1999 music festival in Rome, New York, U.S.
Woodstock 1999 (also called Woodstock '99) was a music festival held from July 22 to July 25, 1999, in Rome, New York, United States. After Woodstock '94, it was the second large-scale music festival that attempted to emulate the original 1969 Woodstock festival. Like the previous festivals, it was held in upstate New York; the festival site was the former Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, roughly northwest of the 1969 Woodstock site in Bethel. Approximately 220,000 people attended the festival over the four days.
MTV covered the festival extensively, and live coverage was available on pay-per-view. Westwood One held its radio rights. Excerpts were released on CD and DVD. In Canada, the event was covered by Much; their coverage included interviews with artists and attendees but not the musical performances.
The festival was marred by difficult environmental conditions, overpriced food and water, poor sanitation, sexual harassment and rapes, rioting, looting, vandalism, arson, violence, and several deaths, leading to media attention and controversy that vastly overshadowed coverage of the musical performances. It has been described as "a flashpoint in cultural nadir", "like a concentration camp", like being "in another country during military conflict", like "a scene where zombies are coming over the castle walls", with the morning after on the fourth day, described as like "Bosnia". 
Organization.
Michael Lang, one of the organizers of the original Woodstock festival and Woodstock '94, agreed to partner with New Jersey concert promoter John Scher for a thirtieth anniversary festival. A third Woodstock festival was considered a risky proposition after a rain squall at Woodstock '94 (later sardonically dubbed "Mudstock") led gatecrashers to breach fences and attendees to throw mud at each other and the performers, leading to a large financial loss and negative press coverage. Lang and Scher began organizing plans for the festival in the fall of 1998. Scher quickly began scouting for multiple high-profile acts of the time to draw media and popular attention. Rome mayor Joseph Griffo received Lang's proposal for the festival and approved it in an effort to revitalize the area and attract funding, holding a press conference with Hillary Clinton to announce the festival once the venue was secured.
Organizers had planned to hold a European leg of the festival in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, on the weekend prior to the festival in Rome. This version of the festival was ultimately cancelled; Lang stated that more time than available was required in order to be able to hold a safe event.
Performers.
Many of the high-profile acts such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, DMX, Limp Bizkit, Korn, Alanis Morissette, Bush, Kid Rock, and Creed were popular or rising artists of the era. While no acts that performed at the original Woodstock festival took the stage at Woodstock 1999, two individuals did; John Entwistle of the Who performed a solo set and Mickey Hart (drummer of the Grateful Dead) played with his band Planet Drum. Jeff Beck was scheduled to perform but had to cancel due to a "scheduling conflict". He had been scheduled to perform at the original Woodstock festival; however, his band the Jeff Beck Group broke up the previous week. Although the Doors rejected an offer to play at the first Woodstock, their guitarist Robby Krieger was a surprise addition to Creed's set, performing the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" with the group. Only five acts on the bill (Collective Soul, Live, Metallica, Sheryl Crow, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers) had performed at Woodstock '94. Korn frontman Jonathan Davis recalled that management group the Firm, Inc. rented a Boeing 737 for his band, Limp Bizkit, and Ice Cube to fly all three artists from Southern California to Syracuse for the festival.
Booking conflicts.
Marilyn Manson and Hole were initially reported to be on the bill but both later withdrew. Manson was suspected to have cancelled due to his dislike for other acts on the bill such as Insane Clown Posse and Limp Bizkit, although he later stated he refused the bill due to his band not being offered a prime time slot. Hole were unable to perform due to conflicting tour dates in addition to personal tensions between Courtney Love and Dave Grohl.
Foo Fighters were initially set to perform, but they withdrew to finish work on the album "There Is Nothing Left to Lose"; and, also not having a replacement for Franz Stahl as Chris Shifflett joined the following month. 
Sugar Ray were slated to appear, but they were forced to cancel two days prior due to lead singer Mark McGrath being too sick to perform.
Al Green was also supposed to appear, flying from Nashville in a small private plane, but he backed out following John F. Kennedy Jr.'s death in a plane crash.
Several nu metal bands such as Slipknot, Rob Zombie, System of a Down, Powerman 5000, Static-X, and Deftones were each offered slots, but all were obligated to perform the final two remaining dates of that year's Ozzfest tour in California that weekend. Deftones declined due to ongoing personal conflicts involving Brian Setzer. Godsmack and Megadeth were the only two bands from that year’s Ozzfest lineup to accept the offer, as both were flown overnight from San Bernardino to Rome for their set on July 25.
Numerous bands from the 1999 Warped Tour were also offered slots, but only Reveille and Sevendust accepted. 
Facilities.
The festival was held on the east side of Rome at the former Griffiss Air Force Base, a designated Superfund waste cleanup site. The U.S. Air Force had decommissioned and closed the B-52 base in September 1995, and the area was later redeveloped as Griffiss Business and Technology Park. During this time, the base was largely unused and in poor condition.
The promoters were determined to avoid the gate-crashing that had occurred at previous festivals. Lang and Scher characterized the site as "defensible", installing a wall of plywood and steel to prevent gate-crashing. Lang later dubbed this the “peace wall” as organizers invited numerous volunteers to paint on sections of the panels. In addition to the wall, approximately 500 New York State Police troopers were initially planned to provide security.
