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Max Yasgur
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Max B. Yasgur (December 15, 1919—February 9, 1973) was an American farmer, best known as the owner of the dairy farm in Bethel, New York at which the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held between August 15 and August 18, 1969.
Woodstock Festival on Yasgur's farm
After area villages Saugerties (located about from Yasgur's farm) and Wallkill declined to provide a venue for the festival, Max Yasgur, convinced by the arguments of his son Sam, offered the nearly last-minute use of his farm's alfalfa field.
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Encyclopedia
Max B. Yasgur (December 15, 1919—February 9, 1973) was an American farmer, best known as the owner of the dairy farm in Bethel, New York at which the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held between August 15 and August 18, 1969.
Woodstock Festival on Yasgur's farm
After area villages Saugerties (located about from Yasgur's farm) and Wallkill declined to provide a venue for the festival, Max Yasgur, convinced by the arguments of his son Sam, offered the nearly last-minute use of his farm's alfalfa field. The village of Woodstock near Saugerties was never seriously considered because it was too small. On the third day of the festival just before Joe Cocker's early afternoon set Max Yasgur addressed the crowd. 'The important thing that you've proven to the world...is that a half million young people can get together and have nothing but fun and music and I God Bless You (sic) for it!' Michael Wadleigh's 1970 documentary film of the event Woodstock includes the entire unedited speech.
Joni Mitchell's song 'Woodstock' (also covered by Eva Cassidy, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Richie Havens) includes a reference to 'Yasgur's Farm':
- I came upon a child of God
- He was walking along the road
- And I asked him where are you going
- And this he told me: he said
- I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm
- I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
- I'm going to get back to the land
- And get my soul free...
In addition, Mountain (who were also at the festival) recorded a song shortly after the event entitled 'For Yasgur's Farm'.
After Woodstock
On January 71970, four-and-a-half months after the festival, Yasgur was sued by his neighbors for area property damage caused by the attendance of the "flower children". The damage to his own property was far more extensive and, over a year later, he received a $50,000 settlement to pay for the near-destruction of his dairy farm.
In 1971, less than two years after the festival, Max Yasgur sold the farm, and nineteen months later, died of a heart attack at the age of 53. He was given a full-page obituary in Rolling Stone magazine, one of the few non-musicians to receive such an honor.
In 2009, Max will be portrayed by Eugene Levy in Ang Lee's film Taking Woodstock
Yasgur's Farm Today
In 1997, the site of the concert and surrounding was purchased by Alan Gerry for the purpose of creating the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. In August 2007, the parcel that contains Max Yasgur's former homestead was placed on the market for $8 million by its current owners, Roy Howard and Jeryl Abramson. The home, barn, fieldhouse, and land, which are listed by Joshpe Real Estate of New York City, have been the site of frequent Woodstock reunions.
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