Montage (WQ)
- Woodstock: The Fans (photo essay)
- Return to Woodstock (performers and attendees return)
- Sounds of Woodstock (musicians at the iconic '69 festival)
(CBS) It was 40 years ago Saturday when almost half-a-million people descended on a farm in upstate New York to enjoy a music festival called "Woodstock." But what nobody knew then was the impact it would have on a generation. The 1960s were filled with anger and confusion, "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith noted. There were wars, including the highly-controversial Vietnam War, civil rights riots, and social revolutions -- along with a generation of American youth looking for their identity.
Pete Fornatale, author of Back to the Garden: The Story of Woodstock, told CBS News, "It wasn't a generation gap, it was a generation chasm. Kids against their own parents, police against kids." But for this generation, Smith noted, music was their refuge -- and they found their great escape on a farm in Bethel, N.Y. "No one, including the promoters, anybody going to it and anybody performing at it, had any idea that that weekend going to be as big as it was," said Fornatale. More>>
"Three Days of Peace" and music: August 1969 file photo shows couple hugging during Woodstock Music and Art Festival in Bethel, N.Y. (AP).
