Woodstock In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair drew more than 450,000 people to a pasture in Sullivan county. For four days, this site became a "countercultural mini-nation" in which drugs were all but legal, music was plenty, and love was free. The music began Friday afternoon at 5:07 p.m. August 15, and continued until mid-morning Monday August 18. The festival closed the New York State Thruway and created one of the nation's worst traffic jams. It also inspired a bunch of local and state laws to ensure that nothing like it would ever happen again. Woodstock was the idea of four young men: John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld and Micha