Hey fam. I want to give a little heads up. This episode features a special guest who appeared on seasons 7-10 of the Nickelodeon show All That. We didn't anticipate recording this amidst the release of the new documentary Quiet On Set, and our conversation took place before either of us had seen it. Our guest opted out of participating in the documentary, so we won't be delving into discussions about abuse within Nickelodeon on today’s show. It's important to note that each actor on the show had their own unique experiences, and any insights shared by our guest today aren't intended to undermine anyone else’s journey.

Didi:Happy St Patty’s Day! It’s probably like a whole week after St Patrick’s Day by the time you’re hearing this but nonetheless, I wish you a happy one!

Today we are going to talk about the shit show that was the music festival known as Woodstock ‘99. But before we get into the episode, I have a very special guest to introduce who happens to be a redheaded Irish queen. You might remember her from the Nickelodeon show All That, or her many other roles on various sitcoms. Ladies and gentleman, let’s give a warm welcome to Lisa Fucking Foiles!! The one and only Lisa Foiles, as you may remember from shows like Even Stevens, Malcolm in the Middle, and of course All That! And the crowd goes wild!

Lisa: Yay! Audience goes wild! Applause! Pyrotechnics! That was the nicest intro ever! Thank you so much! Duck Freud! Duck Freud! List him off! List that IMDB list off! Let's go down the line!

Didi: I know this is kind of weird, it kind of feels like I’m stalking you but I promise it’s all research.

Lisa: No, I totally get it. You're a professional. You're a professional. And I love you and you're great and this is going to be so much fun. And, um, you know, this is just for us, right? We're not recording any of this. This is just you and me chatting. 

Didi: Right, I’m just gonna tell Lisa Foiles all about Woodstock ‘99.

Lisa: Yeah, please do. I've never heard anything about it. So, um, sounds like a nice time. Sounds like a really fun time. Uh, really relaxing, fun getaway. So,

peace and [00:03:00] love. Yep. Mm hmm. Harmony.

Didi: So Lisa have you seen any of the documentaries about Woodstock ‘99?

Lisa:Oh, girl. Oh, girl, yes. Oh, girl, yes. I've seen it. I've probably seen it three times, honestly. Um, in fact, it's so wild. Uh, specifically, I don't know how many documentaries there are on Woodstock 99, but specifically the trainwreck one on Netflix. Um, my very good friend JD was just in town for St. Paddy's Day, and I mentioned that, uh, I was gonna be talking about Woodstock 99.

And he's like, what, what is that? What happened? And I'm like, oh, you don't know? Okay. Sit, come, come gather round, children. Sit down and hear a tale, most dire. Of the, the, um, incredibly, um, insane things that happened at, uh, good old Woodstock 99. So then we watched it again, so I just recently saw it. Um, again, and got to relive all the magical moments.

These magic moments.[00:04:00]

Yeah, it just, it started out with somewhat good intentions and ended up as a war zone of sorts. Uh, you know, it's hard because I say good intentions because I, I mean, I do truly think that, um, you know, the handful of people putting it on, I think for the most part, uh, they really did want to bring back that magic.

You know, that was a really cool thing that happened was Woodstock 69. And there [00:05:00] was a lot of peace and love and Drugs and sexual activity and all that stuff like the thing is that say even Woodstock 69 was Problematic in its own ways like it was not a perfect event and a lot of things did go wrong At Woodstock 69, but for the most part it was Lovely and uh, yeah peaceful and harmony the people came together The music brought the people together, you know Um, and so yeah, they I guess they didn't they try another Woodstock before 99?

Didi: It all began with Woodstock ‘69. Half a million people attended.

The idea of the now iconic Woodstock festival of 1969 was originally conceived by four men from New York City named Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, John Roberts, and Joel Rosenman. Lang and Kornfeld both held experience in the music industry with Lang having headed the Miami Pop Festival of 1968 and Kornfeld having served as the youngest vice president at Capitol Records. Roberts and Rosenman were wealthy New York entrepreneurs interested in making a new investment. When they combined forces, the idea was proposed to create a recording studio in Woodstock, NY under the name Woodstock Ventures.

The iconic festival featured acts like– joan baez, jimi hendrix, janis joplin, the who, jefferson airplane, santana, joe cocker, etc. There was so much traffic that ppl parked their cars in traffic and walked to the concert.

Like you said, a few things that come to mind about woodstock 69. Lots of topless women. It was the 60’s, the sexual liberation, the fight for feminism. People became a community and would trade things like drugs for food or they’re clothes or supplies. There was a lot of drug use, a lot of sex. I believe it rained at some point and lots of people played in the mud. It was very free spirited.

So in 1994 one of the founders, michael lang, wanted to bring it back for 25th anniversary. 

Michael Lange’s Idea was to function as a bridge as music from the 60s and what was contemporary in the 90s. Replicated a line up close to 69— Santana, Cranberries. This was the last hurrah for baby boomers and maybe their kids too. It had its problems, like the gate being broken into and people breaking in without paying for a ticket. 

190,000 people broke in for free. This concert was also rained on and lots of people played in the mud, likely reminiscing on the original Woodstock 69, until they were absolutely covered. Ultimately, the creators felt like they pulled off something pretty fantastic. So when it was over, he said “lets do it agan in 5 years”

Woodstock 99 was their redo, an opportunity for a big community event without the issues they had in 94. Peace, love, and music for this generation of people of college age.

