In August 1969, nearly half a million people gathered at a farm in upstate New York to hear music. What happened over the next three days, however, was far more than a concert. It would become a legendary event, one that would define a generation and mark the end of one of the most turbulent decades in modern history. Occurring just weeks after an American set foot on the moon, the Woodstock music festival took place against a backdrop of a nation in conflict over sexual politics, civil rights and the Vietnam War. Woodstock turns the lens back at the audience, at the swarming, impromptu city that grew up overnight on a few acres of farm land. What took place in that teaming mass of humanity—the rain-soaked, starving, tripping, half-a-million strong throng of young people—was nothing less than a miracle of teamwork, a manifestation of the “peace and love” the festival had touted and a validation of the counter-culture’s promise to the world.