Chapter 12 things got really big

In the early morning of August 13, 1969, the residents of Bethel woke up and suddenly found that there was already a lot of traffic outside the door. There was a traffic jam on a small road where no cars used to pass by. Judging from the license plates, there were people from anywhere, even places as far away as California and Florida.Most of the cars were full of young people. They wore ragged clothes, long hair and shawls. Many people were barefoot. Only a few people brought enough food and camping equipment, but they all had smiles on their faces. Excited, like going to a grand festival, and like participating in a pilgrimage.Although these men and women did not know each other, as long as one of them lit a marijuana cigarette and gave it to the other, they immediately chatted like old friends and exchanged wonderful stories of wandering with each other.

At the beginning, the local residents were wary of these hippies they had never seen before, but the occasional people who came in to ask for directions or beg for water were so friendly, and everyone quickly dispelled their wariness, and they all gathered in their yards. Put a free water station in there, or sell some food at a low price.These residents themselves are kind-hearted farmers, how could they have the heart to see those childish children suffering from hunger?Many residents took out food and water to distribute to these children. Almost all the shops nearby were full of customers. The shopkeepers hated themselves for not buying more necessities. However, no shop deliberately raised prices. None of the hippie checks they've ever received were bogus.

At the moment, on Jacob's farm, the workers are working intensely, and the work will be finished in two days.But when they looked up, they found that groups of strange people were coming to the grass one after another. "My God!" exclaimed one of the workers, "I was wondering how many people would make it here, but it's only Wednesday and they're all here!" At noon, about 30,000 people had gathered on the grass, and many of them planned to live here forever. "It's really a big deal!" Lange thought to himself. Early the next morning, Roberts took his father and brother to Jacob's Farm. He wanted his father to see his achievements with his own eyes.To their surprise, the grass was already full of people.But before he could figure out how to show off the appeal of the music festival to his father, a terrible idea suddenly appeared in Roberts' mind: "Why didn't you see the ticket booth?" He immediately ran to find Lange, who seemed to be With a look of helplessness:

"They came yesterday and the ticket booths haven't been built yet." "But without ticket booths, how can we make money?" "I can't help it, I'm discussing it with everyone." At this time, a person in charge of security next to him said, "If you try to drive them out now, there will be trouble." Although these words are not pleasant, everyone knows that these words are not groundless worries. There have been several music festivals in the past because some people didn't want to buy tickets and made trouble secretly, and finally turned into violent incidents.At this time, they found that someone in the distance was taking the lead in dismantling the barbed wire fence that had been built. Everyone ran to see that the leader was the "Heterophobia" organization (another name for the "Internationalist Youth Party"), which called for the use of hippie ideas. Hoffmann, the leader of the leftist revolution by method.While tearing it down, they distributed leaflets to the surrounding people, saying that the music festival is a means for capitalists to make money, and appealing to everyone not to buy tickets. "This person is really not a thing!" Roberts thought to himself. A few months ago, Hoffman threatened to disrupt the music festival and knocked 10,000 yuan from the organizing committee.But now he came to dismantle the barbed wire again. Isn't the money given to him for nothing?

By Friday, August 15th, that is, the morning of the day when the performance was scheduled to start, Jacob's Farm was already full of people, and a four-lane road leading here was blocked for fifteen kilometers.Seeing that they could not drive again, many people simply left their cars on the side of the road and walked to the farm on foot with their luggage on their backs.For a time, the roads were full of abandoned vehicles and people marching on foot.By noon, nearly 500,000 people had gathered on the site, and about one million people were unable to enter due to traffic jams. A small city of Bethel with only 3,900 permanent residents unexpectedly Became the third largest city in New York State!

Seeing this situation, the bosses of Warner Bros. made up their minds to buy the film copyright.As long as the audience who come to the music festival buy a two-dollar movie ticket each, they can already keep their capital, and the news of the music festival has already appeared on the front pages of major newspapers, and they don't even need to advertise.However, in the face of such a grand scene, none of the members of the Woodstock Organizing Committee could laugh. What they were worried about was no longer how to recover the investment, but how to ensure the safety of the lives of half a million people.The governor of New York called and threatened to immediately declare Bethel a disaster area and send in the Federal Self-Defense Forces to maintain order.Roberts was shocked when he heard this, and quickly begged the governor not to do this. Ten thousand heavily armed policemen confronted half a million hippies who hated the government... Anyone with a little brain would immediately imagine the terrible result.

Seeing that it was impossible to sell tickets, the organizing committee simply announced to everyone that this music festival will be completely free, and all expenses will be borne by the organizing committee.Although at least six million dollars in ticket revenue was lost by doing so, it turned out to be the wisest decision made by the organizing committee, because from then on, the audience was on the same side as the organizing committee in their hearts. In a trench, the premise of rioting no longer exists. After hearing the news from the radio, Roberts was relieved instead.He knew that this decision could not be changed once it was announced, and he no longer had to worry about making money. "Just sit down and enjoy the music like an ordinary audience. We'll talk about the money later." Roberts thought desperately.