Lisa: Yeah, they lost a ton of money on Woodstock 94, obviously, because of, you know, that, you know, that's, that was a really shining moment for, like, a fence company to step up, right? To be like, yo, what's up, Woodstock 99? We're Bob's Fences, and we saw what happened in 94. That won't happen on our watch. Bob's Fences to the rescue.

But instead, they put up wooden fences, right? They put up a bunch of wood around the, tarmac because let's be honest they picked like a like tarmac like the most like war zone looking place like Like for like a place where like helicopters and like military activity would happen like in this place There's like airport airplane hangars and tarmac and not very much grass and no shade um And the promoters of in the 90 the woodstock 99 crew was like this is this is it this is the perfect spot Let's do this kids [00:07:00] love standing on concrete For days at a time.

Didi: Yea, the scenery was very different at this woodstock than the original woodstock.

Because of the amount of people anticipated at these events, they required a location with a lot of open space and where there wouldn’t be neighbors or anybody complaining about the sound and things like that. The original Woodstock 69 actually had a lot of trouble finding a location, but ultimately found a farm in Bethel, NY whose owner was willing to let them use it. So when you think of Woodstock 69, you picture people sitting on lush green grass grass, possibly on a hill or under a tree. Woodstock 99 took place at GRIFFISS AIRFORCE BASE in Rome NY. The entire place was concrete and tarmac. There was no greenery in sight. Also, isn’t that so ironic?

Woodstock '99 was supposed to be a 30th-anniversary celebration of Woodstock '69 that celebrated love, peace, and music amid the Vietnam War. Many musicians sent anti-war messages. and these guys said “you know where we can replicate that concert? A US Military base.”

Base was ideal because infrastructure was already built perfectly for a music festival. A military base is huge, it can basically function as an entire little town or neighborhood with housing and facilities, and it’s already gated, so ppl couldnt get in without tickets like 94.  

The temperatures reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit (40 celsius). Because the entire base was tarmac, the scorching heat was unbearable. And since there are no trees, there’s very little shade. Even worse, the 2 main stages were like a mile and a half from each other. People quickly became hot, dehydrated, and sunburnt from head to toe.

The festival was attended by almost 400,000 people. People spent their graduation money on it. Tickets started at $150 which was a lot then. But lots of bands. In order to prevent party crashers like in woodstock 94, the promoters insisted on building a 12 foot fence made of steel and plywood to keep people out. They called it the “Peace Wall”. The plywood was painted in colorful images to represent the peace and love of the original woodstock festival. These plywood walls would eventually be torn down into pieces, some people would use them like surfboards while crowd surfing, and ultimately many pieces were set on fire.

It’s early in the episode, so that probably sounds like a lot. But this festival is going to become Apocalypse Now.

They'll, they'll love it. Let's try some 200 bucks to stand on concrete for days at a time. And not give them water. Um, but yeah, so then they, so okay, so they lost so much money in Woodstock 94. They're like, we need to try this again, but we want to make money this time. Um, so they're like, okay. Let's, let's, um, let's put on this event, but let's cut every corner, every corner possible.

Let's cut the, cut those corners. Cause we love peace and love, and we love the people. We love the music, but also we like money a little bit more, um, because we're mostly a bunch of old white guys. We're so out of touch with everything.

Producers, esp michael lang, want ppl to enjoy the hippie vibe, bt also wanted huge profit. Ultimately that means it’s not very hippie, now is it Michael? Event was sponsored by many businesses. With mtv benefitting the most by hosting event and selling pay per view. Vendors at the event were price gouging like crazy. A personal pizza cost $12, a burrito (probably a frozen one) cost $10.  A bottle of water cost $4 of the event (which is already ridiculous, moreso in the 90s). By the 3rd day, that price had raised to $10. That was another problem– everyone was hot and dehydrated and water was expensive. 

Lisa: I think it's true. They weren't allowed to bring stuff in, right? 

Didi: Nope, they didn’t allow any outside food or drinks, not even water, so people had no choice but to buy water inside. 

Lisa: Dude, you can bring stuff into Disneyland. You can bring sandwiches.

Didi: Yea this whole thing sounds pretty materialistic and corporate greed-y to me.

Lisa: Yeah, which it Inflation, I mean, I'm sure now it's like that would be like 25 bucks, you know. Um, Yeah, so it just kind of got, you know, it got worse and got worse and worse. Um, and The funny thing is that they had this one [00:12:00] guy and I forget his name from the documentary But he was like the he's like the white guy in that documentary that you just hate the whole time who just doesn't get it The the bald guy who does the interview in front of the window Whoever that guy is not the guy with the long hair who was just out of his mind the whole time.

Didi: I think that’s John Scher.

Lisa: Okay. Yeah Okay. Yeah, so okay. So yeah How much did you laugh every time he went on stage with like his, his fanny pack and like his dumb hat and his just like collared shirt and he's like, okay, kids, you all need to calm down.

Didi: Yea!! Like when Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit is ready to give the most energetic performance of his life in front of a crowd that is acting feral, and they ask him to calm the crowd down.. I’m like… please tell me they didn’t send John Scher’s goofy ass to ask him that.

Didi: Well going back to the water thing. The event had a couple water fountains, but not nearly enough. So the lines were endless. Eventually, people got tired of waiting and someone broke one of the water pipes, so water just kind of sprayed everywhere. That turned into puddles and a lot of mud. People started bathing in the water and in the mud, probably reminiscent of the Woodstock 69 concert.

This added to the list of essential needs the concert goers had that the concert staff was not providing. The entire atmosphere had set up concertgoers to not only be angry, but pretty much fighting to survive. And we haven’t even begun talking about the actual music or the bands starting yet.

