The Observer
04.08.19 3Throughout the Woodstock
music festival , which celebrates
its 50th anniversary later this
month , concert-goers scaled 70ft
sound towers to get a better look
at what was happening on stage.
Depending on your view, this was
either “insanely dangerous ”, as
production coordinator John Morris
described it in Woodstock: An Oral
History – the towers weren’t set up
to hold all that extra weight and
one fallen structure could have
killed “hundreds of people” – or an
expression of the joyful sense of
freedom that pervaded the four-day
event in August 1969.
For photographer Elliott Landy ,
who captured the climbers during
his in-depth coverage of Woodstock,the ascent of the sound towers,
though dangerous, has a broader
meaning. “It really symbolises the
nature of the 60s,” he says, “which
was that people were trying to
get higher, spiritually, so they can
experience life in a better way, in a
clearer way.”
Landy, who lived in the town of
Woodstock (and still does), had
no idea at the time how important
the festival would turn out to
be , but has no doubt now of its
cultural signifi cance.
“It was a utopian moment in
human culture,” he says. “It was a
moment where we saw that half a
million people could live together
in harmony under very diffi cult
conditions. Food and water werescarce, there was no place to get
out of the rain, and it was muddy,
so, physically, people were not
comfortable. But spiritually and
mentally, they were.”
As for the tower-climbers, though
they were asked repeatedly to get
down, ultimately nobody forced
them off. “One of the reasons that
Woodstock succeeded was that
no one controlled it,” says Landy.
“The police, the governor and the
promoters of the festival all gave up
control. They said : ‘There’s nothing
we can do about this, all we can do
is be helpful instead.’ What I would
describe as a feminine energy
permeated the festival – it supports,
it listens, it is compassionate. It was
freedom in the air.” Killian FoxThe big
picture
Elliott Landy captures the
spirit of the Woodstock
festival, which took place
50 years ago this monthРЕЛИЗ
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