Woodstock '99 riots 25 years later: Photos show how festival devolved into violent chaos, destruction

In an effort to recreate the “peace and love” vibes of the iconic 1969 Woodstock music festival, concert organizers chose to celebrate the event’s 30th anniversary with Woodstock ’99. The four-day festival, which ran 25 years ago from July 22 to 25, 1999, at the former Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, N.Y., featured a lineup of artists including Limp Bizkit, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, George Clinton, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow and more. The event, however, devolved over the course of four days into overcrowding, fires, sexual assaults, violent mayhem and destruction.

More than 200,000 people reportedly had bought tickets to the event, which was set mostly on asphalt and concrete during peak summer heat with two stages set a two-mile walk from each other. Add to that overpriced water and food, and whatever decorum and goodwill existed in the beginning took a nosedive into the festival’s proverbial mosh pit.

The festival's final day, called "the day the music died" by the San Francisco Examiner and "Apocalypse Woodstock" by MTV News, appeared to suffer from similar issues as its chaotic 1994 iteration, reportedly due to multiple factors, including the bands that turned up the spectacle several notches: Kid Rock asked the audience to throw plastic water bottles onstage, Insane Clown Posse threw $100 bills into the crowd and the Red Hot Chili Peppers covered Jimi Hendrix's song "Fire," apparently inspiring the crowd to commit arson and light up the venue.

Two documentaries released in recent years — Woodstock '99: Peace, Love, and Rage and Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 — spotlighted the chaos and violence of the festival.

Chad Smith, the Chili Peppers' drummer, told Yahoo Entertainment in 2019 that his band's role in the chaos was unintentional.

“[Hendrix’s] sister came to us, and we'd met her before; we'd done some other stuff with the Hendrix Experience,” Smith said. “And she said, ‘Hey, I know you guys do Jimi Hendrix songs. What do you think if I could get a Hendrix song before, like as your last song before the tribute thing, you know? It'd be kind of a nice segue.’ And we're like, ‘OK, that sounds cool.’”

During the band’s performance on the festival’s final night, anti-violence group PAX had distributed 100,000 candles to fans. Instead of a peaceful lighting ceremony, the moment sparked bonfires and blazes, eventually leading to rioting and looting.

Law enforcement was called in to deal with the chaos. However, the band kept playing, with Smith telling Yahoo Entertainment that they misjudged the scope of the arson. And instead of leaving the stage, the Red Hot Chili Peppers proceeded with their Hendrix cover, inadvertently adding musical fuel to the literal fire.

"The next morning, I get up, I'm in the airport, and I'm looking up at CNN or whatever the news that's on the airport television," Smith said. "They're like, 'Yesterday's Woodstock festival, they had the Dave Matthews Band and Jewel, and it was all really nice. And then… the Red Hot Chili Peppers played, and all hell broke loose!' And I'm like, 'What?' And they show the fires, and I am like, 'Oh my God. Oh s***.' We really looked like we were instigating — that we were the bad guys."

The promoters reportedly faced multiple lawsuits after the festival. And while the concerts' organizer, the late Michael Lang, entertained the notion of recreating the spectacle once again in 2019, according to Esquire, the festival was ultimately canceled altogether.

Here are more photos from Woodstock ’99 as the event devolved into chaos and destruction.