The lineup was all over the place. Included were acts like Rusted Roots, Fatboy Slim, Jamiroquai, Moby, DMX, Los Lobos (lol)

Lisa: Um, I think one of my favorite parts of the, uh, the documentary was, um, one of the guys who was working there on the crew, he was like the younger one.

He was like in his twenties and he was in a meeting questioning their lineup. Because he's like, okay, you're going to get people like Rage Against the Machine and Metallica and Limp Bizkit and Korn and Red Hot Chili Peppers and like, there's, there could be some chaos here. And they [00:08:00] were basically like, shut up, young kid.We know what we're doing. 

. Yeah, for sure, I mean that's, You're right like it's we they created a war as opposed to like standing up against the war The kids at this festival, but not that they were in the wrong That's what's so hard is because okay. First of all, everybody was wrong. Everybody was in the [00:10:00] wrong every single person pretty much um, but uh, it's just It started bad and I do think that the kids attending Uh were there for the music they made that very clear like you get all these you see all the mtv You Interviews, they had MTV there on the ground.

They had microphones. Anybody who was taking video and interviewing kids, they made it very clear that they were sick of what MTV was doing. MTV had taken a turn. It used to be all about the music and then it became like Fight Club talks about very commercialized and all about the money and very corporate.

So these kids are very sick of seeing Backstreet Boys on MTV. They're sick of seeing Jessica Simpson. Like they want real music. Overwhelmingly, people were there to see Korn. They were there to see Rage. Rage played, right? Yeah, I think it was Rage. Metallica, yeah, and um, and Limp Bizkit, you know, these heavier, more intense bands, like that's why they were there.

So they already kind of came in with this mindset of like, fuck [00:11:00] MTV, like fuck the man, like this is our event. So the kids kind of, you know, even from the beginning, they were, they had, they had an attitude and that's fine, like go to your music festival. Have your fun. That's what it's for. Uh, but the problem is that the people putting on the vent just did not take care of them in any way.

DAY 1: Friday, July 23, 1999

The first official day of the festival was Friday, July 23, 1999. Hundreds of people were anxiously waiting for an epic opening show. The festival lacked sufficient security. They called the security guards the “Peace Patrol”. These were really just young, college aged kids with no experience. Unfortunately, these people were not paid well, they were not offered water, and they were given the impossible task of wrangling almost half a million people. They eventually just dropped their posts and joined the crowd. Many of them sold their yellow security shirts, as people thought it would get them into backstage areas. Men in yellow security shirts were seen among the men harassing women.  

The opening act on the main stage was James Brown (quite a posterboy for the 90’s, right?).  

Lisa: Okay, so, James Brown, right? That's, this was the start of all of it, right? It was James Brown. At the very beginning, they start this, they start Woodstock 99, and they have, like, no money, already. They're, like, in debt, they have no money, the whole point of this event was to try to make money, and, um, they're already out of it. So I think James Brown, on day one, was, like, the first, one of the first artists, right?

And he was, like, I'm not going on stage until you pay me my money up front. And they're like, well that's not gonna happen. And he's like, well I guess I'm not going on stage then. But they said, oh really? Oh really? Okay, go, you go peek at the audience real quick.

Didi: Yea John’s like “oh ok I’ll get you your money, but first I want you to hear something” and then he just starts the track so he has no choice but to start singing.

Lisa:  And, [00:16:00] I want you to hear something. And, that was like the first time, especially in the documentary, where they show the sea of people.

Like, it, like they said a couple times, it was like one big organism. Like, that just crammed in there like sardines, Went for miles. So insane. So I mean I can see how James Brown would be like, okay, maybe we'll play Maybe this might be the greatest show of our lives. So maybe we should definitely play this And that that I think was like the one Moment where it seemed like maybe things were gonna be fine.

James Brown came out. He did his thing. There were purple jumpsuits it was glorious and right Yeah, which I actually like because it seemed like the audience was super into it. So I was like, that's cool Maybe they got a little they got a little culture. Like maybe they do respect, you know, the [00:17:00] Classic artists like that. So yeah, I mean that was when we're like, you know, okay, maybe this thing won't be so bad I'll let you I'll let you take it

Some of the other bands that performed on the main stage that day were Korn, Bush, the Offspring, Jamiroquai, Sheryl Crow, and DMX. 

DMX’s performance was a controversial one. There were not a lot of black people at that festival, especially in comparison to white people. imagine being a black person in a sea of white people singing along to DMX and openly chanting the N-word. What if you came with friends who you thought would never say that word or do a racist thing ever, and now they’re standing next to you, proudly chanting in among the sea of white people you’re in the middle of.

By the end of the day, overcrowding and logistical issues became started to become evident as attendees struggle to access basic necessities, and the crowd increasingly became hostile.

2. Aggressive Atmosphere:

The festival atmosphere took a dark turn as tensions escalated among the attendees. Overcrowded conditions, long lines for basic necessities, and scorching temperatures created a volatile environment. As frustrations mounted, the festival site became a breeding ground for aggression, leading to confrontations and fights among the disillusioned crowd.

The Peace Patrol was becoming smaller and smaller, and those who remained might not have let anyone bring in water bottles, but they didn’t give a fuck if anyone brought drugs or booze. Men and women both began taking off their shirts, which is kind of customary to the hippie culture. Plus it was also super hot outside. Men were constantly grabbing and groping women who were topless. And even those who werent topless were harrassed incessantly. Groups of men would chant “show us your tits” and a lot of women said that the men would surround them and wouldn’t them go until they flashed them.

Women who were crowd surfing were being groped and violated. Women reported having fingers and objects inserted into their vaginas while crowd surfing. 

An attendee:

“I saw someone push this girl into the mosh pit, a very skinny girl, maybe 90 to 100 pounds,” he said. “Then a couple of the guys started taking her clothes off – not so much her top but her bottom. They pulled her pants down and they were violating her, and they were passing her back and forth. There were five guys that were raping this girl and having sex with her.”

Lisa: Oh, you saw it! Yes, you saw it in the documentary! This, like, these guys would, like, not let this poor girl go. They're like, hey, give her some space, and they don't. Just, like, anim that's I mean, they started to turn into animals. Like, the [00:28:00] whole thing. Yes! Oh my gosh. Yes.

Another attendee told the New York Times in 1999 that over the course of under 10 minutes, he saw five or six women get sexually assaulted.

''They were literally passing the women from one guy to another,'' he said. ''There was at least one guy assisting on almost every one I saw, holding the girl down. It was horrible.'' 

Lisa: Oh! Oh

my gosh, so awful.

So horrific. Just absolutely horrific.

Ugh, it's heartbreaking. Oh my gosh, I can't even hear that. It's [00:29:00] so awful.

Oh yeah.

John Scher had this to say:

“There were a lot of women who voluntarily had their tops off. Then you get into a mosh pit and you crowd surf. Could somebody have touched their breasts? Yes, I’m sure they did. What could I have done about it? I’m not sure I could have done anything.”

Aside from the attendees, there were also 8 police officers who were accused of assaulting a woman. One officer was suspended without pay. So these women who were attacked weren’t even in a safe space to report it.

The promoters actually showed photos of topless girls on their website, without their consent.

a gallery of more than 150 photos of partially or fully nude concert-goers 

"This is a real-time gallery," reads a warning posted on the website. "It is impossible for us to review photos or confirm their validity. We do not actively monitor the contents of this gallery and are not responsible for any photos posted." The warning advises Web surfers who are offended by specific photos to complain by e-mail, and it promises that any offending photos will be removed.

some of which include such captions as "Cute T---ies," "Nice Pair" and "Show Your T--s" 

Four rapes were officially reported, the New York Times reported in 1999. Of the four, two women were allegedly raped by groups of men in mosh pits while people around them cheered, MTV reported at the time.
John Scher said of this:

“Woodstock was like a small city, you know? All things considered, I’d say that there would probably be as many or more rapes in any sized city of that… but it wasn’t anything that gained enough momentum so that it caused any on-site issues, other than, of course, the women it happened to”.

New York State Police have arrested two men in connection with Woodstock-related sex crimes, and police are investigating at least eight other sex crimes that allegedly took place during the three-day festival, including two alleged gang rapes.  In one of the two arrests, a 26-year-old prison guard was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, the New York Times reported.

https://www.mtv.com/news/286le9/nude-photos-on-woodstock-99-website-raise-ire-of-womens-groups-promoter

Rosemary Vennaro, supervisor at the Utica, N.Y., YWCA, which counseled several alleged victims of sexual assault during the festival, said she was concerned that women who were attacked at Woodstock might see the photos.

"That's not very good, especially for the victims," she said. "[What] if there are victims out there seeing that and feeling that they're getting blamed for what happened to them?"

Vennaro was particularly disturbed, she said, by a photo that shows a naked woman, seen only from the waist down, standing among a group of fully clad males. The photo's caption is a single word: "Danger."

Michael Lang, who co-promoted the latest festival, said he saw no connection between the photos and the reports of sex crimes at Woodstock '99.

Website organizers claim that since the photos were taken in a public place, the women pictured were aware of the possibility they were being photographed, Sumner said.

Where is the line? When does a photographers and videographers need a signed release to use your image? When MTV has one of those shows or like, spring break when there’s a bunch of people in the background, are they using extras that gave consent to use their image or are they just capturing random people in the background who maybe didn’t mind?

Netflix and HBO Max also showed in their respective documentaries, a lot of footage of topless women from this festival that i’m not sure they got releases for. I would think that companies like MTV and Netflix and HBO, that can easily make money from your image, would need a signed release.

Liz Polay-Wettengel attended the four-day event but left early after becoming disgusted with the sexual abuse she said she witnessed. 

“Based on what I saw, I knew that there were so many women that didn’t tell their stories or they certainly weren’t going to the police,” she said in the documentary. “I wondered where they are or what they're doing.”

She told Oxygen.com that she heard whispers about different rapes, in bathrooms and tents. She says she also witnessed women in the mosh pit “getting their clothing ripped off” and groped. 

She created a website called fanseverywhere.org about a week after Woodstock to search for sex assault survivors from the festival. 

“I got dozens upon dozens of emails from women, young women, women as young as 14 years old saying, I had a bottle shoved up my vagina or I had all my clothes ripped off in the mosh pit or I was raped in a tent on Saturday night and I was screaming and nobody did anything to stop it,” she said in the documentary. 

“These women were scared and many felt as if they were at least partially to blame because of what they were or were not wearing, or for being there in the first place.” She added that most reached out to her anonymously.

When bands like Insane Posse and Korn came on, the crowd went wild. The audience starts to look like they’re getting out of control. The mosh pits got crazy and if you were to fall, you would get crushed and it would be really hard for an ambulance to reach you in the middle of that crowd.

I heard an interesting perspective while researching that you don’t often hear about is that for the most part, the woodstock 99 crowd was very different from the woodstock 69 crowd. I’m not trying to make generalizations here, but just hear me out. Like i said, in woodstock 99, they were amidst a war that many people felt our country had no place to be involved in. the hippie movement was a bunch of people insisting on not fighting, putting away our fists, learning to love each other for our differences, etc. That’s not to say that people were not like that in 1999, and i’m not saying there weren’t people like that at Woodstock 99.

