This weekend, we will relive much of the Woodstock concert from 1969 at a Woman’s Touch, in Second Life. We will be listening to almost 18 hours of the concert and there are many interesting references and events in these recordings. I’d like to explain some of these things, starting with the Hog Farm, and then continue by giving you a bunch of interesting things to listen for; including the approximate time and day in SL you can expect to hear them this weekend.
There are numerous references to the Hog Farm, such as when a small child was lost and stage manager, John Morris, instructs the child, wherever he may be, to go up the hill and find a hog farmer. The “farmer” would reunite him with his mother, interestingly named “Sunshine.” (You can hear this incident Friday night during our set at about 5:27-5:28 PM SL time.) So, who are these hog farmers?
The Hog Farm was a west coast hippie commune that was recruited to help with running the festival. It would obviously take a lot of people to work the event and that was where the Hog Farm came in. They set up a lot of the grounds that were not part of the stage and also ran a “free kitchen” to feed festival goers. They were also charged with the task of providing security, which hit them completely by surprise. They decided on a friendly approach and dubbed themselves the “Please Force.” Their approach to security was to ask people nicely, “Please don’t do that.”
The picture at the top shows some of the hog farmers arriving in their psychedelic school bus. Looking at the front grill, it seems to be late a 1930s or early 1940s model. Today it might be considered a valuable antique, but in 1969 it was just a 25-30 year old clunker. In many ways, the Hog Farm bus has become a Woodstock icon in its own right.
Their leader was a man named “Hugh Romney,” who is better known as “Wavy Gravy.” His part in the concert, and his subsequent appearance in the Woodstock film, made him something of a hippie celebrity, so much so that Ben & Jerry even named an Ice Cream flavor after him. He actually did not get his famous nickname until shortly after the Woodstock concert. The moniker was given to him by the one and only B.B. King at a concert later that year.
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