Max Yasgur

Yasgur was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Jewish immigrants Samuel and Bella (née Feder) Yasgur.U.S. Census, January 1, 1920, State of New York, County of New York, enumeration district 701, p. 8-A, family 200. Sam had been born in Minsk, now in Belarus,{{cite web |title="United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images, FamilySearch | website=FamilySearch |url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-L1NS-K35?cc=1968530&wc=9FZ1-W38%3A928312401%2C929065801 |access-date=11 April 2023 |location=New York > New York City no 168; Shapiro, Isaac M.-Z > image 1050 of 1136; citing NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).}} and Bella had been born in Poland.{{cite web |title="Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Year: 1930; Census Place: Thompson, Sullivan, New York; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0038; FHL microfilm: 2341387" | website=Ancestry.com |url=https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/46523161:6224 |access-date=11 April 2023}} Max was raised with his brother Isidore (1926–2010) on the family's farm (where his parents also ran a small hotel){{cite news |title=This Day in Jewish History // 1973: The Farmer Who Defied His Neighbors and Hosted Woodstock Dies |date=February 9, 2016 |newspaper=Haaretz |author=Green, David B. |url=http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/this-day-in-jewish-history/1.702103 |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220809002136/https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2016-02-09/ty-article/1973-woodstocks-unlikely-host-dies/0000017f-e1b6-df7c-a5ff-e3fea4b50000?_amp=true |archive-date=August 9, 2022}}{{cbignore}} and attended New York University, studying real estate law.

By the late 1960s, he was the largest milk producer in Sullivan County, New York.{{cite web|url=http://www.woodstockpreservation.org/pastpresent/maxtribute.html |title=Max Yasgur Tribute Page |access-date=September 9, 2009 |work=woodstockpreservation.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090816222547/http://www.woodstockpreservation.org/pastpresent/maxtribute.html |archive-date=August 16, 2009 }} His farm had 650 cows, mostly Guernseys.{{cite news | title=Farmer With Soul:Max Yasgur | date=August 17, 1969 | work =The New York Times }}

At the time of the festival in 1969, Yasgur was married to Miriam (Mimi) Gertrude Miller Yasgur and had a son, Sam (1942–2016) and daughter, Lois (1944–1977). His son was an assistant district attorney in New York City at the time.

In later years, it was revealed that Yasgur was in fact a conservative Republican who supported the Vietnam War.

{{Cite web

| first = Teresa

| last = Santoski

| url = https://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/local-news/2011/02/09/daily-twip-max-yasgur-who-rented-out-his-farm-as-the-site-of-woodstock-dies-today-in-1973/

| title = Daily TWiP – Max Yasgur, who rented out his farm as the site of Woodstock, dies today in 1973

| newspaper = The Telegraph

| location = Nashua, New Hampshire

| date = February 9, 2011

| accessdate = February 9, 2022

| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20210320145028/https://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/local-news/2011/02/09/daily-twip-max-yasgur-who-rented-out-his-farm-as-the-site-of-woodstock-dies-today-in-1973/

| archivedate = March 20, 2021 | url-status = live

}}{{Cite web|url=https://canadafreepress.com/article/max-yasgur-the-conservative-republican-who-saved-woodstock|title=Max Yasgur: The Conservative Republican Who Saved Woodstock|first=Aaron|last=Goldstein|website=Canada Free Press}} Nevertheless, he felt that the Woodstock festival could help business at his farm and also tame the generation gap.

{{cite news

| author = Times Staff

| title = Max Yasgur Dies; Woodstock Festival Was on His Farm

| date = February 10, 1973

| page = 34

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1973/02/10/archives/max-yasgur-dies-woodstock-festival-was-on-his-farm-undaunted-by.html

| url-status=live

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190603024342/http://www.nytimes.com/1973/02/10/archives/max-yasgur-dies-woodstock-festival-was-on-his-farm-undaunted-by.html

| archive-date = June 3, 2019

| newspaper = The New York Times

| accessdate = February 9, 2022

}} Despite claims that he showed disapproval towards the treatment of the counterculture movement, this allegation was never confirmed. Woodstock promoter Michael Lang, who considered Yasgur to be his "hero," stated that Yasgur was "the antithesis" of what the Woodstock festival stood for.{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/woodstock-producer-roy-rogers-not-hendrix-could-have-closed|title=Woodstock producer: Roy Rogers, not Hendrix, could have closed|date=August 8, 2009|website=Washington Examiner}} Yasgur's early death prevented him from answering questions about why he agreed to allow the festival to take place at his farm.

