I stayed up late Friday night watching a documentary on the 40th anniversary of Woodstock (which unless you’ve been in a cave for the past few days – I’m sure you’ve heard about).
It focused quite a bit on the promoters and what they went through to get Woodstock up and running and of course the actual festival itself with the attendees. I’m sure that you’ve heard a lot of the stories of the rough time that they had in making it happen, but something that I had never heard really got me thinking.
Because the numbers blew up to something that they never imagined (350-400,000 people – OMG! – that’s a lot of people!). They didn’t really have a chance to make any revenue at the gates or with concessions, etc. People were busting the the fences and coming in droves – they really made the only decision available to them – make it all free.
Here is one of my favorite parts of what I have seen of the performances.
So like the day after the event, these guys were literally flown by helicopter to the bank in Manhattan (dirty, smelly, gross) – who wanted to collect on their debt. They didn’t have it – they were in the hole $1,000,000+. I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t ever stopped to think about if those guys had made money or not, but I didn’t really think about them losing money or anything near that amount – remember this is $1M in 1969.
They were able to cover their losses, by selling the rights to Warner Bros. of the documentary that was made and went on to be a huge hit. So they lost nothing, but made nothing on what is maybe the seminal cultural event of that era – definitely a turning point.
What I took away from it, was:
1. They all lived to tell about it.
2. Long term (and even for most of them – short term) the risk and loss was worth the reward.
It’s not often that you can look back at something you’ve created in 1, 5, 10, 40 years and say “I was one of the masterminds of a cultural event that won’t be forgotten for several generations.” Now, of course, more than anything those guys stumbled into Woodstock. They never had a clue it would be what it was.
Most of us will never have the opportunity to create a Woostock, but since you are reading this, I assume you are a photographer and one who is interested in photographing seniors. So all of you everyday have the opportunity to be involved a pivotal moment in a kid’s/young adult’s life. You have the opportunity to help create a better self image for teen girls and guys. You have the chance to give credence to dreams and goals. Some of us more and some less, but each of us can do the above while making a living. That’s pretty cool – it makes the risk worth the reward…even if it isn’t a ton of cash.
Don’t foget to enter the I <3 spa Contest – Find the prizes offered HERE check it out – it’s good stuff! Email me at director@spartists by September 1, 2009.
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