historic Woodstock is a town with a lot of history. It’s a place where people still shop at FH Gillingham’s, which has been a staple of downtown Elm Street since 1886, and where a stroll down Whitcomb’s Block means passing the Yankee Bookshop that’s been open since 1925. It’s a place where local landmarks like the Old McHenry County Courthouse, built in 1886, have earned national landmark status, and where community members have long worked to preserve their village’s character.

The History of Woodstock, Georgia

It’s also a place where one event, 50 years ago this year, left a permanent mark on America’s cultural landscape. As LIFE photographer Lisa Law captured it, young people from across the country converged on the rented farm of farmer Max Yasgur to see some of music’s biggest acts and spread a message of peace. Even though the organizers of the festival severely underprepared for the crowd, resulting in food shortages, lack of water and sanitation, attendees found comfort in the power of music and in their newfound sense of community.

LIFE’s photographs of the 1969 festival, which spanned three days but were condensed into just over an hour in the movie Woodstock, reflect the chaos and magic of that weekend. Countless photos depict throngs of people crowding the farm, stuck in traffic jams, and walking through rain that turned Yasgur’s cow pasture into a muddy bog.

While there have been many festivals in the decades since Woodstock, few have been so makeshift and precarious or, by luck of the draw, so revelatory. At every music festival that I’ve attended since, from Bonnaroo to Reading to Coachella and beyond, I’ve been reminded of Woodstock’s lessons: that people love free stuff, that music fans want to be part of a community, and that it takes a good deal of work to make a festival experience sustainable for everyone involved.