But they definitely were not in the majority. And America had a very sexist attitude in 1999. This was the era of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. There was a specific genre of comedy movies which was fratboy, sexist comedies, like American Pie.

Remember how i said that tickets cost an absurd $150 and some people used all their graduation money on it? 

Think about that. This concert was not super accessible. So what kind of happened was that a huge chunk of those concertgoers were like, rich white guys. Frat boys. Menendez-brother types. Many of whom were there because they loved Numetal, which typically consisted of angry or nihilistic themes. 

I’m not trying to say that all fans of numetal are angry and aggressive, I really hope nobody takes it that way. But those that were angry and aggressive felt justified in behaving that way, and when they found themselves among a community of other like-minded individual, they grouped together and fueled each other.

Lisa: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. There's a frat boy, uh, mentality for at least all the footage that they show, like in the documentary. I mean, it's, you know, like you said, there's 400, 000 people there and maybe 350, 000 of them are all decent people. Like, we don't know. 

Didi: So those that went to see like, Jewel and Rusted Root and DMX were greatly outnumbered by angry and aggressive white men. And I imagine because it was Woodstock, there were a lot of Peaceful hippie types that maybe some among them got kind of stepped on and bullied. 

So you get all these angry white frat-boy types, who are now sunburnt and dehydrated and getting charged up the asshole for water, and then Fred Durst becomes their actual hype man, tells the crowd to take all that negativity that’s building up and “Break Stuff”.

you know, so much alcohol use, so much drug use, so much dehydration, so much heatstroke, like, just everything was working against these kids, and then on top of all of it, they were starting to get, you know, treated like crap by the staff, like, they were almost, like, in prison, you know what I mean?

Lisa: Like, on top of already the [00:25:00] conditions that were bad, that they can't control, like, the weather, now suddenly they feel like they're being taken advantage of by the man, but the whole event was supposed to be against the man, like, For us and now all of a sudden you get the white guy comes out on stage saying everybody needs to calm down Chill out and they're like, oh really Ohmy yes, and my fav yes 100 percent and my favorite part Is that when the audience got out of control because here we are like late day one day two People are starting to get mad. This is not going well Um, my favorite part is how the crowd is getting unruly They ask the rock stars to fix it. They're talking to Durst. They're talking to these bands. Yeah, like they're, can you just go and do some [00:26:00] crowd control because that's what you do, Limp Bizkit. And he's like, hmm, interesting. Okay. Yeah, I'll get right on that. No, at any point, first of all, if anyone blames the bands for anything that happened at this show, they are so wrong.The bands went there to put on the best show that they could possibly put on and they all did and they all did It's not the band's fault, but the crowd went bonkers. That's the show's fault. That's the people would start 99. No, but Yes/ And they were it was such a good show. They're so good. Like they did great Right,[00:27:00]

Didi: Fred Durst was the front man for Limp Bizkit. He opened his set by saying to the audience:
“Lemme ask you a personal question,” he said. “How many people ever woke up one morning and just decided it wasn’t one of those days, and you’re gonna break some shit?”
“Time to reach deep down inside,” Fred continued. “Take all that negative energy and let that shit out of your fucking system.”

The band starts playing their song “Break Stuff”. The audience loses their mind. They’re not just moshing now, they’re beating each other up. People were trampled, bones were broken. The audience started climbing the sound tower, and ripping down pieces of plywood from the Peace Wall. 

Fred Durst pumped them up. He saw the crowd and he got pumped. It got to a point where they told him, dude, can you PUH LEASE try to calm them down?

He addressed the crowd and he said:
“Don’t let anybody get hurt. But I don’t think you should mellow out. That’s what Alanis Morrisette had you motherfuckers do. If someone falls, pick ’em up.”

During his set, the sound tower was torn down by concertgoers climbing it. 

CNN reported at the time that during the band's set on the Saturday evening "more than two hundred people threw bottles, smashed a barricade and nearly trampled sound-system components. One woman suffered a serious head cut from a thrown bottle."

At one point, it became clear that people had been trampled in the moshpit and become seriously injured, so the medical team asked him to stop the set, and they refused. Eventually, they completely cut off his sound.

He later stated in an interview: “I didn’t see anybody getting hurt. You don’t see that. When you’re looking out on a sea of people and the stage is twenty feet in the air and you’re performing, and you’re feeling your music, how do they expect us to see something bad going on?”

But other bands said they did see what was happening, because they did say something to the crowd. 

Offspring singer Dexter Holland:

“I’ve been noticing that there’s a lot of girls coming over the top here crowdsurfing. And they’re getting really groped, you know what I mean. Now I think, just because a girl wants to go crowdsurfing or whatever, that doesn’t give a guy the right to molest ’em, know what I’m sayin’?”

“If you’re a guy and you see a girl go overhead, give her a break,” he said. “If you’re a girl and you see a guy go overhead, I want you to grab his fucking balls!”

there's so much nudity.

Lisa:Like, girls are just taking their tops off. Left and right guys are grabbing their boobs like so inappropriate. It's so inappropriate It's so inappropriate that like guys are putting their hands on their body and it's also so appropriate that they're taking off their clothes I mean, yes girls should be you know Allowed to have just as much fun as guys should feel comfortable But also everybody stop getting naked like this is [00:24:00] still in public like you're still like obviously this behaviors Everybody was getting molested left and right. It was horrible. It was so horrible. These clips that they're showing in the documentary of just girls getting groped left and right and they're trying to crowd surf, like the guys, like they're trying to have a good time and they're just getting groped left and right.

Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bassist, Flea, similarly addressed the crowd:

“Hey, you know, just because a girl out there wants to feel free and take her shirt off doesn’t mean a bunch of you have to go grab her tits and stuff,” Flea said. “Because they’re her tits, they’re not yours. You gotta leave those tits alone. Those tits are a girl’s private property and they’re a beautiful thing so you’ve gotta respect them. Everyone should be kind to each other out there.”

Jonathan Davis, whose band Korn performed on Friday had some harsh words: "We rocked that place that first night, and everybody had fun. The second night, Limp Bizkit f**ked it up for everybody. They really did. He instigated the whole damn thing - I was right there watching it."

By the of night one, the porta-potties began overflowing. There probably weren’t enough due to cost-cutting measures taken by the promoters. They weren’t having them cleaned out regularly, and so the toilets were all overflowing by the end of night one and there were leaks.

So the water that was spraying out was mixing with the “mud” and the people who were playing in the “mud” were basically covering themselves in sewage and like, fecal matter. 

There were reports of people suffering from trench mouth, a gum infection caused by a buildup of bacteria in the mouth because the sewage water leaked into the shower water and drinking water. Many woke up on the last day to "a very sore throat, cold sores all over my lips, ulcers all over my tongue and my gums and in my mouth.”

Lisa: I think even Sheryl Crow got it, right? They were like, pelting like, Sheryl Crow and Jewel with like, the shit mud. So gross. Yeah.[00:21:00]You know, that's what's so crazy, is not to spoiler alert or anything, but so three, there were three deaths from this event. Um, And, uh, but none of them came from, like, the, that, from, like, the shit mud, from, like, drinking shit water. I'm like, what? Like, that was the most surprising, is that there was a death from heat stroke, obviously.

Didi: Yea, there were three deaths. The guy who had cardiac arrest actually passed out during Metallica’s set, on Day one. Metallica isn’t mentioned much in the documentaries, but I read an account from a concertgoer where she recalled their lead singer, James Hetfield, tried to redirect the crowd’s energy and get them to chill out and have fun. During their set, 24 year old man David DeRosia collapsed with a body temperature of 107°F at the time. He died two days later. 

This was the second death of the event. Three people died total. A 44 year old man also died of cardiac arrest on the first day. On the third day, a 28 year old woman died after being hit by a van while walking along the road trying to leave the festival. *trigger warning for motor vehicle accidents*

The van was full of 7 concertgoers and they believe the driver fell asleep behind the wheel. It rolled over several times and all 7 passengers rolled out of it.

Lisa: So, heat stroke, that makes sense, um. And then the two other, I think somebody got hit by a car, and then the other death was a, uh, a heart attack, I think by like an older, I think somebody who worked there, but yeah, but, and that's shocking to me, that like, there weren't just, uh, deaths from just drinking this horrible infested water, like, so gross.[

Didi: Yeao getting back to the shit-mud. People said it smelled horriffic. Because people were playing in what they thought was mud, and then jumping into mosh pits, this smelly poop water was all over everybody and everything.

An attendee said of the shower area:
“The shower area was a huge, makeshift stall hastily constructed with plywood: one side for the guys, one side for the girls. The "showers" consisted of long pipes with holes in them every few feet, out of which would come a tired trickle of lukewarm water. Fully washing the shampoo and conditioner out of your hair was virtually impossible. There were no stalls; everyone showered together in one open area that was quickly flooded with a few inches of filthy water swirling around. Worse, with it being constructed of mere plywood, with a huge gap between the ground and plywood between the two sides, there was nothing to stop guys from peeking under to the girls' side–or even climbing under. And quite a few did. I decided the first shower I took was my last when I looked down and saw a guy's leering face just two feet away.”

It was clear that this event was not about peace and love. Nobody gave a fuck about each other, and the event was clearly just trying to make a buck off everyone.

As another way to cut costs, the festival staff had outsourced their sanitation services, and these people also abandoned their jobs and joined the crowds. The entire place became a wasteland. People were throwing water bottles all over the place, among the audience and at the performers.

Lisa: Yeah, but that actually, oh my gosh, they were throwing everything. Who was it who told everybody to start throwing stuff and everybody, like, bottles and everything? I mean, that's like, and like rocks. Yeah, that's like rocks. Yeah.[00:36:00]

A concertgoer said:

“a simple empty water bottle thrown into the air by someone in the crowd started an all out war. After the first empty water bottle was thrown up into the crowd, then everyone was getting into it; chucking half-full water bottles, then full water bottles, then batteries, and whatever else they could get their hands on. All this was being thrown into mobs of people, knocking them in their heads, slamming them to the ground, and some even knocking a few unlucky souls unconscious.”

Carson Daly was reporting for TRL when he was pelted by a water bottle half-filled with urine.

Lisa: Oh Gross. So gross. Um Yeah. Yeah, what can you do? What can you do? Like, they're unprepared. Right. Like, it should have been SWAT team like day one.

A woman who attended the concert tried to encourage others to help her pick up garbage, so s she passed out garbage bags. "One person said to me, 'I paid $150 to be here. You should clean it up,'" she recounted. "And I said, 'Well, this is a different kind of Woodstock.'" 

