Trainwreck Woodstock 99 is the latest docuseries on Netflix that investigates the events of the festivals that degenerated into an epic trainwreck of fires, riots and destruction. It is directed by Jamie Crawford and produced by Cassandra Thornton & Sasha Kosminski. There are 3 episodes in total with a runtime of about 45-52 minutes long.
Utilizing rare insider footage and eyewitness interviews with an impressive list of festival staffers, performers and attendees, the series goes behind the scenes to reveal the egos, greed and music that fueled three days of utter chaos.
10 Things That Went Wrong in Trainwreck Woodstock 99
Bad Venue
The venue was Griffiss Air Force Base located in Rome, New York, covering more than 3000 acres. It is an airforce base, obviously, it will have miles-long tarmac for planes to take off and land. With additional concrete land everywhere around it and the standing structures. They thought that they could use it as a good barricaded venue.
But they didn’t consider the hot weather that makes the asphalt work like a frying pan. With not enough shade and the scorching hotness from the asphalt, the large crowd and mosh pits made it all the more suffocating and deadly.
Lack of Water
Even if they didn’t consider the weather while planning, on the ground they should have taken quick measures to tackle the problem. With such a large crowd and limited resources, there are going to be a lot of complaints and frustrated attendees, when they have been sweating like waterfalls.
The security check even took away the water bottles, thus, everyone had to buy water from the shops when the line for free water taps doesn’t move an inch for an hour. And when you have already paid enough for the costly ticket, you expect the basic amenities at your service.
Expensive Food and Drinks
But even the food and drinks at the festival were too expensive for people to buy over & over. A single bottle of water cost them $12 then you can only imagine what could have been the prices of food. With no personal items allowed, people are bound to be angry at the costs and there wasn’t even enough stock for everyone.
Budget Cuts & Trash Everywhere
To make enough profits and spend less, the organisers tried to cut corners by having fewer budgets for departments like security and sanitation. Even the expensive food is the result of them giving rights to an external catering party. After the first day of the festival, the whole venue was filled with plastic bottles and trash bins overflowing.
People were sleeping, walking, and dancing in the same trashed surroundings. They even started throwing it on stage and toward the reporters to show their anger and frustration.
No Proper Security
So, with cost-cutting, they hired anyone above the age of 18, looking for part-time work over the weekend. Instead of getting a professional security team, a bunch of school pass-outs were given the task of guarding the stage and maintaining order. Which obviously didn’t happen as it should have been. They weren’t trained for such a large and unruly crowd.
Drugs Sold In Open
While the security check took water bottles, why didn’t they ban the drugs like ecstasy and acid, from going around freely? Maybe if they had tried to sell it themselves, they would have made a better profit and the high prices would have stopped many from buying freely. Drugs and alcohol definitely added to the mania among the crowds.
Sexual Harassment and Assault
The festival-goers expected the same chill and hip environment as in the 69. Yes, there was weed and drugs involved too but it never went out of control to the point of harming others. Often in free and liberating environments, people prefer to go nude for the experience and fun of it.
But it doesn’t allow anyone to harass them sexually. The crowd was often inappropriate with female acts as well, catcalling and asking them to show their tits. They even groped and threw around women to crowd surf, which had been a traumatising experience, as one eye-witness tells in the series.
Mud Pits and Contamination
When the line for water was so long, many cut the water lines in the middle and that created a stream that turned into a mud pit. Essentially it was a shit pit as the faeces from the overflowing toilets was mixed into it, and people were playing in it. Even the singer Jewel was warned about getting pelted by that mud and not to take it personally.
And to add to the chaos, the water was also contaminated which made lots of people sick or gave them trench mouths. These conditions made many people leave by the second day and that might have been the best decision that they made.
Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit Encouraging the Crowd
The band Limp Bizkit was definitely one of the main attraction of the music festival and its lead singer Fred Durst is known for his notoriety. The audience was pumped up and created a stampede-like situation in the mosh pits yet the singer kept on egging them to go crazier. Even the organisers asked him to tell the crowd to calm down.
But he did the exact opposite and asked the crowd to break stuff as they tried to make the sound tower fall down and tore the main stage barricades. The singer even crowd surfed on one of the torn cardboard. I mean the singer will do everything to pump up and entertain the crowd but that might not have been the best moment.
Candle Event That Shouldn’t Have Happened
In Trainwreck Woodstock 99, there were rumours about something grand happening at the end of the event and when the show ended with the Red Hot Chilli peppers act, the crowd was disappointed and wanted more. At this moment the organisers decided that they should hand out burning candles to create an ocean of lights for the grand end.
But that was probably the worst decision they made, which was the cause of so many fires at the venue. Maybe if only they hadn’t given fire to the active-as grenade crowd, maybe so much destruction and casualties might not have happened in the end.
Trainwreck Woodstock 99 is streaming on Netflix.