Counterculture Newspaper Promoting 1969 Woodstock Festival

"Woodstock - The East Village Other",

This is the complete, original 20-page issue of the 13 August 1969 edition of The East Village Other, featuring a map and article on the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. The cover art for this issue is a psychedelic map of the area around Bethel, New York, where the music festival took place just a few days later from August 15-17. The map is filled with surrealistic images, including a play on the Woodstock Festival logo of a bird on a guitar (originally created by New York artist Arnold Skolnick), which has morphed into three birds with various types of string instruments for heads, possibly to represent the variety of musicians that would be entertaining during the 3-day festival. Other interesting illustrations include three partially dissected guitars and two naked women emerging from tubes of Glee. This playful map was intended to help guide festival-goers to the site, with arrows directing the way along the major roads, although some roads transform into different parts of guitars.

The double-page centerfold features 10 photos of musicians scheduled to perform at the festival as well as an article by John Hilgerdt that continues on pages 14-15. The article gives an overview of the tickets, food ("everything from organic to Mexican"), crafts, security ("356 off-duty NY fuzz"), lodging ("inflatable day-glo vinyl tents"), parking and shuttle bus transportation for the event. Also on page 15 is a quarter-page advertisement for Woodstock with a line-up of the performers for each day. Other items included in this issue are anti-war articles, a comic strip, movie reviews, and bizarre advertisements. There is a later edition dated 20 August 1969 that was intended for a national audience but is otherwise identical to this issue. The East Village Other was a New York City underground newspaper published between 1965-72. It is known for supporting the American counterculture movement of the 1960s and helping to popularize the comix movement.

References: PJ Mode Collection #1379; Rumsey $11633.

Condition: A

Minor toning and soiling.