Woodstock was the largest music festival of its time. It changed the lives of all that attended it. Its lack of supplies forced people to share everything with each other, bringing everyone closer together and proving that the people of the 1960's were truly peaceful.
Four very different young men founded Woodstock. John Roberts and Joel Roseman, two venture capitalists, were looking to invest their money into something. They put this want ad into the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, "Young men with unlimited capital looking for interesting, legitimate investment opportunities." Of the many responses they received one of them was from Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld. .
In need of seed money for a festival and recording studio Lang and Kornfeld's manager had come across the ad. Kornfeld was a vice president at Capital Records. Lang was, at that time, a manager of a rock band. Their manager advised them to contact Roberts and Roseman. .
The four partners meet and discussed ideas. Originally, they had planned a recording studio in Woodstock, a small town in the Catskills Mountains that had become a rock center when musician Bob Dylan and a rock group called The Band settled their. They decided to promote their idea by holding a concert. .
The Monterey Pop Festival inspired their concert, which was expected to attract 50,00 to 100,000 people. .
In March, after final plans were made, the four partners formed a corporation called Woodstock Ventures Incorporated.
Of the four partners John Roberts supplied most of the money. Ventures set out to book some of the biggest names in rock music. Unfortunately, many musicians were not eager to sign with an outfit that might not come through. Ventures solved this dilemma by offering paychecks to all of the performers. One hundred and eighty thousand dollars was spent by Ventures on talent alone.
A sound system was Ventures next purchase. For this they went to Allan Markoff.