DAY 2: **Saturday, July 24, 1999:**

The day witnesses a series of high-energy performances, including acts like Limp Bizkit and Rage Against the Machine. Temperatures rose and so did the price of water. By saturday, over 700 people treated for heat exhaustion. Even Korn lead singer Jonathan Davis claimed he was suffering severe heat exhaustion following his band's performance. He was briefly given an IV, covered with bags of ice, and put on oxygen after leaving the stage. He described performing the opening song of the set, "Blind", as like "witnessing an immense wave of sound traveling for miles down the runway" with the movements of the crowd.

Among the acts that played on the second day was Kid Rock. He remarked on the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal: "Monica Lewinsky is a fucking ho, and Bill Clinton is a goddamn pimp!" 

Then there was Wyclef Jean, Counting Crows, Dave Matthews, Alannis Morisette..

Then Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine, and Metalica.

Then the other stagehand acts like Ice Cube, Los Lobos, and Everclear.

- Insane Clown Posse

The band decided to show their appreciation by giving back to the audience at the concert.

“Yo, I know for Woodstock, tickets were a little expensive,” he said from on stage. “And me and Shaggy, we got paid a lot of money to be here. So we decided to give you all your money back.”

This caused the audience to start fighting each other for the money.Then the band kicked a basket of red and yellow dodgeballs into the audience—each one with a $100 bill taped to it. And once those balls were gone, ICP kicked balls with $500 attached to them.

At one point, Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope invited women to shed their tops onstage. Then they doused the women with Faygo soda.

Lisa: It's so awful. I mean, and then obviously the, you know, the Fatboy Slim night, you know, things were crazy in the crowd. I think that was maybe after, uh, was that after Limp Bizkit? Yeah, I think Limp Bizkit played, and it was after that? Yeah. And then they all went to the rave tent or whatever. Um, and yeah, there's all of a sudden this van, like it was a van or a truck or something, just starts like driving through the airport hangar, like through the audience.

Fatboy Slim played at the end of the night. He that he was in his little dressing area getting ready and he could tell it was getting crazy outside, but nobody had told him that there had been any damage or violence.

“I became aware of something that I thought was a kind of floating dance platform, like a podium with about 20-30 people on it, which turned out to be a van,” he continued.

The vehicle had been stolen by a gang and was travelling through the rave hangar crowd towards the stage. “Then I got the tap on the shoulder, and it’s like, ‘We gotta stop the music. The vans gotta go’,” Cook said. “[And I said]: ‘Aw, not tonight’. You know this is Woodstock. It was all going so well.”

Later, an archive clip from the night in question sees Fatboy Slim telling the audience it was “not my fault” that he had to shut down the show. He then recalled how some people began “throwing things” at him.

“That was literally the moment when everything started to look a little less fun,” Cook said.

Stage manager AJ Srybnik remembered how the driver of the van had “glazed” eyes and “really wasn’t present”. It turned out that he was armed with a “rusty machete” and was in the vehicle with “a girl that looked maybe 15 or 16 years old”.

“[She] literally had her shirt over her breasts, and her pants were down her ankles. She was passed out. And there was a guy in the back with her who was putting his shorts back on. I was floored. It just took the life out of me.”

And once they opened the doors to the van, the guy just disappeared into the crowd.

Lisa: Oh, yeah, he's gone. Yeah, they'll never, never catch him. Never catch anybody. It's, it's so horrible. I mean, that right there, like, should have been the end to everything. That should have been, like, the government get there. Let's do it again. I'm sure, sure it'll get better.

Fatboy Slim said: “That’s just hideous to think that in the midst of all those people having fun and me wanting to make everybody love each other… that that was going on literally under our noses.”

Cook explained that his touring crew were “properly rattled” by what happened: “I could see [it] in their eyes, they weren’t being overdramatic. Shit’s kicking off and it’s kind of not safe.”

The DJ recalled the “adrenaline” he felt after being advised to make a quick exit from the Woodstock site. “I did exactly what I was told and ran,” he said.

Security guards gave up on policing the campgrounds where many attendees stayed. They had stopped sending ambulances or cops into that area because as soon as they would enter in there they would just get pelted with rocks and mud and everything. It was kind of like a no man’s zone. So they stopped sending people in there altogether.

Can you Imagine but nothing compares. Look, it's all bad. And first of all, I'm really into like Omens, right? Like good omens and bad omens. I read this amazing book, uh called the alchemist that James turned me on to And uh, they talk a lot about it's like an old book and they talk a lot about like good omens and bad omens about Like, you know taking cues in your life of where what path you're supposed to take and and uh all that fun um psychology and um Before the show ever started.

Rewind. To christen the show like a ship. They had a bottle of champagne. And they were gonna break the champagne and like, Yay! The event! The champagne would not break. Like, they kept hitting it, [00:33:00] and hitting it, and hitting it, and the bottle would not break, and I'm like, how many signs from the universe do you need that like, don't do this, don't do this. I'm telling you right now, don't do this event. Okay, fine. You're gonna do it? Fine. Have fun. Like, I was watching that, like, that's such a bad omen. Like, there, it's not breaking. 

By the end of day 2, someone from MTV confronted Woodstock ’99 promoter John Scher over the festival’s failure to control the most violent attendees. John Scher responded “Calm down.”

They're already starting to tear the place down, right? What, uh, who is performing on early in Day 3?

DAY 3: **Sunday, July 25, 1999:**

Sunday was the final day of the festival. Among the bands that played are Rusted Root, Megadeath, Godsmack on one stage. On the other main stage were bands like Creed, Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson, Brian Setzer Orchestra, and Jewel.

