It didn't begin as a grand vision to stage a generation-defining cultural event. It began as a minor item in a business plan to build a professional recording studio in the vicinity of Woodstock, New York. "Press Party," was what the entry near the bottom of the project outline read, and it was just enough to catch the eye of Joel Rosenman, who, along with his business partner John Roberts, was being pitched as a potential investor in the recording studio venture by two aspiring music-biz entrepreneurs named Mike Lang and Artie Kornfeld. Just as Roberts was preparing to say "No, thanks" to the proposal, his partner, Rosenman, posed a fateful question to Kornfeld: "Artie, what's this entry here about a press party?" The discussion that followed would eventually lead the four young men present to become partners in planning, promoting and staging the historic Woodstock Music and Art Fair, which opened its three-day run on this day in 1969.
This Day In History: August 15
