Woodstock is just one more example of why some of us were born too late.
But even if we missed the amazing three-day fest in 1969, we can pay tribute to it 40 years later with the KXCI Woodstock Tribute Concert at the Rialto Theatre on Saturday, Aug. 15.
Couple on the scene/AP file photo
Sure, the Tucson tribute may not include thousands of naked hippies rollicking in mud, but we can also bet there will be no births, deaths, or shots fired in the air by an irate farmer upset by all the noise.
Can’t say if there will be any drug arrests or bad acid trips, however.
Tickets are on sale now at Rialto Theatre. All proceeds go to support our favorite local station – “real people, real music” – 91.3 FM KXCI Community Radio.
What: KXCI Woodstock Tribute Concert
When: Aug. 15, doors open 4 p.m., show starts at 5 p.m.
Where: Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St; 740-1000
Tickets: $11 gen. admission, $16 reserved balcony
Free for 12 and under with paying adult. Fees may apply.
Rialto box office open noon to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday
We already have a slate of confirmed performers, although KXCI Director Randy Peterson said, “We are not saying who is covering who – or even who is covering The Who.”
Confirmed artists:
Al Perry; Andrew Collberg; Lovemound; The Wayback Machine; Cathy Rivers; Loveland; Leila Lopez & Courtney Robbins; The Tryst; Michael P.; Jo Wilkinson and Top Dead Center.
Were these people there?/Photo of photo in Arivaca coffee shop by Ryn Gargulinski
To get you in the mood, here are some fun facts on Woodstock by the numbers:
The groovy:
2 – Babies born at the festival
31 – Musical acts scheduled for main stage
51 – Caldrons of rice-carrot-raisin combo made for Sunday morning breakfast at Hog Farm Free Kitchen
60,000 – People expected to attend
315,000 – People who never made it there but tried
400,000 – People who attended
The grungy:
10 – Shots fired in air by farmer disgruntled by all the ruckus
80 – Lawsuits filed following the festival
90 – Percent of attendees who smoked weed
133 – Arrests on narcotic and other drug charges
400 – Bad acid trips
600 – Portable toilets
800+ – Cops – includes 150 volunteer cops; 346 off-duty NYC police hired at $50/each per day, 100 local sheriffs and hundreds of state troopers and deputies from 12 counties
10 million – number of yards of denim and striped T-shirt material in the audience (it did not specify if this was on their bodies or off)
The ugly:
1 – Case of pneumonia
1 – Diabetic coma
3 – Tracheotomies performed on site
3 – Deaths: one heroin overdose, one ruptured appendix and one person run over by a tractor. Ouch.
4 – Miscarriages
Woodstock price list:
$1 – hotdog
$4 – hit of acid or mescaline
$6.50 – advance price of single day ticket ($8 at gate)
$15 – ounce of marijuana
$18 – advance price of three-day ticket ($24 at gate)
Source: Woodstock69.com
Were you at the original Woodstock?
Did you give birth, get arrested?
Even if you weren’t there, what performer is your favorite?
When folks even mention Woodstock,does Country Joe and the Fish run through your head?
Have you been to any Woodstock tributes in the past, like the version in Rome, N.Y., in 1999 that ended up full of fire, smoke and feces?
Read a Tucsonan’s version of hippiedom on Retroflections blog.
Mornin’ Rynski! I am so down with this one-sounds like a blast! PS-how are they going to squeeze 400,000 people into the Rialto? PPS-know where I can get some mescaline? 🙂
Doesn’t everyone know where to get mescaline? LOL :+)
http://www.clearwhitelight.org/hatter/extract.htm
Thanx Ado! Now I just have to find some buttons….
Go for it! Nothin’ beats the ability to visualize music coming out of the speakers in waves of color.
I was just tellin’ a ‘non believer’ about that friday nite! Saw a horrible flick, that just might have made it bearable. The company was very nice though…
Mornin’ RadMax – I’m down for this one, too. What a gas! I think the Rialto reserved balcony holds 350,000, so they’ll just have to worry about the other 50,000 – haha. PPS. I think you can get plants that make you trippy if you venture far enough into the desert – either that, or you’ll get all trippy from dehydration and the heat. Try it!
Wow, some really good facts. I was only 5 yrs old and my parents were not even remotely the hippie-type.
I probably would’ve come away with some great stories if I’d have gone though.
Yes, AZMouse, you are certainly a story magnet!! My parents were not hippies, either – they were going to college during all this pot smoking, free love, flowers in the hair stuff. I would have at least taken a semester off…haha
BTW-Hendrix SMOKED the other bands, ‘cept maybe the Who. Don’t much care for the Who-so who cares? Wonder how many people say they went, but didn’t?
