Kontraband Know It All

Why is Woodstock such a famous music festival? What was the line up and how many people attended?
Woodstock is the legendary music festival which seemed to epitomise a whole counter culture. The original festival took place from 15 to 17 August 1969, just as that rebellious decade was coming to a close. It was famous for its incredible line-up and for the perceived social harmony amongst the relatively peaceful fans that attended. The major stars of the line up included Richie Havens, Ravi Shankar, Joan Baez, Santana, Canned Heat, Grateful Dead, The Who, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, Sly & the Family Stone, Joe Cocker, The Band, Crosby Stills Nash & Young and Jimi Hendrix.
Woodstock is one of those occasions in cultural history which appears to have a growing original attendance as the years and decades pass, much like the amount of people who attended the first Sex Pistols gig. An estimated 500,000 fans turned up for Woodstock, more than 3 times the largest crowd Glastonbury has had. Woodstock is in New York State, but with 500,000 hippies smoking marijuana at the same time there were reports of people as far away as Bolton, Lancashire suddenly getting the munchies.

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Who invented music festivals, where was the first one?
Music festivals date back to the Middle Ages, when they were held as competitions where no doubt the losers faced having their heads chopped off. The oldest still running annual music festival is the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands, but that only started in 1970, a full year after Woodstock. The first Glastonbury Festival was also in 1970, but to find someone who could actually be called the inventor of music festivals (or at least the modern version of them) then you have to go back to 1954.
An American socialite called Elaine Lorillard along with her husband Louis and music promoter George Wein decided they wanted to share their love of jazz music to the American public. Together they funded and organised the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island and the 1954 event (which featured Billie Holiday) is now classed as the first proper modern music festival. Proof that bored rich housewives are not just interested in muscular working-class gardeners or surprisingly toned Swedish plumbers with ridiculous handlebar moustaches

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Which is the most famous ongoing music festival in the world?
There are many famous festivals, including Monsters of Rock, Lollapalooza, V Festival, T in the Park and dozens of others. However, the Glastonbury Festival is still the most famous ongoing music festival in the world. Glasto is so huge it can attract the world's biggest acts such as Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen and U2. 135,000 people risk the infamous British summer and latrines from Hell just to watch acts like Coldplay and Beyonce whilst munching down on a vegetarian friendly doner kebab (with extra lettuce).
However, Glastonbury is not the festival with the highest attendance, that title goes to the Summerfest which is held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and attracts up to 1 million festival fans. Summerfest is a big deal; headliners have included Britney Spears, The Doors, the Beach Boys, Prince, Pearl Jam and the legendary Bob Dylan. The only downside to this incredible festival is the price of the tickets, which for a 3 Day Pass in 2012 were a whopping $36 (£23). Everyone knows a decent festival ticket costs at least £195, should be held in a muddy field with drainage dating back to the Victorian period and include the threat of getting pneumonia, typhoid or "Glastonbury Goo" (diarrhoea).

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Who was the biggest act to ever appear at a music festival?
Madonna is arguably the biggest act to ever appear at a music festival, she turned up at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California. Big stars weren't too keen on festivals in the past, the thought of potentially bad acoustics, partisan crowds and tidal waves of mud kept them away. But with the global spread and rise in popularity of music festivals more and more superstars are willing to put their wellies on and bravely tramp around a breezy stage for 90 minutes with just a huge pay-check and entourage of sycophants to keep them warm.
Madonna has sold around 300 million records worldwide. Other alleged 300 million record sellers who have turned up at festivals include Led Zeppelin (who played at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music amongst others) and Elton John. It could be argued that Paul McCartney is the biggest act to ever appear at a music festival, having headlined Glastonbury in 2004 and having sold in the region of 1 billion records as part of The Beatles. But then Madonna never released songs such as We All Stand Together (with the Frog Chorus), Spies Like Us and Ebony and Ivory (worthy but so sickly sweet it can give you toothache).

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