On a mid-August weekend in 1969, more than 400,000 like-minded souls flocked to a dairy farm in upstate New York. It was Woodstock, a singular event that inspired an era of music and culture.

And the moment lived on, chronicled in an Oscar-winning documentary (“Woodstock,” directed by Michael Wadleigh and edited by a young Martin Scorsese), Life magazine photos, books, and an album ...

Woodstock, the original music festival, celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. The 1969 three-day long concert ... spending most of my time out in the wild with the crowd because what was ...

1969 issue, of what has come to be seen as one of the defining events of the 1960s. Forty-four years later, LIFE.com presents a gallery of pictures—many of which never ran in the magazine—from ...