In addition to two main stages, facilities included several alternate stages, a night-time rave hangar, a sports park, and a film festival (sponsored by the Independent Film Channel) held in a former airplane hangar.
Finances and promotion.
Woodstock 1999 was conceived and executed as a commercial venture with dozens of corporate sponsors and included the presence of vendor "malls" and modern accoutrements such as ATMs and email stations. Scher hoped to avoid the large losses that Woodstock '94 had incurred, planning for the 1999 event to turn a profit; this resulted in numerous cost-cutting measures such as the extensive subcontracting of onsite amenities. Advance tickets for the event were priced at $150 (equivalent to $277 in 2024) plus service charges, at the time considered costly for a festival of this type. Tickets purchased at the gate cost $180.
There were about 400,000 attendees. A total of 186,983 tickets were sold according to reports shortly after the festival, "a gross take of $28,864,748" at the time. Ticket sales were advertised as being capped at 250,000, the capacity of the venue. It has been estimated that ticket sales were worth $60 million in revenue, but that number appears to have been based on believing there were 400,000 paid attendees. Ticket sales may have been underreported to avoid extra payouts to the city of Rome and Oneida County:Perhaps the discrepancy stems from the deal between Woodstock 1999 promoters and the Griffiss Local Development Corporation (GLDC). MTV cites that the GLDC, the city of Rome, and Oneida County were expected to receive $1 million to host the festival and an additional $250,000 if ticket sales topped 200,000.
Any tickets sold beyond 200,000 would then result in an additional $5 (per ticket) paid to all parties. While it's clear more than 186,983 people attended Woodstock 1999, on paper, only that many tickets had been recorded being sold.
Based on that figure, the promoters wouldn't have been required to dish out the extra money it had promised the GLDC.The promoters stated a figure of $38 million in original production costs, not including damages, fees, or emergency costs. Promoters had originally budgeted the festival at $30 million.
Rome itself became a draw for attendees, who patronized its bars, restaurants, and stores, and stayed in its hotels for the concert's duration. The Oneida County Convention and Visitors Bureau estimated that festival attendees spent as much as $40 million in Rome over the weekend.
Woodstock 1999 was simulcast on pay-per-view television, with early reports of 500,000 purchases. In addition to documenting the musical performances, MTV's pay-per-view coverage included coverage of the site and vox pop interviews with attendees, which some reporters later considered to resemble gonzo journalism. With 500,000 purchases of $59.95 simulcast passes, revenues were estimated at up to $30 million. Five years earlier, Woodstock '94 had made over $9 million on its pay-per-view sales to 220,000 households. Other revenue came from CD and DVD sales after the festival. "We knew we'd never make a significant on-site profit," Scher says. "It's all about the after-show marketing. We believe that we have a great event to build upon."Scher, Lang, and Griffo held press conferences on the morning of each day of the festival, as well as the morning of the day after, in which they repeatedly denied or minimized the poor conditions and violence of the festival.
Vendors.
Vendors paid $500 () to sell at Woodstock during the four-day festival. Many non-licensed vendors attempted to sell on a smaller scale on the paths to and from the concert and camping areas.
Reception.
The festival featured a diverse assortment of acts, early reviews for many of which were positive. The Associated Press deemed Korn, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, Insane Clown Posse and Rage Against the Machine the "breakout stars" of the festival. Performances by the Offspring, Dave Matthews Band, DMX, Sheryl Crow, and Jamiroquai also received praise. Critical and public attention, however, quickly turned to the poor on-site conditions and the increasingly uncontrolled behavior of the crowd.
Problems.
Environment.
Temperatures in Rome on the weekend of the festival were in excess of 100 °F (38 °C). The former Griffiss AFB included large areas of concrete and asphalt with little or no shade, placing the entire facility within its own heat island; this not only caused temperatures to rise during the day, but also kept them elevated at night. The East and West stages were apart, forcing festivalgoers to walk a long distance across hot concrete surfaces. Camping space across the grassy areas quickly became scarce by the middle of the first day, forcing numerous attendees to camp on the heated asphalt surfaces. In an effort to find shade, multiple concertgoers took refuge from the heat under tractor-trailers or tables. In a 2021 interview, Noodles of the Offspring sardonically criticized the facility for its unsuitability for the festival: "You know there was a festival ground in Germany that was literally built by Hitler, and we've played there a buncha times, great venue, buncha fun. That airbase was less hospitable than a place built by Nazis".
Concessions.
Numerous budget cuts were made during the hiring and delegation process for concession vendors; organizers were forced to lease services from numerous subcontractors, whose contracts gave them complete control of pricing. Concessions sold by onsite vendors were regularly marked up to inconvenient prices; bottled water was sold for $4.00 (). Supplies of food and water dwindled over the three days of the festival, which vendors took advantage of to raise prices; by the third day of the festival, booths charged up to $12.00 () for water bottles. As an alternative, festival-goers faced a long walk or cramped travel via looping buses to Rome's modest shopping areas, where stores had long lines and low stock. Most outside food and drink was confiscated by security, though several concertgoers reported that security often overlooked or were bribed to ignore attendees bringing in various drugs. Attendees stood in long lines to access the free water fountains, until frustration led numerous concertgoers to break the pipes to provide water to those in the middle of the line. As a result, numerous mud pits began forming around the concert site. The groundwater and soil at the site had been contaminated by heavy metals and toxic chemicals such as trichloroethylene and PCBs from