Review of Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage (2021) by 90Smusiclover — 26 Jul 2021

As someone who was at Woodstock '99, I was really looking forward to this documentary, only to be disappointed and disgusted at how grossly biased it was. I would like to preface that I was, at the time, a 16 year old girl who spent a lot of time near the front row of the west stage and was never abused or harassed.

I realize there were many mistakes made, but this film only shows a very narrow and overly critical view of this event. First of all, there were free water stations and all you had to do was fill up a water bottle.

I did this for the entire time and never paid a dime for water, nor was I ever dehydrated. Second of all, the documentary was shot through the lens of hindsight bias and with a filter of current views and political agendas.

What could have been an honest and interesting look at an epic music event in 1999 was turned into a white male hating boob fest. The message that women were taken advantage of was lost in all of the constant footage that concentrated around women showing off their breasts.

There was barely any music footage and not even an attempt to show what was mostly going on, a lot of people enjoying a great line up of music. There was no mention or inclusion of the east stage, where I also spent a lot of time, which featured a lot of more relaxed and laid back acts if one didn't want to brave the more intense west stage.

It was the minority of people being explicit and behaving like savages. Most of the people were like me, peaceful, enjoying music, and acting like decent citizens. This documentary displayed a microcosm of what has happened to music.

It's not about the music anymore, it's all about the politics and money making behind it. I know that drama and sex sells, but this documentary was only a small part of the bigger picture and completely missed the mark.