Hey there, it's Kathy. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to History of the 90s

early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime.

On the third day of a massive outdoor music festival in rural upstate New York, a man took to the

main stage to address the gigantic crowd of young concert goers.

Looking out at the tens of thousands of people

who had gathered for the historic event,

he said,

you've proven something to the world.

The important thing that you've proven to the world

is that half a million kids

can get together and have three days of fun and music and have

nothing but fun and music, and God bless you for it.

Thirty years later, a similar event started off with good intentions, but quickly dissolved

into chaos.

Instead of three days of fun and music, the event was marred by violence, looting, and

arson. I'm Kathy Kinsora, and this is History of the 90s, a podcast about a decade that changed

the world. On this episode, we're looking back at the disaster that was Woodstock 99.

To understand Woodstock 99 and what happened there over three blistering hot days in July 1999, we should first look back at the original Woodstock in 1969.

The iconic cultural event took place August 15th to the 18th in Bethel, New York,

about 90 kilometers away from the town of Woodstock located in the Catskills.

You see, in the 60s, Woodstock was home to an artist's colony, attracting musicians like

Bob Dylan, who lived on a nearby estate.

...