Why don’t you like The Who? is all that creepy Tommy stuff?
I actually liked Tommy, movie also. Ann Margaret in a fishnet bodystocking…where was I?…oh yeah-must have seen that movie ten times! Much better versions of the music on the movie than the album. The director, Ken Russel always made trippy stuff.
I agree, Hendrix was the best, but I also love The Who. Tommy is awsome. I’ve seen it a zillion times.
Wasn’t that Acid Queen Tina Turner? Like, that lady has legs that start on the ground and go forever. She was the best possible pick for the role. I been in love with Tina ever since she did her version of Proud Mary. CCR did a pretty good cover of Proud Mary, but nothin’ can beat Tina’s.
Morning All! Wow… I was too young, and my parents were all settled and having babies and stuff and no where near adventurous enough! What a pity. Would have been cool to have been there as a little kid, though… ‘Cept I would have gotten lost for sure… I was a wanderer… Got lost in grocery stores and Woolworths too many times to count!
I love the WHO… creepy Tommy stuff and all! But I would have probably loved Jefferson Airplane, CSN&Y and Joe Cocker while there! We had nothing like this for our generation! 80’s music sucked! But it was danceable… so I danced!
Morning Karen – I have to agree: much of the 80s music was the worst. At least Prince rocks, but he technically released his first album in ’78. Crappy 80s: Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, WHAM!, Hall and Oats…I feel a blog coming on….
Hi Karen. How could I forget the Jefferson Airplane! They always rocked, Santana too. CSN&Y were not at their best-squabbling as usual probably. BTW-I was not there, just going off hearsay from folks who ‘claim’ they were. 🙂
Well, I loved the 80’s heavy metal hair bands.
Not everyone can pull off ‘guy-liner’ on their eyes, but they could!
You’re right. Guy liner does have an honored place in history.
Ratt, Rump-Imean Nightranger, Cinderella-yeah, those were the days az. 🙂 Actually Dio, Ted Nugent, The Cars, there were some good ones.
I loved The Cars, and Judas Priest!
My head is banging already.
Hi az. There were some really hot bands back then, now that I think about it. The make-up thing, except Ozzy and Alice Cooper never worked for me though.
I DID like the Cars… But it was just for dancing… nothing meaningful… sigh
Prince is all we need, anyway. He is the Mozart of our time. His latest CD Lotus Flower rocks!
i hear ya, eric! and with his purple pants and those platform boots, prince is almost as cute as Mr. Angel – haha. I’ll have to check out his new CD.
Don’t you mean the ‘artist’ formerly known as Prince? Nothin’ on my keyboard to make that goofy symbol he also called himself…Apollonia was hot though…little red corvette? Spare me…
no, now he’s back to the artist formerly known as prince once again known as prince. but it’s easier just to say prince.
He’s back to Prince again. It was some fight from a music company or something, who basically owned him and his name, so he temporarily changed it to regain control.
He does have a hot butt….
Good things come in small packages, I’ll send you a copy!
thanks! YOU rock.
Ozzy, back when he was with Black Sabbath was good AND creepy.
I saw them in Phoenix back when I was seventeen or so.
Was it one of his bat-head-eating concerts?
No, but it was cool cuz it was outside and there was allot of lightening and thunder. Seemed fitting.
I missed Woodstock. I saw the ads in the local underground paper and really wanted to go, but I was about a year away from being able to drive and couldn’t find a ride.
Although I didn’t make it for “The Big One”, I probably attended about a half dozen similar three day music and arts festivals during the 60’s and 70’s around the country (oddly, I can’t remember the exact number). Yes, there was a lot of crazy behavior going on at all of them and more than a few interesting characters to meet. What was best and what they all shared in common was creating a sense of community. You might have hitched in from a thousand miles away and not know anyone, but once you got there, you were accepted into the one, big alternative version of family and community we created in response to a culture whose values we didn’t (don’t) understand.
I hear ya Lefty, I was a part of that same counterculture phenomenon in the 60’s & 70’s. Some even called me a crazy liberal. Perhaps they were right, then a funny thing happened. I grew up and realized why my parents & “the establishment” had set rules to live by and boundaries on what is acceptable activity for members of our society. Those traditional values worked for them and now they seem to be working for me as well. I sometimes still wonder how I was so blind in the first place not to see. Must have been too much sex, drugs & rock & roll, eh?