The 1999 iteration of Woodstock was meant to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original festival, which was full of peace, love and happiness. That wasn’t the case for Woodstock ’99, which left behind a trail of destruction, violence, death, litigation and bad memories.
Woodstock ’99 in Rome, New York
Woodstock 99 happened over four days from Thursday, July 22 to Sunday, July 25, 1999. The original Woodstock was held on a farm with lots of foliage and greenery, which offered protection to attendees from the elements and those who wanted to camp. Woodstock ’99 was held in a decommissioned airforce base in Rome, New York with nearly a quarter of a million attendees.
Music Journalist Steven Hyden told RNZ Music what went wrong with the location, “The idea of having it at a military base was so that people didn’t gate crash like they did at Woodstock ’69… where people showed up, didn’t pay and just barged their way in…But the site was a flat, open space with no trees, providing very little shade from the burning July heat. It was basically just asphalt and barbed wire, and it was really hot that weekend. People were really uncomfortable.”
Given the lack of shade, the 1.5-mile walk between the two stages was unbearable on the hot tarmac. Many cases of dehydration and heat exhaustion were treated at the medical tents.
Festival Promoters in Violation of Security Protocols
Even weeks before the festival was set to take place, there was trouble with security preparations. Spin reported that weeks before the festival, the promoters were in violation of a 1970 law that was passed after the first Woodstock, to avert any repeat of the chaos that took place.
The original Woodstock saw a lack of toilets, food, water and medical facilities. The New York Times reported the County was looking to levy fines of upwards of $1.5 million against the promoters.
“The County Executive said yesterday that most of the violations were not serious, but concerned late submissions of engineering plans, parking plans and a payment to New York State for repairs it had to make to the Gov. Thomas E. Dewey Thruway for the anticipated influx of 200,000 to 300,000 people.”
The article stated that unless the fines were paid, Woodstock ’99 could have been cancelled. Spin reported, however, that the promoters skirted the fines and promised to hire 1,200 security guards.
The security guards hired by the festival themselves were paid $12/hour while the sub-contracted security guards were paid $6-8/hr. They were promised 2 meals a day and living quarters for the weekend, but the promoters were so short on time to find the security, they hired mostly from a nearby unemployment office.
The Peace Patrol
The security on site, known as the peace patrol, was about as effective as the Afghan army. One peace patrol officer told a Syracuse newspaper, “It was like sign the sheet and you’re certified security.”
Nearly 100 members of the peace patrol quit on the first night of the festival, in disgust. The next night, the peace patrol officers were deployed outside the gates to stop weapons, drugs and outside food and drink from coming into the grounds. However, if concertgoers were caught with drugs, some peace patrol officers would let it slide if they were bribed. Women, on the other hand, complained of being singled out for body searches that felt more like assault.
“Turn your head unless somebody is hurting someone else.” – Security Guard
One security guard told Spin magazine that the promoters instructed security personnel not to care about drugs, “They said in an orientation that there will be nudity and drugs and you’re going to turn your head. Turn your head unless somebody is hurting someone else… That’s what led up to Sunday.”
Water is an Expensive Commodity in the July Heat
The sweltering temperatures resulted in a sky-rocketing demand for water, which was expensive at $4.00 a bottle ($7 if you adjust for inflation to 2021). Spin reported that a company named Ogden Corporation, which happened to be co-owned by one of the festival promoters, sold the festival vendors the bottled water for $70 a case. Some of the vendors tried to drop prices but the Ogden Corporation threatened to shut them down or threatened them with fines.
There was free water available on site but it was not easily accessible. The fountains were nearly half a mile from the main stages, the amount of water that came out of the fountains was small and the lineups for the free water were long. Frustrated concertgoers damaged the waterlines to the fountains.
Mud or Human Waste?
The organizers only rented 2500 portapotties for the entire festival grounds and miscalculated how often they had to be cleaned. It resulted in a lot of the toilets overflowing and mixing with the water from the broken waterlines and mud.
Surrounding the airforce base was a 12 ft high timber and steel wall named the Peace Wall. The wall had drawings from artists on it but soon enough, it bore the brunt of the crowd’s anger throughout the weekend, especially on the final night. It was knocked over and the plywood was stripped from it.
Extreme Sports Action Lounge
Between the main stages was something called the Extreme Sports Action Lounge, which was literally a slab of concrete that attendees paid $15 to bike or skateboard on. The half-pipe that was planned for this area hadn’t arrived at the festival grounds as planned. That wasn’t the main reason people were going to the extreme sports action lounge. According to Spin magazine, the area was full of cheerleaders, ESPN announcers and nude contests, which included rock climbing, wet t-shirt contests and BMX racing.
The Action Lounge’s Director told Spin, “We were cautious to make it more comical and less sexual, but people were getting nude anyways. We just gave them a forum.”
The lineup for Woodstock ’99 was a whose who of popular rock music at the time. Included in the lineup were Metallica, Limp Bizkit, Korn, Creed, Live, and The Offspring, just to name a few. Even the artists could sense there was trouble on the horizon.