By this point, people are seeing Michael Lang and John Scher walking around acting like everythings fine, while this place looks like an actual apocalyptic, dystopian nightmare. People were exhausted, dehydrated, sunburnt, dirty, hungry, and angry. 

Lisa: Oh, I totally believe it. Like I said, I can't believe more people didn't die. Like, it's shocking to me that more people didn't die. Um, especially when, yeah, was it, uh, was it during Chili Peppers or after the Chili Peppers? When they're like, let's give them candles. I think that we [00:37:00] should give them candles.

Mhm, I’ll get to that in a minute. One of the reasons people were still toughing it out by day 3 was because the entire weekend, there were whispers that there as actually going to be some secret, super special final act after RHCP finished. Everyone was sick and tired and had just had it with all of this shit, but they thought something incredible was gonna happen and they didn’t want to miss it.

Because the Columbine school shootings had occurred just a couple months earlier, there was an anti-gun group that had been handing out candles to concertgoers, for them to light during Red Hot Chili Peppers performance of “Under the Bridge” as a way to stand against gun violence. 

Lisa: They're already mad and you gave them fire. You gave them fire. What in? Fire. As you do.

They handed out 100,000 candles. Concert goers started lighting shit on fire– garbage, plywood, vehicles. Red Hot Chili Peppers decided this would be a good time to pay tribute to Jimi Hendrix and play his song “Fire”.

Anthony Kiedis (RHCP frontman) says that they played “Fire” because Jimi Hendrix’s sister had asked them to. Apparently, nobody told them about all the violence and destruction that had been happening either.

Lisa: it's not his fault. It's not his fault. It's not his fault. They did it. They did an amazing job. It was a great show Yeah, um, it was gonna happen. Anyway, it was not chili peppers did not tip anything over the edge It wasn't already tipping like it's they did they came they did their job.

He also said that he didn’t see any fires that looked out of control. The band had performed at music festivals in the past where bonfire’s were started, and that’s all he thought was happening here. He said to the crowd “Holy shit, it’s Apocalypse Now out there. Make way for the fire trucks!”

Lisa: yeah, then so you know, what's funny is it really was kind of a beautiful moment when everybody did have the candles Like during the song and it was like wow, this is really pretty for five minutes and then it was a nice idea um, but then Then the fire's done. 

After that song, the band went back to their hotel and they found out the next morning that the news was vilifying them for playing the song.

When RHCP finished their set, concertgoers eagerly stuck around to see the super special big finale. It ended up being a laser light show with footage Jimi Hendrix performing at Woodstock ‘69. This was just the final straw for the audience.

Riots erupted all over the place. This was absolute anarchy. The place was up in flames.Literally, they were lighting shit on fire and shouting “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” (RATM lyrics). 

Lisa:Absolute chaos. However bad you think it is, it's worse. Like, it's so insane, this footage. Just fire everywhere. I mean, trucks are catching fire. They're exploding.

Didi: People were beating each other up, destroying ATMs, and tearing down walls. Vendors and medical personnel were locking up their stalls and fleeing.

Lisa:  Yes, people are fighting, there's fistfights, there's bonfires, they're bringing down these massive towers. They're then going after, yeah, like you said, the vendor tents.

They're going after the staff. The staff is barricading doors. Cause they're so terrified. They're ripping down the, the wooden signs. They're ripping, the people are taking anything they can. It's dangerous. It's scary. It's absolutely out of effing control.

Didi: Ultimately, John Scher and Michael Lange speak of the event like it went pretty well in the end. They both agreed to appear in the Netflix and HBO Max documentaries. They have no shame as they clearly don’t believe they were to blame at all. 

Lisa: Yeah, it's just, the whole thing was an absolute nightmare, and, um, even to the bitter end, the promoters were still trying to say it wasn't that bad. And, uh, yeah, they're just, they think it was a success, they're just lucky that iPhones didn't exist back then and people weren't just posting this.

Didi: Yea. Like, they mostly blame the audience and Fred Durst.

I mean, look at Fyre Festival, you know? Like, look at how, Uh, social media was able to take that down, and people were actually held responsible for [00:42:00] some things that happened there, as opposed to in What's Up 99, it's just like, all we have is just this old, like, MTV footage, and camcorders, anybody who was taking, like, camcorder footage, that's it, like, we have no idea the actual horrors that really did go on, because whatever we saw, it had to have been worse.

Um, It's only a portion, and it's just, um, it's heartbreaking that that's how it all ended and that, you know, it's, that that even happened. Like, that's the one thing I get when I was watching it with my friend, JD. I was just like, this happened! Like, every time, like, dude, this actually happened! He's just like, uh.

Didi: Oh god, Fyre Festival is on the list for future episodes too. Fucking Ja Rule. These are all examples for how not to host a music festival. Oh, just like that episode I did about Selena where I talked about Astroworld a couple years ago… Episode 22, go listen. Anyway I’ve talked in the past about how dangerous some of these musical festivals have been historically, due to carelessness and cutting costs.

Lisa: Um, yeah, but I guess all we can do is just learn from our mistakes and put on better [00:43:00] festivals and not ever do a Woodstock ever again. Can we not do another Woodstock? Maybe in, um, maybe in like another 200 years.

Didi: Yea Michael Lang actually tried to do another Woodstock in 2019 but he passed away just a couple months after doing those documentaries on Netflix and HBO.

Yeah, he is, he is not with us anymore, so he cannot be, he cannot create any more horrible festivals, but rest in peace. Um, but yeah, so that's, um, you. That happened. 

Alright well that was the stry of Woodstock ‘99! And now, let’s get to know Lisa Foiles!

Lisa: Let's do it.