's Angels to secure the concert. They were paid a beer in the amount of 500 US dollars. The Hell's Angels refuse the security task. However, they stated that they would come as spectators to help the event run smoothly.

The Altamont tragedy began when Mick Jagger Cs appeared. Thousands of hysterical spectators began to try to climb up and press the lips of the stage. The commotion between the audience and Hell's Angels was inevitable. In the midst of the commotion, a woman named Meredith Hunter was stabbed by Hell's Angels member Alan Passaro for being seen pulling out a 22-inch caliber pistol.

Meanwhile, three other deaths occurred because of a hit-and-run and drowning of one person in an irrigation canal. The concert and tragedy were recorded by Albert and David Maysles, who turned their footage into the documentary Gimme Shelter (1970).

Fyre

Another music festival with another stirring chaos is the Fyre Festival. The disaster started when a young businessman named Billy McFarland had a big ambition to create the most luxurious festival ever.

He and his partner, rapper Ja Rule had the idea to organize a festival that was held for days on a small island in the Bahamas. Perhaps, creating a little paradise on Pablo Escobar's estate was on his mind at that time.

Billy promises extraordinary luxury in Fyre, including luxury villas, food from top chefs, to luxury boat accommodation. The image of the festival's luxury can be seen from the video trailer released by the Fyre Festival.

Unmitigated, the world's top celebrities were featured in the promotional video. The names Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Hailey Baldwin raised the festival's prestige to the sky. Prestige is also sold at exorbitant prices. To be part of the Fyre Festival, an audience must pay 4-12 thousand US dollars. The most expensive ticket was equivalent to IDR 170 million at the exchange rate at that time.

From the line of performers, Fyre Festival promised 90s punk rock band, Blink-182. The people were lulled. As a result, thousands of Fyre Festival tickets were sold out in no time. Unfortunately, this sky-high prestige is just wishful thinking. That wishful thinking immediately shattered on April 27, 2017, the day on which the Fyre Festival was supposed to be held.

Participants who just came to the island had to wait for hours at a Bahamian restaurant and then be escorted to their lodging. However, there they did not find the luxurious villa that had been promised. There are only tents like a disaster in which there are mattresses. In addition, those who initially wanted to taste the cuisine of the famous chef, were only served slices of bread with cheese, which was complemented with a salad wrapped in Styrofoam.

The disappointment was only the beginning. Ultimately, they had to accept the fact that Blink-182 decided not to appear at the festival. This made the ticket buyers, mostly from the wealthy class, disappointed.

In the end, the organizers were caught up in the law. Some of the ticket buyers demanded compensation of up to US $ 11 million (Rp. 1.4 billion rupiah) on charges of fraud. On June 30, 2017, Billy MacFarland was finally arrested on charges of fraud, before being sentenced to six years in prison with a fine of US $ 26 million (Rp. 368 billion).

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