Pennstock 2016

The annual Pennstock is underway here at Penn for all US History students, the event is taking place on the practice football field from May 23rd through 25th.

Pennstock is an event where students dress up in apparell that was common in the 1960’s to recreate the iconic Woodstock music festival. Woodstock took place during August 1969, on a dairy farm in New York state. The festival was created for both the purpose of listening to good music, along with hanging out with friends and protesting problems such as the Vietnam war which was going on at that time. During the festival, iconic artists and bands including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and the Grateful Dead all performed. Now Woodstock is looked back upon as an extremly representative event of the culture at that time.

Penn students this year are recreating the event by reading poetry, singing, or creating posters that would be common to see during the festival in 1969.  Some students are also creating booths with information about the event. People who are participating in the event also dress in clothes from the era just to add to the already vibrant experience, adding on to this, Junior Thatcher Boyd said, “everyone was devoted to the hippie style, everyone had their hearts in it, so it was good.”

Pennstock is a great way to learn about the Woodstock festival, and the general culture at that time, but it is also a fun way to wrap up the school year for anyone in the US History classes.