life:
“The original plan was for an outdoor rock festival, ‘three days of peace and music’ in the Catskill village of Woodstock. What the young promoters got was the third largest city in New York state, population 400,000 (give or take 100,000), location Max Yasgur’s dairy farm near the town of White Lake.”
So began LIFE magazine’s description, in its August 29, 1969 issue, of what has come to be seen as one of the defining events of the 1960s. Forty-three years later, LIFE.com presents a gallery of pictures — many of which never ran in the magazine — from those heady, rain-soaked days and nights.
