鈥淭he brown acid that is circulating around us is not specifically too good. It's suggested that you do stay away from that.鈥�听鈥� Chip Monck, MC, Woodstock Music Festival, August 1969.
Fifty years ago this weekend, the Woodstock music festival would forever change popular culture.
It was an event that would not only come to define a generation, but become a zeitgeist touchstone for music festivals ever since.
Peter and Ronnie Uhlmann have lived in a homemade cabin in the forest near Lund, B.C. for the past 47 years. They were very much a part of the hippie movement. Before the disillusioned American couple found the end of the road, they went to Woodstock.
In the late 1960s, Peter, originally from Chicago, had graduated from medical school and had completed his internship and enlisted in the Public Health Service to avoid being drafted to Vietnam.
In the summer of 鈥�69, Peter and Ronnie were in New York visiting Ronnie鈥檚 parents. Ronnie鈥檚 younger teenaged sisters saw an ad in the paper for a music festival upstate, something officially billed as 鈥淎n Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music.鈥� The festival promised live performances by Jimi Hendrix, the Who, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, CCR, and dozens of others on Aug. 15, 16, and 17, 1969.
听鈥淩onnie鈥檚 sisters were only 14 and 16 or something like that so Ronnie鈥檚 mom said that they could only go if we chaperoned them鈥� says Peter, who was 28 at the time.鈥淪o that鈥檚 how we ended up at Woodstock. Nobody knew it would be anything special.鈥�
That seems evident by the number of A-listers who passed on Woodstock, including Joni Mitchell, the Byrds, Led Zeppelin and the Doors, many of whom regretted missing it when news spread of what was going down on Max Yasgur鈥檚 600-acre dairy farm.
鈥淩onnie, myself, the teenagers, and our two Siberian huskies drove up in our Volvo station wagon,鈥� recalls Peter. 鈥淲e arrived early, and we were lucky we did, because the roads became jammed with hundreds of thousands of people flooding in.鈥�
听Woodstock was originally intended to draw the upwards of 150,000 fans. More than 400,000 showed up.
鈥淲hat made Woodstock a monumental experience was all the people arriving,鈥� adds Ronnie. 鈥淭ickets were sold, but when all those people started showing up, it became a free festival. There was no antagonizing security, they just took down the barriers and let everyone in. It felt like the hippie dream come true.鈥�
Festival organizers were famously unprepared for the onslaught, and Peter was soon swept up in it.
听鈥淲e were sitting way up from the stage, mostly because of the dogs, when someone behind us had a seizure,鈥� remembers Peter. 鈥淪ince I was a doctor, I attended to this person, and took him to the only medical tent we could find, which was being run by two people: a local family doctor and a resident in psychiatry from Iran. That鈥檚 it! They asked me 鈥楢re you a doctor? Can you help us?鈥� They were being inundated, so I joined in.鈥�
Almost all of their patients were festivalgoers having bad trips, likely from that brown acid Chip Monck warned about from the stage.
鈥淚 had done an internship in Oakland and had lots of experience with drug trips,鈥� explains Peter. 鈥淚 had also done a lot of imbibing myself, so the family doctor put me in charge of the 鈥楤ad Trip Tent.鈥� And so that鈥檚 where I spent the rest of Woodstock, talking people down. I never even saw the show.鈥�
听Meanwhile, Peter鈥檚 wife Ronnie and her two teenage sisters loved the experience.
鈥淏efore Woodstock, it felt like the hippie dream had died with the deaths of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King,鈥� says Ronnie. 鈥淏ut as Woodstock grew, it felt like things could be transformed and get better. It was like a light rising on the horizon.鈥�
There was literally a light rising on the horizon for many bleary-eyed hippies that weekend, since acts such as the Who and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band performed at sunrise, with the show going on all night long on both Saturday and Sunday nights.
鈥淚 remember Arlo Guthrie playing the first night in the pouring rain,鈥� says Ronnie. 鈥淗e could have [been] electrocuted at any moment but he just kept playing. Janis Joplin was also wonderful.鈥�
Back at the Bad Trip Tent, Peter was under the impression that they could be the only medical centre in the festival, but found out later that there were others, including a crisis unit in another area, 鈥渂ut it was nowhere near us.鈥�
About six months after Woodstock, Peter received a letter in the mail.
听鈥淚t was from that family doctor in the medical tent,鈥� Peter chuckles. 鈥淗e thanked me and slipped in a refund for my ticket, which I thought was nice.鈥�
听Later in 鈥�69, the Uhlmanns moved to 麻豆传媒映画where Peter studied psychiatry at UBC. By 1972, they settled in the Lund area with friends, where they built the home that they still live in to this day, and where they raised three children. Their daughter, Tai Uhlmann, chronicled her parents鈥� story, as well as many others in the Lund area, in the 2018 film End of the Road.
听鈥淚鈥檝e worked as a physician and psychiatrist for five decades, I鈥檝e studied tai chi for over three decades, and I鈥檝e been married for over 55 years with a great family,鈥� says Peter.听鈥淎ndy Warhol said we get 15 minutes of fame.听My fame is being at Woodstock by accident!鈥�
@GrantLawrence
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