Concert documentaries have split into two groups now: either they focus on a single performer delivering a show (J. Balvin‘s recent doc), or they’re like Woodstock 99. This time capsule concert doc is a cross between Summer of Soul and Fyre, capturing that exact cultural moment that led to the “hippie festival” turning into literal burning man. The frat bros at Woodstock 99 would have beat the sh*t out of those “hippie douchebags” that attended the first Woodstock, probably because it was “so gay” to use their words.
Woodstock 99 actually had a lot of built up excitement. 5 years earlier, Woodstock 94 revived the festival to mostly great success, some fencing/security issues aside. Michael Lang, the creator/promoter, used the MTV curated list of bands to pick to attend the festival on an unused Air Force Base in upstate New York. What seemed like a can’t miss event for the ages for young white boys everywhere changed rapidly over the course of 3 days, as the grounds descended into anarchy and purge like chaos as told by concert goers, promoters and musicians who were at Woodstock 99.
Garret Price, the director, had plenty of footage to use here, so all he really needed was a story to explain what the hell happened. Using the festival timeline as a guide, Price inserts all the factors that led to the human cesspool the festival became. There’s a LOT of blame to go around, mostly with the planning stages of the fest. The two biggest errors of Woodstock ’94 were security issues and lost revenue from them. That means Woodstock ’99 would be peace and love and sales. $4 waters, pay per view viewings, cd sales at the fest, etc. For security, the air force base was chosen because of its “state of the art” facilities and more imporantly its fortress like walls to keep people out, without accounting for its crazy hot surfaces in the sun (unlike, say, grass) or the irony of of the anti-war Woodstock taking place on a military base, undercutting the concert’s message. In addition, more security was hired, but given very little training and direction, meaning they were basically VIP concert goers instead, abusing their power for hookups. When planning a music lineup, Lang and the other promoters used MTV to build their musical acts; at the time, MTV had split into two halves: the boy band half (catering to younger tweens, specifically girls), and the post-Nirvana alternative rock crowd, filled with arbitrarily pissed off acts like Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock, catering to frat boys that hated the other half of MTV’s programming. Naturally, Woodstock ’99 sided with the frat boys, because of their moneymaking ability, with even the female concert goers commodified for their Girls Gone Wild like nudity.
All of these factors combine into a concert going base that pissed off. They’re pissed off because Woodstock is now corporatized and ruined by money. They’re pissed because they’re in a prison like fortress baking in the super hot summer with sub human living conditions. And they’re pissed because Fred Durst and other bands use that energy to amp up the crowd, amplifying that aggressive behavior. So you have a group of pissed off 20something frat boys, predominantly white, as your base concert goer, with no obvious villain to direct that aggression but also no security to keep it under control. So instead, that anger boils over the course of 3 days, turning toxic. Rampant sexual assault occurs as the days stay hotter and hotter, with no security or police intervening. Extreme heat exhaustion dehydrates hundreds of concert goers who have no formalized security to go to for help. Even the well meaning “candelight festival” in wake of the Columbine shooting transforms into candle driven bonfires that end the festival Sunday night, leading to further vandalism and destruction from privileged white boys who want to rage but have no real obvious reason to do so. Price paints a darker and darker picture as we go further into the fest, showing how base animal instincts and power structures start taking over when all society collapses.
Peace, Love and Rage certainly paints an ominous future for society, as all that rage is now transferred online. Even though it’s a stretch, events like January 6th share similarities with Woodstock 99, that point to that age old adage of “those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” I did learn that when my “Speed Fest” takes place, my concert lineups will have James Taylor, Norah Jones, and Ed Sheeran scattered about the music lineup to chill everybody out, with warm milk given to every concert goer to let them get their “nappy wappies” before the next show.