Max Yasgur: The Man Who Made Woodstock 1969 Possible

By | January 5, 2020

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American farmer Max Yasgur on the stage during the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair in Bethel, New York, August 17, 1969. Photo by Bill Eppridge/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

Without a man named Max Yasgur, a dairy farmer based in Bethel, NY, the world would have never seen the most famous concert in human history, the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. That’s right, Woodstock, the event that inspired countless music concerts, movies, and people was in danger of not even happening until Yasgur stepped forward to provide a venue. In doing so, he spit in the face of convention, irked his neighbors, and invited legitimate economic pressures. This is the unbelievable story of how the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival was saved.

Why Woodstock?

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Yagur contacted the organizers and offered up his dairy farm for the most famous music festival in history. Source: YouTube

The actual organizers of Woodstock were four young men: Artie Kornfeld, Michael Lang, John Roberts, and Joel Rosenman. They planned to hold their mind-bending music concert at Howard Mills Industrial Park in Wallkill, N.Y., roughly 30 miles from the town of Woodstock.

Unfortunately, a month before the paradigm-altering music festival was to begin, the town succeeded in banning the event. Apparently, the idea of thousands of hippies invading their town for a weekend of fun was unthinkable. They would have gotten their way if not for a stubborn forward-thinking man, Mr. Max Yasgur.