Fifty years ago, the nation watched as hundreds of thousands of young people gathered at a dairy farm in New York for a three-day music festival. More than 30 artists, including Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, headlined the show. That festival would come to be known as Woodstock. It would cap off the end of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and expose the dissent in a nation calling for unity and peace.
Mark Rice was only 18 when he and his best friend, Jack Davenport, decided to hitchhike 250 miles to the concert.
“We started walking on Thursday from my hometown of Fitchburg, Massachusetts,” said Rice. “We were walking along the freeway and we got stopped by state police. He knew where we were going, so he dropped us off at the next exit and told us not to hitchhike on the freeway, to stick to state roads. So that’s how we walked the rest of the way.”
50 years later, Rice still has the ticket the officer gave him and Davenport.
Rice and Davenport stayed overnight in a motel before heading off again Friday morning. They made it to Max Yasgur’s Farm in time to see Richie Havens take the stage.
“He wasn’t supposed to open the show,” said Rice. “The problem was, the band that was supposed to open, but couldn’t get through the traffic to get to the farm. So they sent Richie out.”
For Rice, Richie Havens’ opening was perfect. “Richie Haven … he sings with the voice of oppression,” said Rice. “The song he sang, ‘Freedom,’ he made that up, there on the spot. He was ready to go off stage and was told he had to stay on because the next band still wasn’t ready. So he stayed and he just started…and he got the band to work with him on it and it was truly the perfect way to start. We knew it would only get better and better after that.”
Rice said they saw Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Arlo Guthrie and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
“When Creedence came onstage and started playing, the ground started shaking,” said Rice. “Everyone was dancing and the music was playing and they made the ground shake.”
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s performance is the one moment he remembers clearest of all.
Still, Rice said that while other bands’ performances have faded from his memory over the years, the five days surrounding his Woodstock adventure remains in his mind. It’s just as clear as when it happened 50 years ago.
Rice said Woodstock was a perfect moment in between high school graduation and the start of college.
“It was just a bunch of kids,” said Rice. “People always ask about if there was any violence, but no. It was just a bunch of kids who wanted to go and listen to music before the start of college.”
Kids or not, Rice stated even back then, he knew Woodstock would be big.
“I didn’t know it would remain as a staple of American history, but being there, you knew it meant something. It was going to be something you remembered.” said Rice.
Despite not having a camera or a phone to take pictures on, Rice kept many tokens from the event. From the ticket he got from the police officer to his actual concert ticket, Rice built a story with these artifacts.
Now Rice takes his souvenirs and story on the road to display at different exhibits. Rice shared his story with the NCC community on Sept. 3 at the “Woodstock: A Look Back” exhibit.
The exhibit will be on display in Oesterle Library through Sept. 8.
