Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 delves into the late-90s American cultural elements — like consumerism, MTV, rampant toxic masculinity and rabid music fan bases — that led to the messy and violent three-day festival in Rome, New York. Musical acts Korn, Sheryl Crow, James Brown, Kid Rock and dozens more took the stage at Woodstock ’99 and also witnessed the chaos.
The three-part docuseries explores how cultural changes created vastly different experiences between the ’69 and ’99 festivals. Woodstock ’69 was centered around peace, love and understanding during wartime and the civil rights and women’s liberation movements — but 30 years later, the reboot turned into a capitalist, violent hellscape.
As one of the biggest bands of the era, nu metal band Korn headlined Friday night at Woodstock ’99. When frontman Jonathan Davis hit the stage, he could feel the crowd’s behavior intensifying and was shocked at the sheer volume of people on the festival grounds.
You can follow Davis on Instagram and Twitter.
The lead singer and guitarist of British rock band Bush, Gavin Rossdale took the stage right after Korn’s rowdy set and was nervous the crowd would turn on him when he began to perform his comparatively mellow songs. In the doc, Rossdale says he had to take on the responsibility of shepherding the crowd through the energy shift between the two bands.
You can follow Rossdale on Instagram and Twitter.
Musician, DJ and record producer Norman Cook says despite the exorbitant prices for food and the lack of water for attendees, there was plenty of costly swag for the acts on the lineup. By the time Cook performed in the rave hangar Saturday night after Limp Bizkit’s raucous set, the crowd had descended into debauchery — and was becoming increasingly dangerous.
You can follow Cook on Instagram and Twitter.
Singer-songwriter Jewel graced the stage on the final day of Woodstock ’99 after many festivalgoers had already left due to exhaustion and unsanitary conditions. She remembers the unpredictable and angry energy of the remaining crowd and was warned by her team that if the audience threw bottles at her as they had when Sheryl Crow performed, it was nothing personal.
You can follow Jewel on Instagram and Twitter.
Best known for her time as an MTV VJ in the late 90s and early 2000s,TV host Ananda Lewis was working an MTV event in Nassau, Bahamas, when she got the call that she was to travel back to New York to cover Woodstock ’99. While there, as the festival crowd became more irate, Lewis and other MTV presenters were targets of harassment by numerous angry attendees opposing MTV’s sellout culture.
You can follow Lewis on Instagram.
Michael Lang was a concert promoter and producer and the co-creator of Woodstock ’69, Woodstock ’94 and Woodstock ’99. After the 1994 event proved underwhelming, he decided it was time to bring Woodstock into the new millennium, even though those around him were hesitant about the idea. Despite his efforts to make it a warm and welcoming environment — like employing young adults to act as a “peace patrol” instead of hiring armed guards — the 1999 weekend of peace and love turned into anything but. Lang died in January 2022 at age 77.
A Woodstock promoter and producer alongside Michael Lang, Scher is the CEO of Metropolitan Entertainment and helped organize and fund Woodstock ’99, which cost a reported $38 million. A bigwig in the music industry, Scher has worked with acts like the Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead and the Who. Though others in the docuseries disagree, Scher says his colleagues thought the 1999 event was a great idea, would be historical and would bring a lot of profit.
In his 20s at the time, Speir was part of the Woodstock ’99 production team. At first, he was convinced the festival was going to be extraordinary. But as the weekend progressed, he and the production team felt increasingly helpless about the devolving state of the event.
As Michael Lang’s assistant, Law worked on the production team and filmed much of Woodstock ’99 with her personal camcorder. Her mother, Lisa (also featured), played a huge role in organizing and photographing Woodstock ’69. Like Speir, the younger Law was initially optimistic about the festival before things went awry.
Along with footage of James Brown, Bush, Sheryl Crow, The Offspring, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine, Jewel, Wyclef Jean, Willie Nelson, Kid Rock and Red Hot Chili Peppers, Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 features interviews with numerous others involved in the festival, including attendees, journalists, security, medical staff, music industry executives, TV producers, TV directors and more.