After area villages Saugerties (located about {{convert|40|mi|km}} from Yasgur's farm) and Wallkill declined to provide a venue for the festival, Yasgur leased one of his farm's fields for a fee that festival sponsors later said was $10,000. Soon after agreeing to host the event, he began to receive both threatening and supporting phone calls (which could not be placed without the assistance of an operator because the community of White Lake, New York, where the telephone exchange was located, still used manual switching). While many calls were critical of his decision, the helpful calls outnumbered the threatening ones.

Opposition to the festival began soon after the festival's relocation to Bethel was announced. Signs were erected around town, saying, "Local People Speak Out Stop Max's Hippie Music Festival", "No 150,000 hippies here", and "Buy no milk".{{cite news | first=Richard F. | last=Shepard | title=Pop Rockl Festival Finds New Home | date=July 23, 1969 | work =The New York Times }}

Yasgur was 49 at the time of the festival and had a heart condition. He said at the time that he never expected the festival to be so large, but that "if the generation gap is to be closed, we older people have to do more than we have done."

Yasgur quickly established a rapport with the concert-goers, providing food at cost or for free. When he heard that some local residents were reportedly selling water to people coming to the concert, he put up a big sign at his barn on New York State Route 17B reading "Free Water." The New York Times reported that Yasgur "slammed a work-hardened fist on the table and demanded of some friends, 'How can anyone ask money for water?{{'"}} His son Sam recalled his father telling his children to "take every empty milk bottle from the plant, fill them with water and give them to the kids, and give away all the milk and milk products we had at the dairy."{{cite news | first=Friz | last=Weaver | title=County attorney waxes historic | date=November 5, 2008 | url =http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/08-10-30/news-attorney.html | work =The River Reporter | access-date = September 7, 2009 }}

At the time of the concert, friends described Yasgur as an individualist who was motivated as much by his principles as by the money. According to Sam Yasgur, his father agreed to rent the field to the festival organizers because it was a very wet year, which curtailed hay production. The income from the rental would offset the cost of purchasing thousands of bales of hay.

Yasgur also believed strongly in freedom of expression, and was angered by the hostility of some townspeople toward "anti-war hippies". Hosting the festival became, for him, a "cause".

On the third day of the festival, just before Joe Cocker's early afternoon set, Yasgur addressed the crowd:{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8eiL25BjkY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/a8eiL25BjkY| archive-date=December 12, 2021 |url-status=live|title=Yasgur on Woodstock|publisher=YouTube|access-date=January 19, 2020}}{{cbignore}}

{{blockquote|"I'm a farmer. I don't know how to speak to twenty people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But I think you people have proven something to the world — not only to the Town of Bethel, or Sullivan County, or New York State; you've proven something to the world. This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place. We have had no idea that there would be this size group, and because of that you've had quite a few inconveniences as far as water, food, and so forth. Your producers have done a mammoth job to see that you're taken care of... they'd enjoy a vote of thanks. But above that, the important thing that you've proven to the world is that a half a million kids — and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you are — a half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and I – God bless you for it!"}}

His speech was met with a massive cheer from the audience.

Several of the performers at the festival had arranged to send thank-you gifts, flowers, and letters to Yasgur for allowing use of the farm.

Many of Yasgur's neighbors turned against him after the festival, and he no longer felt welcome at the town's general store, but he never regretted his decision to allow the concert on his farm. The local postmaster reportedly turned against the Yasgurs, so they opted to change their address from Bethel to Cochecton, another nearby town.{{cite news | title=Woodstock Changed The World. Here's The Inside Story Of How Max Yasgur Made It Happen. | date=August 7, 2019 | url=https://forward.com/culture/429616/max-yasgur-woodstock-farm-owner-50-years-after-what-happened/ | work = Forward | access-date=March 23, 2021}} On January 7, 1970, he was sued by his neighbors for property damage caused by the concert attendees. However, the damage to his own property was far more extensive and, over a year later, he received a $50,000 settlement to pay for the near-destruction of his dairy farm.{{cite news | first=Dennis | last=McDougal | title=Living Off Woodstock : WOODSTOCK 20 YEARS AFTER : The aging of Aquarius : Whether for Memories or Money, Some Strange Bedfellows Harken Back to That August Weekend| date=June 22, 1989 | url =https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-06-22-vw-3124-story.html| work =Los Angeles Times| access-date = August 18, 2019 }} He refused to rent out his farm for a 1970 revival of the festival, saying, "As far as I know, I'm going back to running a dairy farm".

