Location: Zoom, originating from Seattle WA
Moderated by: Dan Mortensen, Rona Elliot
Speaker(s): Rona Elliot, Joyce Mitchell, Ticia Bernuth Agri, Amalie Rothschild
At our June 2022 meeting we conducted an in-depth examination of the Sound and Recording systems used for Woodstock 1969. There's nothing better than getting your information from One Who Was There... and we did one better: we had Four Who Were There: Bill Hanley, John Chester, Chris Langhart, and Harold Cohen. For those who missed the meeting, the recording of the Zoom session will be on the website shortly.
Following on from the June topic, Section Chair Dan Mortensen, with help from Rhoda Rosenberg, has put together a session with the women who worked at the festival and now, for the first time, they will tell the story in their own words. Women did many jobs to build and carry out the festival; we'll be joined by many to tell of their work and how it affected their lives afterward.
The Pacific Northwest Section of the Audio Engineering Society has had several meetings in the past about the technical aspects of the first Woodstock festival (August 15-17, 1969). Now we're going to fill in some important context by examining the significance of the non-technical roles to the success of the event.
The production of the festival, 53 years ago the week of our meeting, involved a gigantic effort by a huge number of people. At the time and in the years since, the contributions of women who accomplished many jobs to build and carry out the festival were largely overlooked and taken for granted.
Until now.
We will recognize and celebrate the women who invented what needed to be done to put on an unprecedentedly huge event in a location with zero inherent infrastructure and in a very short time period by today's standards. Without their efforts the festival could not possibly have happened at all, let alone have been as successful as it was in negotiating the very fine line between success and abject failure/chaos.
We'll hear about their preparations, the philosophy behind the festival and where it came from, their pirouetting from crisis to crisis and their ultimately adept handling of same, and the effect the experience and culture has had on their lives since.
Remarkably, this will be the first time that their focused voices have been heard as a group and at length.
We'll also remember Michael Lang, the visionary behind the festival and who set the tone for it to be powered by peace, love, and gathering the best available expertise at the time in every area and then letting those people do their best. Michael passed away earlier this year. RIP.
Presenter Bio sketches and the EventBrite link for the Zoom meeting URL will be found at the Section website:
https://www.aes.org/sections/pnw/
Posted: Thursday, July 28, 2022
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