A mountain of testimonies is collected and intersects in three episodes of approximately one hour (organizers, festival attendees, journalists, first responders, security agents, public health officials, etc.). Enough to offer a panoramic vision when only fragmentary memories remained of a time without social networks.
“The Fall of Hanoi”
“It was the fall of Hanoi,” Tim Healy, a television producer at the time, describes in this documentary about the last night. “It’s like being in ‘Apocalypse Now,'” also confirms Anthony Kiedis, leader of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in archive images.
Thousands of festival goers (advertisers at the time numbered a total of 250,000 people), handed out 100,000 candles, lit bonfires and threw anything that could burn at them. Just drunk or drunk with rage after receiving a massage in undignified conditions on a former military airbase in upstate New York. The organization’s truck tanks parked farther away will burst into flames as looters attack, among other things, the merchandising area and ATMs.
How did we get here? Lee Rosenblatt, then 22, deputy manager of the site points to the “greed” of the managers: “We take advantage of these children.” The organizers are Michael Lang, founding father of the 1969 Woodstock (recently deceased) and his “powerful partner” for the 30th anniversary, John Scher, promoter. Both testify in the documentary. The former seems overwhelmed by the monster-event created while the latter admits his motivations: “It was absolutely necessary to make a profit.” A 65-cent bottle of water in the city sells for $4 at the festival, while festival-goers are forced to empty their water bottles upon reaching the site’s paved track heated to white by temperatures of over 35°.
At the same time, organization costs were reduced. Samples taken by the health services will reveal that the few sources of drinking water have become dirty with excrement.