Max Yasgur’s speech

Max Yasgur’s speech to the crowd can be repeated (at least in part) by almost everyone who has ever seen the film made about the Woodstock festival:

Max Yasgur at his farm

“I’m a farmer…(interrupted by a cheer from the audience)…I don’t know how to speak to twenty people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But I think you people have proven something to the world — not only to the Town of Bethel, or Sullivan County, or New York State; you’ve proven something to the world. This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place. We have had no idea that there would be this size group, and because of that you’ve had quite a few inconveniences as far as water, food, and so forth. Your producers have done a mammoth job to see that you’re taken care of… they’d enjoy a vote of thanks. But above that, the important thing that you’ve proven to the world is that a half a million kids — and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you are — a half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and I – God Bless You for it!”

Max died less than four years later – and his farm has been broken up and sold off. What’s for sale is only a small part of the original farm where the festival happened all those years ago. But no matter how often it changes hands, for the Woodstock nation, it’ll always be “Yasgur’s Farm.”