You’ve seen the photos. The mud. The tie-dye. The sea of half a million people looking like they’re part of some beautiful, rain-soaked accident. But if you try to name the actual list of performers at Woodstock, most people stop after Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and maybe Santana.
Honestly, the real story is much messier.
The three-day "Aquarian Exposition" was a logistical train wreck that somehow became the most important concert in history. It wasn't just a parade of legends; it was a chaotic scramble of artists being helicoptered in because the roads were literally parked solid for twenty miles. Some performers played the sets of their lives. Others? Well, the Grateful Dead basically got electrocuted and hated every second of it.
The Friday Folk: How It All Started (Late)
Friday, August 15, 1969, was supposed to be the "folk" day. It didn't start on time.
Richie Havens wasn't even supposed to open the festival. He was scheduled much later, but because the actual opening acts were stuck in traffic, the organizers basically pushed him onto the stage at 5:07 PM and told him to play until someone else showed up. He played for nearly three hours. He ran out of songs. In a moment of pure desperation and genius, he started chanting "Freedom" over an old spiritual.
That improvised song became the anthem of the entire decade.
Following Havens was a weird, eclectic mix that most people forget. Sweetwater finally made it through the traffic to become the first actual band to play. Then came Bert Sommer, a guy with a massive afro and an even bigger voice who got the festival's first standing ovation but somehow got left out of the movie.
Here is how that first night actually shook out:
- Sri Swami Satchidananda gave the invocation. Talk about a vibe shift.
- Bert Sommer (The "lost" Woodstock hero).
- Tim Hardin sang "If I Were a Carpenter."
- Ravi Shankar played his sitar in a literal downpour. He hated the experience, by the way. He thought the audience was too high to appreciate the music.
- Melanie (Safka) performed as the rain came down, inspired by the crowd lighting candles.
- Arlo Guthrie told everyone the New York State Thruway was closed (it wasn't, but the myth stuck).
- Joan Baez closed the night at 2:00 AM, six months pregnant and singing "We Shall Overcome" into the damp night air.
Saturday: The Day the World Changed
If Friday was the appetizer, Saturday was the main course. It started around noon on August 16 and didn't stop until the sun came up on Sunday.
This is where the list of performers at Woodstock gets legendary. This was the day Santana—a band almost nobody had heard of yet—took the stage at 2:00 PM. Carlos Santana famously admitted later he was peaking on mescaline and thought the neck of his guitar was a literal snake. He just kept playing so the snake wouldn't bite him. It worked.
The middle of the day featured Canned Heat and Mountain, but the evening was a heavy hitter marathon.
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Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) played around midnight. John Fogerty later complained that they played to a sleeping audience, but the tapes prove they were actually on fire. Then came Janis Joplin. She’d been waiting backstage for ten hours, drinking and getting "ready." Her voice was ragged, raw, and perfect.
The Midnight Madness
- Sly and the Family Stone: They turned the mud pit into a massive dance party at 3:30 AM.
- The Who: Pete Townshend was in a terrible mood. He famously kicked Abbie Hoffman off the stage with his guitar after the activist tried to give a political speech. They played Tommy as the sun began to rise.
- Jefferson Airplane: Grace Slick called it "morning maniac music." It was 8:00 AM on Sunday. They were exhausted, but "White Rabbit" ringing out over the hills of Bethel is still an all-time moment.
Sunday and the Monday Morning Survivalists
Sunday was supposed to be the end. Then the "Great Rainstorm" happened.
A massive thunderstorm stopped everything for hours. The stage was a deathtrap of exposed wires and puddles. Joe Cocker kicked things off at 2:00 PM with a version of "With a Little Help from My Friends" that was so intense he looked like he was having a physical exorcism.
After the storm cleared, the schedule was a disaster.
Country Joe and the Fish played. Ten Years After shredded through "I'm Going Home." The Band did a soulful set that felt like a campfire in the middle of a war zone.
By the time Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young took the stage for their second-ever gig, it was 3:00 AM Monday. "This is the second time we've ever played in front of people, man. We're scared shitless," Stephen Stills told the crowd.
The Final Stretch
Most of the 500,000 people had gone home by Monday morning. They had jobs, or they were just starving. Only about 30,0000 to 40,000 "survivors" were left when Sha Na Na—a 50s-style greaser group—did a high-energy set in gold lamé suits at 7:30 AM. It was surreal.
Then, at 9:00 AM on Monday, August 18, Jimi Hendrix took the stage.
He didn't play for a sea of people. He played for a graveyard of trash and a few thousand exhausted hippies. But when he played "The Star-Spangled Banner," mimicking the sounds of sirens and falling bombs on his Stratocaster, he created the most iconic moment in rock history.
The Artists You Probably Forgot Were There
The list of performers at Woodstock includes 32 acts, but history has a short memory.
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Have you ever heard of Quill? They were a Boston band that played on Saturday morning. Their set was great, but a technical glitch meant they weren't filmed, so they vanished from the collective memory.
Then there’s The Keef Hartley Band. They were a British blues-rock outfit. Their drummer wore a full Native American headdress. Again, no film, no fame.
The Incredible String Band actually refused to play in the rain on Friday. They bumped themselves to Saturday, where they looked completely out of place between the heavy rock acts. It basically killed their career momentum.
Actionable Insights for Music History Buffs
If you're looking to truly experience the Woodstock lineup beyond the "Greatest Hits," here is how to do it right:
- Listen to the Raw Tapes: Avoid the original 1970 soundtrack if you want the truth. Look for the Woodstock: Back to the Garden - The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive. It contains almost every note played, including the stage announcements about the "brown acid."
- Watch the Director's Cut: The 1994 director's cut of the Woodstock film includes footage of Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane that was missing from the original theatrical release.
- Visit the Site: The original field in Bethel, New York, is still there. It’s a public park now, managed by the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Standing at the top of the hill gives you a terrifying perspective of how many people were actually there.
- Check the Setlists: If you're a musician, look up the setlists for The Who and Santana. The sheer endurance required to play those sets in those conditions is mind-blowing.
The list of performers at Woodstock wasn't just a concert program. It was a snapshot of a moment where everything felt like it was changing, even if the artists themselves were mostly just trying not to get electrocuted by the rain.