Woodstock Party The Woodstock Music & Art Fair—also known as the Woodstock Festival or simply Woodstock—was a music festival billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was actually held August 15 – 18, 1969 at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in the town of Bethel, NY located in the Catskills, more than 40 miles away from Woodstock, NY. During the festival, 32 acts performed outdoors before an audience of 400,000 at its peak. It is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history. Rolling Stone listed it as one of the “50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll”. Decorations The guests should wear fashions from the late 1960’s, which would mean cutoffs, tie-dyed shirts, jeans (especially bell-bottoms), sandals and colorful sunglasses. Hair was an important symbol of the “Woodstock Generation”, and folks should be encouraged to “let their freak flags fly” with wigs, flowers, and head scarves. Set the tables with an assortment of solid color tablecloths. Red, yellow, blue, green - the more the better! Then use Woodstock theme tie-dyed paper goods, including plates, cups and napkins. If you're looking to use linen, many linen companies have tie-dyed linens and napkins you can rent for your event. You can use peace necklaces as napkin rings or place settings. Attendees who want to add to their costumes can wear them for the rest of the night! Tie-dyed balloons can be used for centerpieces (and decorating the party room). The walls can be decorated with psychedelic posters, depending on your budget. Replace selected regular light bulbs (where possible) with black light bulbs available through Home Depot, Lowes or Wal-Mart. Food Remembering that Woodstock was an outdoor festival, food should be in keeping with that theme. More than 500,000 hamburgers and hot dogs were consumed on the first day of Woodstock, so those staples should be a natural for any Moose Lodge. Purple Potato Fries Purple Potatoes Olive Oil Kosher Salt Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Take each round potato and slice off two sides so that they are lying down flat with a flat top. Slice into 6 sticks by cutting another horizontal line to make two flat rounds stacked on top of each other. Then, three slices across to make 6 sticks (3 on each of the 2 layers). There is no need to peel the potato. You can, however, place them in a bowl of cold water to soak if you want. Do this to all potatoes. Toss with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place on cookie sheet and into preheated oven for at least 20 – 25 minutes. You will see them brown, sizzle and crisp. Remove when done and place on paper towels to drain. Veggie Platters In keeping with the theme, make sure you have plenty of vegetable platters for each table. Easy to prepare and serve, stick with the basics: baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, celery, sweet peppers and broccoli with simple Ranch dressing, spinach dip or Hummus. Rainbow Fruit Kabobs Fresh fruit on inexpensive wooden skewers in different colors are not only decorative, but tasty! Use pineapple, mandarin oranges, strawberries, grapes, black raspberries, kiwis or other colorful fruit. Make sure you have some sweet fruit dip to go with them. Drinks Flower Power Martini 2 oz. gin ½ oz. dry vermouth ½ oz. St. Germain ¼ oz. Creme de Violette Stir well with ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with strip of orange zest. The Mudslide During the festival, the rains came and went and left behind fields of mud, through which attendees slid. 1 oz. vodka 1 oz. Kahlua 1 oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream 1 oz. milk or cream 1 cup ice Chocolate syrup (optional) Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour the Mudslide into a martini or hurricane glass. If desired, drizzle with chocolate syrup. Electric Kool-Aid ½ oz. Amaretto ½ oz. Blue Curacao ½ oz. Peach Schnapps ½ oz. melon liqueur ½ oz. cherry brandy Fill with ½ sweet and sour mix and ½ cranberry juice 1 splash grenadine syrup Pour ingredients into a Collins glass filled with ice. Music What more does a Woodstock party need than the soundtrack of the event? You can choose to have you DJ play the soundtrack as is, or skip around with studio cuts of the artists who performed on stage. Activities Set up trivia or party games around the names of performers from the festival. One simple game could just ask the contestants which acts were there. The acts that did perform at Woodstock were Richie Havens, Sweetwater, The Incredible String Band, Bert Sommer, Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar, Melanie, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Quill, the Keef Hartley Band, Country Joe McDonald, John Sebastian, Santana, Canned Heat, Mountain, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin with The Kozmic Blues Band, Sly & the Family Stone, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Johnny Winter, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Sha-Na-Na and Jimi Hendrix. You can also hire a face painter to put peace symbols and flowers on the attendees. .