“I’ve literally played a venue that was built by Hitler. It was more hospitable than that airforce base was.” – Noodles, The Offspring
The Offspring’s guitarist Noodles remembered the festival in a pretty poor light, “We played this festival in Nuremberg. So I’ve literally played a venue that was built by Hitler. It was more hospitable than that airforce base was… The audience was super far away, there were big cameras on tracks that were in between us and the crowd… So, just kind of connecting with the audience was a little bit more difficult.”
On the second night of the Festival at around 9:30 pm, Korn performed and the medical tent behind the stage saw countless drug overdoses and moshing with women being swallowed by the crowd and assaulted.
44-Year-Old Dies of Heat Exhaustion
Friday saw the first casualty, a 44-year-old who attended Woodstock ’69. He had just recovered from heart surgery and died due to heat exhaustion. It set the stage for what was to come in the following days.
Saturday morning opened up with a daily press briefing from one of the promoters who told the press, “You can have a Woodstock and it can be a safe and secure environment. We’re going to try.”
The porta potties were overflowing with sewage by this point in time and had mixed with the mud which travelled down and took over numerous campsites on the grounds. In addition to drug overdoses, assaults, dehydration, and heat exhaustion, attendees had unknowingly been exposed to human waste, resulting in vomiting and upset stomachs.
Later in the day, people without tickets were able to make their way into the festival grounds through holes in the fence around the airforce base. By Saturday night, only about 10% of 175 security personnel showed up. Couple this with more attendees showing up and the ratio of attendees to security personnel grew exponentially. More drugs and alcohol snuck into the grounds set the stage for Limp Bizkit’s much-publicized performance on Saturday evening.
Spin wrote about the moments before Limp Bizkit took the stage, “At this point, hurling mud and shoes was amateur pursuit. People moved onto batteries, disposable cameras and rocks the size of hockey pucks.”
“How many people have ever woke up in the morning and just decided you’re going to break some shit?” – Fred Durst, Limp Bizkit
One of the defining moments that weekend happened during Limp Bizkit’s set when frontman Fred Durst asked the crowd, “How many people have ever woke up in the morning and just decided you’re going to break some shit,” before introducing the song “Break Stuff”.
An MTV producer wrote for Variety, “The crowd was so riled up that people used tarps as makeshift trampolines, propelling people incredibly high in the air as others stood and jumped off the many pieces of plywood floating through the audience. It was around this time our delay tower began shaking as we were pelted by an endless barrage of plastic bottles.”
“It looked like the MASH triage unit.” – MTV Producer
During Limp Bizkit’s performance, many people in the crowd sustained broken bones, overwhelming the medical tents with one person in the mosh pit suffering a fractured spine. An MTV producer told Spin, “It looked like the MASH triage unit”.
Limp Bizkit’s show was said to have featured the most assaults and violence against women of the whole weekend.
“I think the event has been a great success from a security point of view.” – Festival Head of Security
At the Sunday morning news conference, the promoters told the press that the events on Saturday were “a frat party to a large degree”, with the head of security stating, “I think the event has been a great success from a security point of view.”
In reality, the security situation was pretty dire. In addition to all the security and sanitation issues, there was an enormous amount of trash piling up on the site as the garbage cans hadn’t been emptied.
To show how out of touch the organizers and promoter were, the New York Times wrote about the festival’s final night. “Just as the 3-day concert wound down to its final act on Sunday night, John Scher and his partner, Michael Lang, two of the promoters, and Mayor Joseph A. Griffo of Rome were high-fiving each other for what they saw as a virtually flawless weekend. Then, without warning, a Mercedes went up in flames.”
Festival Attendees Set Massive Bonfires
Apart from the vendors, there were tents from various political organizations including an anti-violence group named PAX. They handed out candles to attendees who stopped by their tent and asked they be lit while the Chili Peppers played “Under the Bridge”. While some complied with the request, others used the candles to start several massive bonfires in the crowd.
Fire officials thought the fires were manageable and let the Chili Peppers continue their set. As the fires burned, the Chili Peppers played a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s song “Fire”. While some claimed the Chili Peppers were promoting bad behaviour, frontman Anthony Kiedis wrote in his autobiography that Jimi Hendrix’s sister requested the band to play the song to honour his appearance at the original Woodstock. The Chili Peppers had previously covered the song as well.
700 State Troopers Take Control
A misinformed rumour started in the crowd that there would be a surprise act coming on stage after the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed, but there wasn’t. This further infuriated the crowd who started more fires, looted vendor stands, and trailers and robbed atm machines. Eventually, 700 state troopers dressed in riot gear took control of the site.
MTV News reported in early August that 39 people had been arrested in connection with the rioting, at least 8 sex-related offences, 60 hospitalizations. and nearly 90 other reported crimes were being investigated. They also announced 4 deaths during the course of the festival.
“…We blame ourselves to a degree.” – Festival Organizers
It was estimated that several thousand people took part in the rioting. The organizers held an impromptu press conference with one of the promoters telling the press, “I am mortified that this happened… of course, we blame ourselves to a degree.” The organizers, however, ultimately blamed the mayhem on ”bad kids”.
The police weren’t free from criticism. Several state troopers were found to have posed with nude fans. The Woodstock website also caught a lot of flack in the aftermath for posting nude photos of women from the festival.
In 2019, Woodstock 50 was announced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original festival but the financial backers of the festival pulled out and the festival was cancelled.
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