As the 50th anniversary of Woodstock nears, archaeologists are digging up the farmland in Bethel, New York, where the music festival took place to see what treasures the hippies left behind in the desert of mud.
Image: imago/United Archives
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Archaeologists have partially exposed the hippie movement's most famous place of worship: Woodstock. The historical experts have dug up large sections of the fields where hundreds of thousands of freaks and American hippies gathered from August 15 to 17, 1969 for the famous three-day music festival.
More than 400,000 people made the pilgrimage to Bethel, a small town in the state of New York, to see Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Blood, Sweat and Tears live in an ecstatic weekend inspired by music, LSD and marijuana.
The pictures of the hippies dancing, lost in their own world as they listened to the bands on stage — in spite of the rain and mud — have become iconic images in pop music history.
Thirty-two bands appeared at the festival, covering a range of genres: folk, rock, psychedelic rock, blues and country. The grasslands and fields of the farm were completely devastated after the festival — a desert of mud left in the hippies' wake.
The archaeologists aim to map out the exact location of the stage Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Drew
Scouring the concert field for clues
As even recent history leaves valuable traces, archaeologists are now digging up the site to see what was left behind.
Among other things, experts from the Binghamton University want to use the excavations to determine the exact location of the stages on which the bands were performing at that time.
In the fall of 2017, archaeologists had already uncovered the marketplace section, where sellers pawned hippie devotionals during the festival had their stalls.
Read more:40 years on, Woodstock remains a mythical place and time
Artifacts such as this pull tab reveal the surface level at the time of the concertImage: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Drew
The farmland about 80 miles (128 kilometers) north of New York City is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The site has been preserved since the late '90s by a not-for-profit organization that runs an related '60s-themed museum (complete with a psychedelic bus).
"This is a significant historic site in American culture, one of the few peaceful events that gets commemorated from the 1960s," said Wade Lawrence, director of The Museum at Bethel Woods. He said the archaeologists' work will help the museum plan interpretive walking routes in time for the concert's 50th anniversary next year.
Guitar god and hippie icon Jimi Hendrix
Some call him the greatest guitarist of all time, but Jimi Hendrix was much more than a rock'n'roll star. He transcended boundaries in just four short years, and influenced generations of guitarists to come.
Image: IMAGO
Jimi Hendrix, early days
Jimi Hendrix's career began in various bands where he played rock'n'roll or cover songs — which soon bored him. When he founded his first band, he experimented with electronics, playing techniques and amplifiers and invented the sound with which he hit the music scene in the late 1960s like a meteorite. There is good reason he later called himself "The Man from Mars."
Image: IMAGO
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
England, 1966: Jimi Hendrix, drummer Mitch Mitchell (left) and bassist Noel Redding as the newly formed The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Their first album was released a year later, and "Are You Experienced" climbed to number two in the UK Charts, just behind the Beatles' – who were Hendrix fans — "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
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'Experience' in Monterey
Off to the US, where Hendrix played alongside The Animals, Janis Joplin, The Who and various other top acts at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967 to a crowd of 90,000 — many more than the expected 10,000 festival goers. Hendrix's wild show included smashing and burning a guitar. As the "Los Angeles Times" put it, Jimi left the stage having "graduated from rumor to legend."
Image: Bruce Fleming/AP Images/picture-alliance
Teeth, lips, tongue
A guitar was more than just an instrument to Jimi Hendrix – it was also a playground and a sex object. Left-handed, Hendrix had his right-handed guitars restrung with the bass string on top. It changed everything, becoming the basis of his signature sound. Playing with his teeth or tongue was just one of the many ways he expressed his unique style.
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Music history in Woodstock
August 1969: Jimi Hendrix was the headliner, and scheduled to play the grand finale on Sunday evening at the Woodstock festival. For various reasons, it was Monday morning before he came on stage. Most of the 500,000 visitors had already left. Undeterred, Hendrix played a legendary two hour set — and the most famous solo of his life on "Star Spangled Banner."
Image: imago images / United Archives
His last festival
September 1970: Wet and stormy weather delayed Jimi's performance at the "Love & Peace" festival on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn. 25,000 fans were miffed and many booed as he walked on stage a day late. Jimi's response: "Boo, boo....I don't give a fuck if you boo, as long as you boo in key....you mothers." The weather cleared, and Jimi played another epic 90-minute set.
Image: GP/MPI/Capital Pictures/picture-alliance
Last curtain call
Fehmarn was Jimi Hendrix's last big live concert. On September 17, he performed with Eric Burdon & War in a club in London. In his hotel room later that night, he couldn't sleep. He resorted to a fatal mix: a bottle of wine and a lot of sleeping pills. Jimi Hendrix choked on his own vomit and died of asphyxia. He was laid to rest in his home town of Seattle on October 1, 1970.
