In August of 1969, a music festival is held in Bethel, New York, a quiet farm area. Some of the biggest music groups of the burgeoning underground music and anti-war movement plan to attend, including Richie Havens, Arlo Guthrie, The Who, Joan Baez, Canned Heat, Sha Na Na, and Country Joe and the Fish, and some doomed artists like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. To the surprise of all, hundredthousands of young people turn out along the clogged roads to attend the concert, filling the meadows with impromptu camps and good manners, despite the worsening conditions of sanitation, mud, and rain. The clean up is nearly as historic as the preparations and emergency appearance of the National Guard to give aid to the stranded half-million victims.