In 1971, Yasgur sold the {{convert|600|acre|ha|adj=on}} farm, and moved to Marathon, Florida, where, a year and a half later, he died of a heart attack at the age of 53. He was given a full-page obituary in Rolling Stone magazine, one of the few non-musicians to have received such an honor.{{cite web|url=http://www.woodstockstory.com/maxyasgur.html |title=Max Yasgur : The Real Woodstock Story|website=Woodstockstory.com|access-date=January 19, 2020}}

In 1997, the site of the concert and {{convert|1400|acre|ha}} surrounding it was purchased by Alan Gerry for the purpose of creating the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. In August 2007, the {{convert|103|acre|ha|adj=on}} parcel that contains Yasgur's former homestead, about {{convert|3|mi|spell=in|0}} from the festival site, was placed on the market for $8 million by its owner, Roy Howard.{{cite news | title=Yasgur's farm for sale ... for $8 million | date=August 8, 2007 | url =http://www.today.com/id/20183704 | agency =Associated Press | access-date = June 13, 2009 }}

In June 2024, during a record heatwave, a fire totally destroyed an iconic barn on the grounds. A total of 21 fire companies responded.{{cite web |last1=Robayo |first1=Patricio |title=Fire Companies Battle Blaze at Bethel’s Russell Farm Amid Record Heatwave |url=https://wjffradio.org/fire-companies-battle-blaze-at-bethels-russell-farm-amid-record-heatwave/ |website=WJFF Radio Catskill |access-date=5 July 2024 |date=21 June 2024}}

• Joni Mitchell's song "Woodstock", made famous by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (also covered by Matthews Southern Comfort, Richie Havens, James Taylor, Eva Cassidy, Chelsea Wolfe, and Brooke Fraser), has a line about "going down to Yasgur's Farm".{{cite web|url=http://jonimitchell.com/music/song.cfm?id=75 |title=Joni Mitchell - Woodstock - lyrics|website=Jonimitchell.com|access-date=January 19, 2020}}
• Mountain (who were also at the concert) recorded a song shortly after the event entitled "For Yasgur's Farm".{{cite book |last1=Fornatale |first1=Pete |title=Back to the Garden The Story of Woodstock |date=2009 |publisher=Touchstone}}
• The Beastie Boys 1989 album Paul's Boutique samples Yasgur's Woodstock speech on the track "Car Thief".{{cite magazine |title=Beastie Boys' 'Paul's Boutique' at 30: The 10 Most Random Samples on the Hip-Hop Classic |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/beastie-boys-pauls-boutique-samples-8523923/ |magazine=Billboard}}
• The progressive rock band Moon Safari has a song titled "Yasgur's Farm" on their album Blomljud.
• Yasgur is portrayed by Eugene Levy in Ang Lee's film Taking Woodstock.
• Yasgur's son Sam wrote a book about him called Max B. Yasgur: The Woodstock Festival's Famous Farmer, in August 2009.{{cite news | first=Howard | last=Cohen | date=August 15, 2009 | title =Woodstock books bring readers back to Yasgur's farm | work =The Providence Journal }}

• Michael Eavis, British farmer who has hosted the Glastonbury Festival since 1970

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.sc-democrat.com/archives/2004/news/09September/14/awards.htm Sullivan County Democrat: Those Who Shaped History]
• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090913092209/http://www.maxyasgurfarm.com/index.html |date=September 13, 2009 |title=Sam Yasgur website }}
• [http://www.woodstockstory.com/maxyasgur.html "The Woodstock Story: Max Yasgur"]

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Category:1919 births

Category:1973 deaths

Category:Dairy farmers

Category:Farmers from New York (state)

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent

Category:Businesspeople from New York City

Category:New York (state) Republicans

Category:20th-century American businesspeople

Category:People from Bethel, New York

Category:People from Marathon, Florida

Category:Woodstock Festival

Category:New York University alumni