Three days of peace and music would cost you $18 if you went to the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in 1969. Or nothing at all: so many people showed up that the organizers stopped trying to collect admission.

Photographs copyright Burk Uzzle; courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery.

Burk Uzzle, a young Magnum photographer, went and shot hundreds of pictures at the event that named an era. Rather than documenting the performances, though, Uzzle shot from the perspective of a participant, focusing on the hippie lifestyle of existence and enjoyment that prevailed during the famous "three days of peace and music." Tonight, an exhibition of about 25 of his images opens at Laurence Miller Gallery in celebration of the 40^th anniversary of Woodstock. Following is the description of Story Number 69.31 from Magnum's files.

Despite massive traffic jams and drenching thunderstorms, about 300,000 young people swarmed over Bethel area, N.Y., for the three-day Woodstock Music and Art Fair last week-end.

Parked cars jammed roads in all directions for up to 20 miles. Thousands of festival-goers, weary after long walks to get there, found tens of thousands of tents, campers and makeshift lean-to shacks - some of them rather a la crate - made of any material at hand, including trees, wood, ropes, sheets and blankets....

Drawn by such performers as Joan Baez, Ravi Shankar, Jimi Hendrix and the Jefferson Airplane, most of the youngsters which camped on the 600-acre farm of Max Yasgur heard the music on stage only as a distant rumble. It was impossible for them to tell who was performing, yet they stayed by the thousands, sprawled on blankets on the muddy hillside, smoking, chatting and listening to the wailing music, often standing ankle deep in mud....

A dozen doctors responding to a plea from the fair sponsors flew from New York to the scene, but reported that despite these difficult conditions most of those they had to treat only suffered from the ill effects of drugs and were experiencing "bad LSD trips."

As a whole, it was the most well-behaved 300,000 people in one place that could be imagined, and there have been no fights or violent incidents of any kind. For many, this week-end has been the fulfillment of months of planning and hoping, not only to see and hear the biggest group of pop performers ever assembled, but also to capture the excitement of camping out with strangers, experimenting with drugs and sharing "an incredible unification."

Burk Uzzle: Woodstock, 40^th Anniversary, Opening reception for the artist: Tuesday, July 7, 5-8 pm. The exhibition continues through August 20 at Laurence Miller Gallery, 20 West 57^th Street, New York, NY. 212.397.3930. Please visit the gallery for information. Also on view is Helen Levitt: First Proofs, one in the summer New York Photographs exhibition program. See DART for information

070709 uzzle