Trainwreck: Woodstock 99 on Netflix

[NorthFaceofthelaundrypile]

Has anyone watched this as yet? I watched it yesterday, and found it so disturbing. I’d have hated to have been in the midst of it.

@dreamingbohemian I totally agree on your point about progress. I said to my husband that for all we were supposed to have made progress in the treatment of women between 1969 and 1999, the attitudes towards women in 1999 were worse. The “lads mag” culture and sense of entitlement was magnified 100 times at Woodstock. I felt quite ill watching the scene with the girl in the purple bikini. I wonder how many women were raped when out cold.
I was a bit of a metal head in my youth but I never remember being treated like meat at a concert.

"From what I understand nu metal wasn't so huge in the UK?" I remember a lot of the music just being part of the general alternative scene rather than a thing on it's own. I certainly remember stomping about to Rage Against the Machine in the 90s. The thing that jarred with me was the short haired, mainstream looking frat boys, they seem to have more in common with bog standard club culture over here at the time rather than the metal/grunge/indie/britpop scene.

I do wonder how Woodstock 50 would have fared, had it gone ahead. Totally different lineup, combi of new and old, smaller crowd but organisational issues again?

The “lads mag” culture and sense of entitlement was magnified 100 times at Woodstock.

I think the most insidious aspects of the lad mag culture in the 90s was the promotion of the 'laddette'.

"You go girl, you too can drink pints, go to the footie and swear loudly...........if you are really cool you can get your tits out for the lads as well"

God, that was terrifying. I'm absolutely horrified at what happened and so angry that the organisers refused to take any blame. They were responsible for the safety of everyone in attendance and they failed miserably.

I agree RATM were part of the general alternative scene but probably because they came to prominence in the early 90s. The Nu metal stuff was later in the 90s. I went to gigs and festivals in the early 90s and the crowds were nothing like these frat boys, I always felt safe at gigs. The woodstock crowd was more like the more violent townie types you would avoid late at night.
The documentary was scary and disturbing but I had to keep watching. I felt though the ending was a bit rushed and glossed over. What happened when the State Troopers arrived? Were there arrests? I imagine there were a lot more rapes than the 4 reported.

I watched this all last night and am still feeling triggered despite not being there at the time nor having had any bad festival experience. Utterly gob smacked they couldn’t control the violence and aggressive frat boys, or that they wouldn’t let people bring in water… plus the hardly peaceful line up, the lack of sanitation measures and flimsy security… and why there in the least green and natural place on earth? And the utter arsehole organisers trying to minimise everything… My husband had nightmares about it last night, he was so affected by it, and he’s probably been to over thirty festivals in his life and nothing anywhere near that sort of hell ever occurred.

But mostly I am reeling thinking about that poor girl in the van...

I've spent a good few years wondering about Trump voters. There they are as drunken babies. Madness from beginning to end. How did nobody die?

Yes RATM were not nu metal. That came late 90s, Limp Bizkit the prime example.

It was so frustrating because the early and mid 90s were this really interesting time in the US -- you had Kurt Cobain, the biggest rock star in the world, wearing dresses on stage and telling frat boys to fuck off, you had the riot grrl bands, Lillith Fair, all sorts of interesting music and 'weird people' on mainstream radio. Then all of a sudden there's Fred Durst and Eminem and Britney Spears and Fight Club, once again everything is about white male rage and violence and horniness. It really sucked.

It sounds like it was a lot nicer in the UK at the time! Or not?

I finished watching it yesterday and I still can't quite believe what I've seen! That poor girl in the van and the girl in the bikini being surrounded by all those lairy blokes. They say there were 4 rapes but I'm sure there were many many more. Did someone say there was a rape in the moshpit or did I see that elsewhere? Wouldn't surprise me at all it was complete carnage.

Apart from the guy with the beard and glasses the organisers were a complete disgrace and still don't take ownership for what they caused.

I found it really disturbing and like others it has stayed on my mind.

Three people did die, it's really surprising the number wasn't much higher.

Thank you Ruth, I'd missed that info. It does look utterly hellish and I'm surprised that I'd never heard of this 'festival' before watching the programme. Lack of mobiles and Internet I guess.

The temperature that weekend was 38 degrees - I didn’t catch that during the documentary because of the difference in Celsius and Fahrenheit. And it’s though the temperature would have been ten degrees higher in the mosh pit.
I can’t imagine those heats with so little water.

Watched it, made me sick to my stomach!! I dread to think how many rapes and sexual assaults took place. It’s a miracle anyone made it out alive!

I just watched it. I'm amazed more weren't killed. That being said I do think it's true that the prevailing culture was different in 99, I was regulary going to Glastonbury at that time and there was all sorts of terrible things going on in tents there too. It was very laddy, testosterone fueled scence. I reckon multiple women were raped and sexually assaulted at most festivals around then and as the MTV woman said, that's what the metoo movement was about and thank fuck it's changing.

The producers should be ashamed I think. They treated their customers like shit.

I've watched the first two. @Qlorex the crowd seemed to be predominantly young white males. It looked absolutely terrifying.

I watched it last night.

I agree with whoever said that there wouod
jave been more than four rapes. I think there would have been a LOT more than that.

just horrific.

and as far as I can tell there were no prosecutions for rape or against the producers

I was also annoyed how they kept on saying “people”
we’re going mad “people were angry.

it was men. Men were out of control.

We binge watched this and I read more on the internet. There were gang rapes in the mosh pit while Korn and Limp Bizkit were on stage! I was sickened by the way the girls were treated. I've been going to motorbike rallies and events for years, as well as metal concerts and never once felt unsafe like that. The whole frat boy mentality is alien to us, but there are so many cases of rape in America where these boys feel their entitlement is number 1.

YES!! This drove me crazy while I was watching.

Again, playing devils advocate, they did also talk about what sounded more like voluntary group sex in the rave hangar (probably under the influence of E) and I remember seeing that at raves quite often in the early/mid 90s.

It was for sure a different decade - and because it was pre SM and pre camera phones I think a lot of it was kept in the dark to most people.

The way the women were pawed was disgusting though and remember this was all before the idea of consent was much of a thing so I am sure (and I saw) girls so under the influence having sex that they clearly couldn't have consented.

The way the promoter guy victim-blamed them in the here and now was terrible though and shows there's still a long way to go.

Frat boy culture is the absolute worst

When I was in college my girlfriends and I called the frat houses 'rape caves'
Standard procedure was to have a party, put an insane amount of alcohol in the drinks, wait til girls were severely drunk and then take advantage of them
This was back in the 90s, those poor girls felt they couldn't even say they were raped, at best they might be able to call it 'date rape' but mostly assholes would just say it was their own fault for getting so drunk

So yeah, absolutely more than 4 people were raped at Woodstock 99, given that was the crowd

Yes I thought this too. The crowd seemed 95% male and the rioters 100% male. Men not people!

I watched episode one & two and felt more and more anxious watching this…went to festivals all over the uk since age 18 in the early 90s until late 20s and never felt unsafe

this was really horrible

dh spent a year in California 97/98
and there was a big frat boy woohoo culture that he found really unsettling and felt quite unsafe at parties, a very different student experience

Agree it was shocking documentary. Combination of factors including the line up attracting too many young males who all were there for Korn and limp biz kit. A more balanced line up would have been better. Fred Durst was wild but I kind of agree that if you invite limp bizkuit you get limp bizkuit and their fans. But he really egged everyone on.
And giving out candles to everyone during the red hot chillie peppers was genuinely insane. What was the organiser thinking?!