Special thanks to ThisDayinMusic.com.

It was supposed to have been a 30-year celebration of the original pinnacle of all things counter-culture and hippie: Woodstock. Instead, Woodstock ’99, while showcasing a vast array of great music acts, ended up in violence and chaos.

By the end of the festival, state troopers had been sent in to form a line separating the concert stages from the campgrounds. Forty-four arrests were made during the three-day festival weekend and organizers said about 1,200 people were treated each day at on-site medical facilities. Nearby Rome Memorial Hospital reported that it treated 123 Woodstock attendees.

The three-day festival at Griffiss Park in New York state had attracted over 200,000 people, to see an array of acts from Dave Matthews to Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette, Rage Against the Machine, Limp Bizkit and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But the excellent music would become secondary to an underlying disaffection in the crowd. Witnesses refer to a general sense of unrest arising from excessive heat, poor sanitation and high food and water prices that would eventually erupt into violence.

Kurt Loder, who was there for MTV’s coverage, told USA Today: “It was dangerous to be around. The whole scene was scary. There were just waves of hatred bouncing around the place. It was clear we had to get out of there. It was like a concentration camp. To get in, you get frisked to make sure you’re not bringing in any water or food that would prevent you from buying from their outrageously priced booths. You wallow around in garbage and human waste. There was a palpable mood of anger.”

When artists, attempting perhaps to recreate the old adversary politics of the 1960s, stirred the pot from the stage, crowds began to let their frustrations fly.

Kid Rock urged his audience to throw plastic water bottles at the stage and was visibly surprised at the intensity of the barrage, and had to take cover from the attack.

On Saturday night, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst whipped fans into frenzy. Jeff Stark of Salon magazine noted in his diary entry/review for the magazine that Durst was “goading the crowd, pumping them up, higher and higher. It’s beyond working them into enjoying the show. He’s encouraging the pit, working them into a frenzy. He wants people to ‘smash stuff.’ ‘C’mon y’all, c’mon y’all,’ he shouts. Below him, the pit is a war zone, a sweaty, dirty, roiling mass of vicious guys knocking the [expletive] out of one another. It’s not a fun scene. It’s nasty, and people are getting hurt – bad. Bodies on cardboard stretchers emerge from the audience a couple of times per song.”

Limp Bizkit’s set was actually interrupted when some in the mosh pit broke down a barrier and used the wood to crowd surf.

The ugliness increased on Sunday, when fans began lighting fires during the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ set. It seemed harmless at first, but as the fire grew out of control, revelers broke down fences and fueled the flames. Fans attacked police and firefighters tackling the blaze, knocked over a lighting tower, sets trailers alight and ran smash-and-grab raids on vendors’ booths. On-site ATM’s were smashed and stolen. Michael Sozek, who had a booth at Woodstock ’99, told The Washington Post: “This is a war zone. You didn’t get this with the old Woodstock crowd. This new rock and roll is all about a bunch of butt-heads. Smoking a joint isn't enough for them.”

Worse, there were several reports of sexual assaults and rape talking place in the over-crowded mosh pits and New York State Police said that detectives investigated four alleged rapes at the festival.

Promoter John Scher told The Washington Post he was baffled at what caused the riots and violence. “I’m bummed big time. I don’t know if we’ll ever know why these kids did this. I really don’t think there was a kid out there that wanted there to be mass destruction.”

But Scher said he was grateful that nobody died in the chaos. “Thank God nobody was killed. It could have been tragic, and thank God that it wasn’t.”

Fortunately, despite the violence, some vestiges of the original Woodstock spirit remained and more than 100 people still at the site on the Monday morning gathered for a mass naked photo shoot.

“I just want to see the expressions that the photos could bring for decades to come,” said Sarah Warner of Allston, Massachusetts. “Picture your kid going, ‘Grandma, was that you? You were hot!’”