There has been much criticism about 3D virtual environments as just an exact reflection of real life which could not just cope with the thrills of real life. But there is also something commercial and free virtual worlds can do that can never be done in real life: they can turn back time in their own virtual interpretations.
This is the phenomenon happening with the Woodstock 40 festivities happening at Second Life. The popular virtual world is remembering the iconic music festival which kicked off in 1969 held at Max Yasgur’s 600 acre daily farm.
In 1969, when man would make its mark for its initial landing to the moon, the Woodstock festival was prepared without much hype. There was no indication that it would be this big and would trigger a four decade long musical tradition in popular music. It was initially called the Woodstock Music and Art Fair and was billed as “An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Music and Peace” from August 15 to 18, 2009 in New York.
Three of its main acts The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan all declined to appear in this stage but it was still able to attract the love and affection of those who attended it. The Who was able to appear on its stage but most of the acts there would find it hard to be remembered by children of this age. Some of those performers were Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar, Melanie, Arlo Guthrie, and Joan Baez.
Now 40 years ago, the entire 1969 Woodstock Festival is being re-enacted in the virtual comforts of Second Life. Founder Aristippus Larsson created a re-imagining of the original Woodstock site in Bethel, New York. In fact, the order of the performers are kept intact as much as possible, with actual recordings corresponding to the artists.
The second day of the Woodstock festivities are slated to begin at 1:00pm Pacific Time and recordings can be heard from Quill, Keef Hartley Band, Santana, Canned Heat, Grateful Dead, Mountain, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Who.
In keeping with the original spirit of the 1969 peaceful Woodstock musical festivities, Second Life’s Woodstock 40 will donate all of its proceeds to the homeless shelter Bread and Jams. This group is not a virtual group, as some of you may think. Their offices are located in Cambridge, Massachussets.
When Woodstock started it was seen by many critics as just a massive gathering of about 450,000 hippies. Who would have thought that it will spark a testament to how music can transcend barriers especially if it has a noble cause?
During that time the Vietnam War was the hottest talk of the town and the hippies were out to speak out against these transgressions. Four decades later, their well-documented antics in the Woodstock area became a site to the Bethel Woods Centre for the Arts. Music makes a difference if it moves a people.
However, this museum is now a site of strict bureaucracy. Chairs are for rent and the meticulous details of its landscaping should not be touched. This is in pure contrast to the Hakuna Matata attitude of the hippies who once roamed these hillsides forty years ago.
Now, enter the virtual re-imagining of the Woodstock Festival in Second Life. It may sound artificial and it is nowhere close to the actual site where it was performed (unless you log in a computer while in the Bethel Woods Centre for the Arts). But at least the spirit of freedom and peace loving is still very evident even after all these years. Here is the video of Woodstock 40:
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