We’re about to receive one hell of a documentary set to recap all of the utter madness that was Woodstock 1999.
The HBO documentary Woodstock 99: Peace, Love and Rage gets one thing very clear from the outset. It was nothing like the inaugural 1969 Woodstock our predecessors went to. No, it was of a whole different breed.
While the 1969 rendition may have had its fair share of chaos (naturally), it was one born of free hugs, peace and love. But when it came to 1999, it was more about way, way too much rage.
As reported by Consequence, the festival, deemed by many as a (literal) shit show saw 400,000 attendees pull up to upstate New York for the festival.
Known as “the day the ’90s died”, the festival was problematic on multiple levels with its violent crowd committing looting, vandalism, arson and counts of sexual assault and rape.
Not only were the patrons totally out of control, the festival’s provisions saw the festival transcend into the depths of hell with an immense lack of planning for patrons and extreme heat provisions.
As seen in the trailer, the porta-loos were literally unusable, with flooding faeces contaminating the premises, all while attendees were thinking it was mud.
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Throughout the documentary, a dialogue is provided on the many contributing societal factors that people have come to see the festival be what it was and that these societal factors made the festival in a way, inevitable for the times.
Moby makes an appearance in the documentary’s trailer, recalling, “We got off the bus.”
“And I thought: something’s not right,” he continued.
The documentary was directed by Garret Price and executive produced by Bill Simmons. It will be arriving to HBO on July 23rd and available to stream on HBO Max.
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Watch the trailer for ‘Woodstock 99: Peace, Love and Rage’:
