Woodstock '99

The three-part Netflix docuseries, "Trainwreck: Woodstock '99," premiering Aug. 3, looks at how the music festival devolved into anarchy.

“I think in the ’90s, kids were in a different headspace. In the hands of the disgruntled, exhausted festival-goers, it was a disaster waiting to happen. There were a–holes in the crowd. Widely reported as an accidental event, people climbed on top of the slow-moving vehicle, and the set came to a screeching halt. “All my crew and the people from the record company were properly rattled. It was terrible,’” said Wardle. “And then it really surprised us. (Morissette had opened for the band, performing what MTV referred to as a “confident” if relatively low-key set, in front of a mostly “apathetic” crowd.) By the festival’s end, four incidents of sexual assault were being investigated, according to the docuseries. (SPIN Magazine’s 1999 report on the event was famously titled “ Don’t Drink The Brown Water.” At the time, and well after the festival, Oneida County health officials insisted the water was safe.) And while it’s true that sneaking onto the decommissioned military installation without paying was more difficult, there were were major issues from the start, like a significant lack of shaded space that only exacerbated festival goers’ misery, as a heat wave seared central New York that late July. “They were used to Woodstock being synonymous with bad weather and rains. New York state troopers and other law enforcement were eventually called in to quell the riot with force.

Often considered "the day the music died", Woodstock '99 went down in history as a disastrous day in US music culture – but what happened and why?

He also ran Just Sunshine Records, which produced music from Betty Davis and Karen Dalton, among others. West Stage West Stage During the Red Hot Chilli Peppers festival-closing set, attendees took their cover of Jimi Hendrix's 'Fire' quite literally, with bonfires breaking out throughout the crowd, cars being flipped and booths being torched. According to Syracuse.com, at least 700 people were treated for heat exhaustion and dehydration at the festival. With few tap water stations and bottled water being sold for $4 on site when the temperatures were hitting the late 30s in celsius, festivalgoers were both dehydrated and displeased with the situation.

What was supposed to be an event celebrating the 30th anniversary of the iconic 1969 festival filled with peace, love, and music, devolved into a chaotic, ...

Throughout Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99, attendees, organizers, and several of the artists that performed share their experiences from the festival. This direction not only creates a more “in the moment” feel it also helps distance the new docuseries from the 2021 HBO documentary Woodstock ’99: Peace, Love, and Rage, which looked at the festival from a more modern view. Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 takes what other documentaries and news specials have done over the years and turned up the volume to provide an unprecedented look at the notorious event.

Its tone captures a bittersweet rush that you must have had to be there to truly get.

So much in this story could have been prevented, and predicted, and this documentary shows its collapse with one compelling passage after the next. The purpose of going to this story is to be amazed at how obvious these developments are. Trainwreck" is quickly paced with one episode for each day; its different themes, pop culture references, name-drops, and general schadenfreude always pop, but that acute nature can make it guilty of glossing over some of the more significant or curious pieces in the big picture. The series is especially compelling with behind-the-scenes footage, starting with VHS footage of planning meetings that went from nostalgic optimism to complete negligence. Similarly, this documentary is dedicated to humanizing those who were treated as animals and then perceived as such when they started to rebel, destroying the grounds by its closing Sunday night. They hired a bunch of popular acts who are paid to be angry (Korn, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock) and then they gave thousands of concertgoers numerous reasons to be angry at them.

A Netflix documentary, 'Trainwreck: Woodstock '99' explores what went wrong at the copycat festival. Here's everything to know: arrests, deaths, ...

Reports from the 1999 concert revealed that there was a general lack of access to clean water, trash everywhere, and rampant reports of crimes like sexual assault, looting, and vandalism. Some people even died at the concert. According to The Baltimore Sun, more than 700 people had been treated for heat exhaustion and dehydration halfway through the weekend concert. And two decades later, in 1999, fans attempted to recreate another version of the iconic concert—dubbed Woodstock ‘99. But this time, it was a total disaster. This led to some people developing trench mouth. They were holding her arms; you could see she was struggling.”

The year 1999 marked 30 years since the famous music festival, Woodstock 1969, but the 1999 event celebrating peace, love, and music was completely the ...

As heard in Trainwreck: Woodstock '99, one of the main reasons Griffiss was chosen was to avoid the gate-crashing that had occurred in 1969 and 1994. The site was also seriously overcrowded and overpriced. The new location was roughly 100 miles from the site of the 1969 festival. There was little to no shade and festival-goers camped on the tarmac. In the end, however, Woodstock '99 turned out to be a far cry from flower-power. The weekend was set to be a millennium-defining celebration of peace, love and music just like the famous 1969 original.

In a new Netflix documentary, DJ Norman Cook is told about the chaos that unfolded during his headline performance.

Looking devastated, he says: “That is just hideous to think that in the midst of all those people having fun, and me wanting to make everyone love each other, that was going on literally under our noses.” “That was literally the moment when everything started to look a bit less fun,” he said. When stage manager, A.J. Srybnik, finally got to the van, he found someone wielding a “rusty old” machete, and an unconscious teenage girl with her clothes pulled off alongside a boy pulling up his pants. Aptly, Cook launched into his set with Fucking In Heaven, and had only got a few tracks in when he noticed something large moving into the hangar. In the documentary, one member of staff working that night said: “I remember shining my flashlight on the floor and literally seeing people on all fours having sex”, while another said it was more debauched than the dark room at Berghain: “I saw from the stage one wall of the hangar several naked people lined up with their hands up against a wall and a line of people behind them… And while people are still talking about it 23 years later, unfortunately, it’s not for the reason he hoped.

In a new Netflix documentary, the veteran DJ talks about the "terrifying" moment a van drove into the crowd during the infamous festival.

"That was literally the moment when everything started to look a bit less fun.” he says. You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us. "I was floored," Srybnik says, realising he had just witnessed a serious sexual assault. "Then I got the tap on the shoulder, and it's like: 'We gotta stop the music. The vans gotta go, and I said 'Aw, not tonight. "I'd been closeted in my dressing room all afternoon with people just going, oh it's a bit chaotic out there" he recalls.

The new three-part Netflix documentary tells the dark story of a music festival that descended into chaos.

“It was an experience of a lifetime.” Two others agree: “It was the best time I’ve ever had and even 22 years later, it’s still the best time I’ve probably ever had… When all is said and done, you’d expect the festival-goers to still be suffering from PTSD. Wrong! “Although I had a kind of scary experience, it was a blast!” says Heather, who attended as a 14-year-old teen. The Peace Patrol were the anti-establishment security of sorts, however it turned out they were just a bunch of local kids drafted in to help with the running of the festival. As one festival-goer reveals, she woke up on the last day with “a very sore throat, cold sores all over my lips, ulcers all over my tongue and my gums and in my mouth,” adding that she couldn’t “eat, drink or talk… They glossed over all of that”. True fact: a year later, Scher went on to win Pollstar Magazine's Promoter of the Year in 2000. While the festival literally burned around them and a “sea” of young people went on a violent rampage, organisers Michael Lang and John Scher hailed it as a success to assembled media.

The new 3-episode Netflix documentary project "Trainwreck: Woodstock '99" revisits the disastrous, chaos-filled music festival.

The documentary also includes a depressingly obvious reminder about the festival organizers. And paired with all the horror, including rape and arson, that unfolded? “Instead, the festival degenerated into an epic trainwreck of fires, riots, and destruction.

The documentary miniseries "Trainwreck: Woodstock '99" is a compelling deep-dive into the highly anticipated Woodstock music festival at the turn of the.

One of the workers had also reported to them about the potential danger of allowing people to light candles in the area, and that the fire marshals had not approved of the idea, but none of their warnings were heard as the candlelight protest went on. There also remains a theory that the organizers had approved of the candlelight protest, knowing very well of the possibility of widespread arson, because they wanted Woodstock to be in the limelight even after the event was over, which would bring them profits in a twisted no press is bad press sort of manner. Finally, despite all the turmoil and chaos that unfolded over the three days, the four attendees who are interviewed in “Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99” state that the festival was the best event they have ever been to, and that they would not even think twice before attending another Woodstock if there was ever another one. This was even more egged on by the anti-authoritarian and somewhat anarchist tones of some of the bands that performed, and especially the performances of the nu metal bands. Musicians obviously argued that they were there at the festival, after all, to perform their songs, which did contain violent themes, and that they could not be held accountable. By the time all this was happening, the peace patrol workers were themselves heavily involved in unlawful acts, as one of them shares how he sold his security official t-shirt for $400 after lying that the t-shirt gave one access to the backstage. The organizers had heavily skimped off in matters of security as well, and this clearly showed. Certain small acts of vandalism had started to take place from day one, as some of the attendees wrecked the place and even broke off the pipes at the free water fountain, which led to terrible mud and slush. No workers showed up to clean this garbage either, with waste only increasing over time, and some efforts to clean up were made by a few of the attendees themselves. Particularly owing to the losses they made in ’94, they now wanted to turn the event into a profitable extravaganza, starting with the food and beverage stalls that had been put up by external businesses in exchange for an amount paid to the organizers. Garbage disposal cans were similarly very few in number and placed very far from each other, and the entire area was dispersed with trash within a single day. Despite this huge monetary loss, Lang decided to hold the festival again in 1999, because he felt that the younger generation, particularly that of his kids, would enjoy what he and his generation had once enjoyed.

Were there any deaths at the trainwreck festival of Woodstock 99? A look into who died at the event, which is missed out from Netflix documentary series.

It’s reported Woodstock 99 lead to the deaths of three people. Woodstock 99 has gone down in history as one of the biggest festival disasters there has ever been. Netflix has just released a three-part documentary series on the music festival Woodstock 99.

In 1999 400,000 people descended on an airfield in New York state to celebrate “peace, love and great music”. Instead what happened was a weekend of violence ...

During Limp Bizkit it was reported that people were tearing wooden boards off the walls. Violence was present in many forms, and during several sets the crowd started rioting. MTV also reported that two women were allegedly gang-raped during Limp Bizkit and Korn’s sets. Very few women performed over the weekend. - Spitfire “Instead, the festival degenerated into an epic trainwreck of fires, riots and destruction.

Woodstock '99 was supposed to be a reincarnation of the legendary 60s festival. Instead, it descended into violence and rioting, with women attendees being ...

- Spitfire During Limp Bizkit it was reported that people were tearing wooden boards off the walls. Violence was present in many forms, and during several sets the crowd started rioting. MTV also reported that two women were allegedly gang-raped during Limp Bizkit and Korn’s sets. Very few women performed over the weekend. “Instead, the festival degenerated into an epic trainwreck of fires, riots and destruction.

Acts including Muse, James Brown, Sheryl Crow, Rage Against the Machine and Fatboy Slim were left dealing with violent audiences who frequently erupted into ...

West Stage West Stage West Stage

Over 400000 people attended the highly anticipated festival in Rome, New York, with Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Metallica, and Korn, taking to the main stage.

Three people also died at the original Woodstock festival in 1969. That year, 5,000 people were treated at medical tents and 800 were taken to hospital, according to the South Florida Sun. Over 400,000 people were in attendance. The event was home to serious violence and riots, sexual assault against women, fires, looting, and more. He died on Monday, July 26 after being in a coma for two days. First, there was Woodstock 1969, a festival celebrating peace, love, and music at the height of the Vietnam War. It was followed by Woodstock '94, which was a complete and utter mudbath, with more than double the attendees turning up.

The organisers of this '90s bash cared about just one thing: your money. Here's why we should pay attention to 'Trainwreck: Woodstock '99'

The documentary reaches its riotous denouement with huge fires being lit across the site using candles handed out for a ‘vigil’ during Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘Under The Bridge’, lighting towers being pulled to the ground, wooden walls kicked down to burn, vendor stalls looted and kerosene stores exploding – “we’re making the biggest noise now!” yells one gurning shithead as a fuel dump goes up like Apocalypse Now with its helmet on backwards. It’s all told in classic countdown-to-disaster style, with the major organisers such as late Woodstock legend Michael Lang and promoter John Scher still playing down events and the backstage doom-mongers getting plenty of belated told-you-so moments. In ’69, for instance, rebelling against a repressive status quo meant permissiveness; in ’99, rebelling against a permissive status quo meant violence.

Netflix's new Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 documentary has been hailed as Fyre Festival 2.0 but more sinister - on account of the deaths, casualties and other ...

Pitchfork (opens in new tab) reports that there were 1,200 admission to the onsite medical facilities during Woodstock 99. He also claimed that the medical tents were not well equipped to treat heat stroke patients. According to Syracuse, her lawyer, Joseph Cote said that organisers did not provide enough water and had inadequate medical supplies for the 400,000 fans who attended. Esquire (opens in new tab) reports that access to water was another concern, with 25 minute queues forming around water fountains. Yet sadly this didn't turn out to be the case for Woodstock's third and final outing - Woodstock 99 - taking place during a now infamous July weekend at a former air force base in Rome, New York. Sign up to the GoodTo Newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time.

The ill-fated festival is now the subject of a three-part Netflix documentary - but which acts appeared on the bill?

The delay tower as you can see is on fire - it's not part of the show, it really is a problem." The band's set was stopped as an announcement was made from the stage: "As you can see if you look behind you, we have a bit of a problem. From a distance it looked just like some sort of party." But five years later, the original Woodstock promise of "three days of peace and music" was in short supply. During Fatboy Slim's set on Saturday night, a stolen van was spotted driving through the dance area and into where the audience were stood. Aside from the dangerously hot weather, the site was overcrowded with an estimated crowd of 400,000 people, forcing many festival-goers to pitch their tents on the tarmac.

WAVE OF CHAOS: Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 deep dives into the disastrous music festival. IF the original Woodstock in 1969 was the realisation of the baby boomer ...

