Video: 'Complete Woodstock Video/audio footage' (116 clips; Aug. 15-16, 1969, represented in clips 2-26)

(Friday, August 15, 1969, 5:07 p.m.-Saturday, August 16, 1969, 2:00 a.m. EDT; during Woodstock) — The “Woodstock Music & Art Fair,” a music festival billed as “An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music,” began today at Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm in Sullivan County, New York, near the town of Bethel in the Catskill Mountains.

Widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history, as well as the definitive nexus for the larger counterculture generation, some 32 acts performed outdoors through the late morning of Aug. 18, 1969. The audience peaked at an estimated 400,000.

Video: 'Complete Woodstock Video/audio footage' (117 clips; Aug. 15, 1969, represented in clips 2-26)

The event was captured in the Academy Award-winning 1970 documentary film Woodstock and the accompanying soundtrack album.

A little-known guitarist, Richie Havens, opened Woodstock today with a performance of “From the Prison” and nine other songs, including “Freedom (Motherless Child).”

Following an opening speech/invocation by Indian religious teacher Satchidananda Saraswati, the musical performers on the first day/night included Sweetwater, Bert Sommer, Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar, Melanie Safka, Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez.