This was the festival of the four dollar bottle of water.
A meme before memes were a thing. I remember people telling me about many things and this is what stuck. At this point in time I gravitated away from the rise of the nu metal scene into different areas of music. I did watch the event through the pay per view offerings on someone's hacked cable box. No way was anyone going to pay the $60 for the entire event. The corporations took this one over and were marketing it to anyone willing to pay.
A new documentary detailing the event with all the good and bad aspects on display of how not to run a music festival. Presented by HBO detailing these three days of music documenting what was captured at the time along with numerous talking heads. A diary of one festival goer who passed away during the event is read during numerous moments. Powerful and shows what the regular attendee was thinking. He wanted to see Metallica, who was still huge at that point in 1999.
The concert grounds, security, sanitation and medical aid are the top most concerns. So much can go wrong quickly or slowly and you need to be prepared. The hiring of security and their training program is discussed; what a mess. Sanitation is always a huge problem, little did most people know but that mud was human waste. Lack of medical aid or improper aid was common.
The atmosphere is mentioned time and time again. I find it so telling that there were few female artists. Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette and Jewel on each of the 3 days. Otherwise it was lots of hard rock/metal that was so popular at the time. Insane Clown Possee, Limp Bizkit, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine and Megadeth to name a few. Some older and some newer acts but mostly hitting a certain demographic. Reading over the artists at the event is baffling. Throw in a bit of everything for everyone I figure was their end goal.
This event was very different from the original 1969 and even the 1994 event. As with anything, times wear down those hard edges that were present at these events too. The 1999 version seemed to be an uncontrollable animal.
MTV or Music Television ended up fleeing this entire scene at one point literally fearing for their lives. The bro culture was out in full effect. Women walking around naked or topless was a common scene. People yelling at women to show their tits was all over this broadcast. The videographers were no help lewdly zooming in on these naked women. The whole girls gone vibe was in full effect. Such a strange time looking back in retrospect.
Then came the reports. Sexual assaults often going unreported. Women asking whether or not they deserved this treatment. A real sad mess that is one of the many problems with the festival. One of the end cards mentions 44 arrests, eight sexual assaults where four were alleged rapes. We all knew there were hundreds more going unreported. Sad times.
There are a lot of talking heads in this documentary admonishing behavior of the past. Understandable but often too much. The culture has moved forward in the last 20 years and there are just as many problems now as there were then. You're simply more careful about how you express yourself.
One of those talking heads mentioned something similar except you find this same culture online in many different communities both public and underground. You'll never be able to eradicate or alter much of this behavior.
This is a great look into these three days of madness. DMX on stage shouting out the N-word to a crowd of 20+ year old, middle class white kids while they all shout it back at him is something to see. I wonder what attendees of the same background of DMX would have thought of this.
The promoters telling Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit to tone it down while he goes out on stage and starts into Break Stuff. Meanwhile people are literally tearing up the place.
Another incident with the Red Hot Chili Peepers where there are actual stages on fire and bonfires in the crowd going on. Told again to calm down the crowd and they go out and do a cover of Fire by Jimi Hendrix.
Eye opening moments, the promoters are blaming the artists and the artists don't seem to give a damn at all.
The promoters are holding presses conferences or states of the address or whatever they were doing. People are telling them what's going on and issues that need to be addressed. They are either becoming angry with the input or berating those with valid concerns. This all comes off very badly.
The sections with Moby are very interesting. He's coming in from that electronic/rave culture mentality and his takes are very interesting. His name doesn't even appear on the bill with the other artists based on some board he's looking at. Moby knows how to read a crowd and he mentions numerous times this is a bad atmosphere to be in. Frat boys and rave culture often do not mix. Now you've got to deal with this. He ended up leaving quite quickly after seeing all this.
Lots to see and lots to digest. As with anything, being removed a good number of years you can witness the carnage that was happening. At the time, I remember seeing this going on and wondering what had changed in that 5 year span. Grunge was dead, the rave scene was winding down and I sure hope this isn't the replacement.
I read there was an attempt at a 50 year Woodstock planned in 2019 that was canceled. I think Coachella has taken up this mantle but stranger things have happened.
So is this worth a watch? Yes absolutely and receives a 7 from me. Rotten Tomatoes is giving it a 92% critic rating and a 62% audience rating.
All screenshots were taken by me from the original source.
I remember going to a couple music festivals back in the early 80s. Acts were usually the likes of Motley Crue, Quiet Riot, Ozzy etc. Basically all I remember was the absolute worst sunburn of my life. Lol live and learn.
That's always the first thing people forget about but they will remember that for a lifetime. I've had heat stroke before and that's an experience I would never want to wish on my worst enemy.
How was the music most would say? I have no idea I was sick as a dog haha
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the person sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
I will look for that documentary on HBO to watch it.
Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more