SEATTLE — Fifty years ago, Jimi Hendrix played an iconic rendition of The Star Spangled Banner at the legendary Woodstock music festival. Travel back in time by seeing the white 1968 Stratocaster guitar he used at MoPOP this Sunday, August 18.
Along with the guitar, a number of Hendrix’s concert outfits, his contract with Woodstock, and other ephemera will be on display. The Sky Church will be free during museum hours with a Matinée Hendrix screening at 2:00 p.m. in a lay out that will replicate the feeling of going to a festival.
"[There will be] all sorts of fun, exciting, hippie cool things happening," said Jacob McMurray, Director of Curatorial, Collections, and Exhibits at MoPOP.
Half a million people attended the three day music festival billed as “An Aquarian Experience: 3 Days of Peace and Music” that later simply became known as Woodstock.
Hendrix was the last musician to perform at the festival. Due to rain delays, he wasn’t able to take the stage until early Monday morning. By the time he went on, only about 25,000 of the crowd remained, but those that did got be a part of a performance of a lifetime.
Born in Seattle, Hendrix is regarded as one of the most talented guitarists of all time. He was a lefty and left-handed guitars were rare at the time, but that didn’t faze him. He would just flip the nut, restring the guitar, and change the strap button and get on with his art.
With just the strings of his guitar, Hendrix painted the state of the world as he saw, mimicking sounds of war like planes dropping bombs, explosions, sirens and more laced into the national anthem.
“Woodstock is probably one of the most significant cultural music events that has happened in the 20th century,” said McMurray. “It heralded the end of the Summer of Love that started in ’67.”
Woodstock was synonymous with the counterculture movement of the 1960s that celebrated peace and music. Best of all, it was free.
Dress up like your inner flower child and celebrate the 50th anniversary of Woodstock at MoPOP this weekend with their Pop+ Woodstock event.