The opening scene begins with the smoky aftermath of the final night and the quote from a journalist asking "is this Bosnia?" While it's a tad melodramatic, the festival experience Trainwreck illustrates almost feels like a war zone. Trainwreck: Woodstock '99's three episodes track the three days of the festival, interspersed with flashbacks to the event's marred planning. It was miles away from the free food kitchens of the original Woodstock. For the 30th anniversary edition of Woodstock in 1999, organisers, including the festival's original co-founder, Michael Lang, were determined to make a profit. Fast forward to 1994 and Woodstock returned for its 25th anniversary, but due to poor planning and broken fencing allowing thousands of punters to gain free entry, the festival was deemed a commercial disaster. IF the original Woodstock in 1969 was the realisation of the baby boomer generation's hippie, free-loving utopian dream, then the 1999 reboot of the iconic music festival is the story of how greed corrupts.

The 1999 music festival, held in Rome, N.Y., devolved into fiery chaos over three days.

“And all of these people were acting like animals.” Sure enough, the crowd put candles and lighters in the sky as Red Hot Chili Peppers performed “Under the Bridge.” But then a large fire started at the back of the festival grounds. (In 2022, those prices would be $7 and $17.) One concertgoer said she saw price-gouging as the weekend went on, with bottles of water selling for $12 each ($21 with today’s inflation) by Sunday afternoon. One guy was shown smashing his own head with a piece of wood and yelling, “I told you I’d get on TV, motherf---ers!” “It was fun at first and then it turned out to be like, ‘I gotta get outta here. Tickets were $150 (or more) for the very commercialized event, led by MTV and its uncensored round-the-clock coverage. Lee Rosenblatt, the assistant site manager, tried to get them to stop because the fire marshal didn’t approve of it, but Lang and Scher pushed on. “You could see Fred Durst’s id, ego and superego battling it out on stage,” said reporter Dave Blaustein, who covered the event from within the mosh pit. New York State Senator Joe Griffo, who was mayor of Rome from 1992 to 2003, struggles to christen the stage with a bottle of champagne wrapped in a tie-dye shirt and later admitted it felt like “foreshadowing.” Woodstock ‘99 opener James Brown initially refused to go on stage because he hadn’t been paid in advance. Even in a new interview for the Netflix series, he still saw the events in Rome as mostly positive. The series, originally titled “ Clusterf**k,” dedicates each episode to each day of the three-day music event, starting with warning signs before the festival even began. Festival workers and attendees alike were daunted by the former military site’s unforgiving asphalt layout, spread out over 6,000 acres; the East and West stages were about a mile-long walk from each other.

IF the original Woodstock in 1969 was the realisation of the baby boomer generation's hippie, free-loving utopian dream,...

The opening scene begins with the smoky aftermath of the final night and the quote from a journalist asking "is this Bosnia?" While it's a tad melodramatic, the festival experience Trainwreck illustrates almost feels like a war zone. Trainwreck: Woodstock '99's three episodes track the three days of the festival, interspersed with flashbacks to the event's marred planning. It was miles away from the free food kitchens of the original Woodstock. For the 30th anniversary edition of Woodstock in 1999, organisers, including the festival's original co-founder, Michael Lang, were determined to make a profit. Fast forward to 1994 and Woodstock returned for its 25th anniversary, but due to poor planning and broken fencing allowing thousands of punters to gain free entry, the festival was deemed a commercial disaster. IF the original Woodstock in 1969 was the realisation of the baby boomer generation's hippie, free-loving utopian dream, then the 1999 reboot of the iconic music festival is the story of how greed corrupts.

The three-part series looks into what went wrong in the making and execution of the 1999 music & art festival.

Lots and lots of angst." I knew that they were full of shit," Blaustein said of the Woodstock organizers. For one unnamed patroller, Woodstock '99 was simply a place for "money and sex and b*tches . . ." The demonstration was meant to spotlight a new generation of youth taking a stance against gun violence. So unbeknownst to few boisterous festivalgoers, the "mud" they were fooling around in was actually feces. Joe Paterson, a public health investigator, examined samples of the drinking water available at Woodstock '99 and found that they were all severely contaminated with feces. They were breaking it up into small pieces, I guess, just to have a piece of Woodstock." Netflix's latest documentary, "Trainwreck: Woodstock '99," explores what went wrong in the making and execution of the 1999 shindig. One of those peace patrols was Cody, who was 18 years of age at the time. Crowds of men groping and sexually harassing young women took place without repercussions, mainly because the security at Woodstock '99 was both insufficient and inexperienced. Many attendees recalled the horrid, overbearing smell and said they had to step in urine and feces while using the bathrooms. But despite the high hopes, Woodstock '99 was tarnished by poor venue facilities, riots, vandalism, assault, destruction and corporate greed, making it one of the most infamous festivals in music history.