Woodstock '99: "The Day The Music Died"

Nearly 20 years before Fyre fest served the most notorious cheese sandwich seen around the world, the event planning disaster of the 1990's was Woodstock '99. The event was held July 22-25, 1999 in Rome, New York at Griffiss Airforce Base with over 400k attendees.

Michael Lang originally produced Woodstock of 1969 as well as the revivals of the festival in 1994 and 1999. The high profile acts for Woodstock '99 were rock and hip hop acts such as Limp Bizkit, Metallica, DMX, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kid Rock and Alanis Morrisette.

Promoters advertised that tickets would be capped at 250,000, however nearly twice that attended, and it seems the facilities did not reflect the higher count. The amount of toilets, drinking fountains, space and vendors were insufficient.

With temperatures consistently over 100* F and very little shade, lack of water was a significant problem. So much so that Kid Rock demanded the crowd throw water bottles on stage. Long lines for the water fountains led to crowds breaking water pipes resulting in huge mud pits.

The event's portable toilets and showers overflowed and became unusable. Conditions were so unsanitary that some developed trench mouth and trench foot - infections that hadn't been prevalent since World War 1.

During the Saturday night performance, violence broke out during Limp Bizkit's performance of the song "Break Stuff". Fans tore plywood from the walls and there were reports of numerous sexual assaults. Sunday night, fans lit bonfires which raged out of control.

An audio tower caught fire and firefighters had to extinguish it, meanwhile fans continued to burn fencing, water bottles and any other fuel they could find. Soon even vendor booths were turned over and set on fire.

By the end of Sunday night, trailers full of merchandise and equipment were broken into and stolen, and over $22,000 was taken from burglarized ATMs.

Over 500 New York State Police came to attempt crowd control. Using a riot line and gear, they forced the crowd away from the stages and back to the campground or off the premises. Thousands of fans received treatments at the onsite medical tents.

In the end, police investigated four instances of rapes (including 2 gang rapes), over 40 people were arrested, two people died due to heat stroke, and one woman was hit by a car while leaving the concert. Despite all this, 10 years later, Lang again produced "Woodstock 50".