A group of journalists worked amid the chaos of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair. However, initial coverage of the Woodstock event portrayed it as a disaster. However, a young generation of journalists saw the event differently.
As they returned to their newsrooms across America, the reporters and editors struggled to characterize the era-changing events that had occurred over the weekend.
The Impact Thereafter
Thanks to all the coverage in the media, Woodstock had an impact far beyond its actual borders. Following Woodstock, an eponymous documentary film, the year was released to critical acclaim and distribution across the United States.
It really felt like it was a time for social and cultural change, mainly due to population demographics. According to the US Census Bureau, 36% of the US population was under 18 in 1960. A youth movement was underway.
The Era of Woodstock
Likewise, Woodstock's photos that circulated painted a picture to those on the outside of what it felt like to be there, and at this festival that was quickly becoming symbolic of the 'Woodstock generation.'
To an entire generation, Woodstock comprised the central tenets of the 1960s cultural revolution. Fifty years afterward, the legend of "3 Days of Peace & Music" lives on.
Impromptu Shelters
Many were carrying sleeping bags and tents, canned food and guitars, dressed in beads, leather, bandanas, and long gowns, the young people spoke of sleeping out under the stars and possible riots.
Impromptu shelters as we see here were common; as this man unwinds in the grass hut he built for the weekend.
Bringing Yoga to the West
As one of the great Yoga masters to bring the classical Yoga tradition to the West in the 1960s, Sri Swami Satchidananda taught Yoga postures and meditation.
He also introduced students to a vegetarian diet and a more compassionate lifestyle; these concepts influenced a generation and spawned a growing Yoga culture.