Some people thought that Woodstock was a corruption of society while others thought is was a place to express individuality. The festival was originally supposed to take place in Woodstock, New York but plans fell through so it was held in Bethel, New York (Yildez, 1). The land it was held on was a six hundred acre dairy farm. Max Yasgur owned the farm in Sullivan County. John Roberts was twenty-six years old. Roberts had a multi-million dollar trust fund, a degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and a lieutenant's commission in the army. Needless to say, Roberts supplied the money for the festival. Joel Rosenman was twenty-four years old. He was the son of a Long Island orthodontist and had just graduated from Law School at Yale. Rosenman had been playing the guitar at motel lounges from Long Island to Las Vegas. Rosenman met John Roberts on a golf course in 1966. By 1967 the two were sharing an apartment, trying to figure out what to do with their lives. Artie Kornfield was twenty-five years old. Kornfield was vice-president at Capital Records; he smoked hash in his office. Kornfield connected the company to rockers who were starting to sell billions of records. Michael Lang was twenty-three years old. He had produced the two-day Miami Pop Festival, it was one of the biggest rock shows before Woodstock, and there were about 40,000 people there. Lang met Artie Kornfield thru a rock group he was managing. Lang wanted them to sign a record deal so he took his idea to Kornfield at Capitol Records in December of 1968. After the two met Lang moved in with Kornfield and his wife, Linda. The three would stay up all night having conversations fueled by a few joints. John Roberts and Joel Rosenman wanted to create a male version of I Love Lucy. Michael Lang and Artie Kornfield had two ideas, one was for a "cultural exposition/rock extravaganza", and the second was a recording studio in the woods one hundred miles from Manhattan in a town called Woodstock.
