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WOODSTOCK: A NEW NATION part 11 Book excerpt from "Aquarius Rising" by Robert Santelli The promoters claimed they had lost $1.3 million on the event. Such unexpected costs as helicopter rental fees and food and medical supplies helped raise their losses to such an outrageous figure. So they said. They also called attention to the fact that no tickets were sold at the festival site as originally planned because the fences were down before the music got started. They had no way of recouping their losses with the exception of the profits they would receive from the film and records. Those who were clever enough realized that the interest the media had generated over Woodstock would guarantee that enough money would be made from the movie and albums to at least wipe out the figures in the loss column. Speculation over future profits came to a head when it was reported that Albert Grossman, one of rock's most visionary front men, wanted to buy into Woodstock Ventures and assume part of its million-dollar debt. Michael Wadleigh and Bob Maurice had been contacted two months before the festival took place to film the event. The concluded deal stipulated that Woodstock Ventures would receive a portion of the profits from the film, but Wadleigh and Maurice would have to raise the money for the production of the film. They would also be responsible for finding a distributor. When Wadleigh had trouble locating one, he asked John Roberts for money to cover the costs of producing the film until a distributor could be found. Roberts decided to start being frugal at the wrong time and said he couldn't help him out. Eventually Wadleigh had to settle for a lean $100,000 contract with Warner Brothers. When the Woodstock craze finally leveled off, the movie had grossed some $17 million dollars for Warners. The film opened in March 1970 and set house records in New York; Washington, D.C.; Dallas; Boston; and Los Angeles. Ticket prices hovered around the $5 mark. The high price of admission was based on the theory that since the three-hour extravaganza was similar to a rock concert, young people would not mind paying the large fee to see the movie. The movie was a critical success as well as a financial one. Wadleigh and his twenty-five-person crew filmed not only the performances onstage but also the happenings in the crowd and at the campsites. When they were putting the film together, they used such visual effects as overlapping, split-screening, and double-framing to enhance the documentary. The high quality of the film was carried over to the lps that were released in 1970 (Woodstock) and 1971 (Woodstock Two). The albums, produced by Eric Blackstead, were made from over one hundred hours of tape that included all the performances and the stage announcements that were heard during the three days. Immediately after the festival ended, a split in Woodstock Ventures ended the four-man partnership. John Roberts and Joel Rosenman sided against Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang. It was revealed that intense bitterness had always existed between the two sets of men. Roberts and Rosenman felt that Kornfeld and Lang had done very little in the way of work to make the festival a reality. Roberts claimed that the two other promoters were more interested in securing publicity for themselves and had generally abused the status of being Woodstock promoters. On the other hand, Kornfeld and Lang accused Roberts and Rosenman of trying to prevent them from receiving their rightful share of the profits. The bickering died down when Roberts and Rosenman consented to accept $31,250 apiece to leave Woodstock Ventures. As for Max Yasgur, his friends in Bethel gave him a testimonial dinner and publicly thanked him for bringing the festival to Sullivan County and restoring some economic activity to the area. Yasgur appeared on many talk shows and became a sort of celebrity. In February of 1973, almost four years after Woodstock, Max Yasgur, at the age of fifty-three, died of a heart attack in Florida. In its obituary Time magazine labeled Yasgur the "patron saint of the counterculture." The greatest summer in rock history ended when the last of the festivalgoers returned home from Bethel in mid-August and from the Labor Day weekend festivals held in Louisiana, Texas, and Washington. Across the Atlantic, English and European rock fans headed back to the mainland and the British Isles after participating in the Isle of Wight festival, where over 200,000 people had gathered for an English version of Woodstock. It was the only festival of the summer that could boast a performance by Bob Dylan. The immense popularity of the summer rock festivals proved that the magnetic attraction to these events was much stronger than anyone had anticipated. Because of this, in October of 1969 a unique conference was held in the mountains of New Mexico. A collection of some sixty of the most influential leaders of the counterculture attended a "sympowowsium" on the future of rock festivals and other large-scale gatherings. Among those present were Ken Kesey—novelist, LSD advocate, and originator of the 1967 Trips Festival; Woodstock promoter Michael Lang; Realist editor Paul Krassner; Bill Hanley of Hanley Sound; and members of the Hog Farm. The main theme of the conference was "What Comes After Woodstock?" The group was unanimous in its feeling that the rock festival was a potent force in the continuation of the counterculture and should be used to further advocate alternative life-styles, aside from presenting the newest sounds in rock music. Topics such as gate-crashing, drugs, rip-off promoters, and violence were discussed, but no course of action was agreed on. The group, however, did decide to gather information for a manual on how to produce a rock festival and to coordinate plans for a huge rock festival to be held on Cherokee holy land in Georgia, with profits from the event going to the Indians for the purchase of the land. The conference could have played a major role in the future presentation of rock festivals, but due to a lack of leadership and an eventual parting of philosophical ways, the meeting turned out to be nothing more than a pleasant get-together of old friends. Perhaps if plans had been laid out and effectively carried through, 1970 would have been a much better year for rock festivals than it actually was.
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