Break (a lot of) Stuff: Woodstock ’99 began 25 years ago
The disastrous Woodstock ’99 began July 23, 1999 — 25 years ago Tuesday.
Originally planned as a 30-year anniversary of the original 1969 Woodstock, the festival, which featured bands including Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock, instead became infamous for turning into a scene of violence and sexual assault.
Over Woodstock ’99’s three days, attendees became increasingly frustrated with the lack of proper sanitation facilities and being overcharged for food and water. The hot July weather was exacerbated by the festival’s location, a former Air Force base in upstate New York that was covered in concrete and offered little shade.
Things started to become more unhinged on the second day during Limp Bizkit’s set, when the crowd started to, well, break stuff, resulting in Fred Durst crowd surfing on a piece of plywood torn from a nearby structure.
With tensions rising heading into the third day, things exploded during RHCP’s headlining set when fans started bonfires in the audience, eventually leading to full-scale riots.
Decades later, Woodstock ’99 would inspire two documentaries: HBO’s 2021 film Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage and Netflix’s three-part 2022 series Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99. In Peace, Love, and Rage, director Garret Price explored how the cultural and sociopolitical landscape of 1999 and the angry music of bands on the lineup, along with the festival’s shoddy planning and facilities, contributed to its demise.
“I honestly think that the promoters kinda fell victim to the whole Woodstock mythology itself, that this thing will just work out in the end,” Price told ABC Audio in 2021. “‘We’ll just let society figure itself out on this Air Force base.’ And it didn’t work out that way.”
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