Fatboy Slim looks back on horrific Woodstock 99 set in new Netflix documentary

As part of a new documentary on Netflix called ‘Trainwreck: Woodstock 99′, iconic UK record producer Fatboy Slim has recalled the terror than ensued during his set at the infamous Woodstock Festival that year.

Fatboy Slim has unearthed the true horror he and others experienced when a van drove into the crowd during his performance at Woodstock. In 1999, a second festival was put on in Rome, New York to try and emulate the iconic original festival that had taken place 30 years before it. With an attendance of over 400,000 people across 4 days, Woodstock 99′ turned out to be a complete disaster, marred by disorganisation, violence, sexual assault and vandalism among other lawless activities.

On the Saturday of the festival, a fresh-faced Fatboy Slim was due to headline the rave hangar as the chaos ensued around the festival grounds unbeknownst to himself. A couple of tracks into his set, he started to notice a floating dance platform in the crowd, which he soon realised was a van ploughing through the crowd towards the stage.

Speaking on his recollections of that terrible night, he described the moment he saw the van and the moments that followed;

“I became aware of something that I thought was a kind of floating dance platform, like a podium, with about 20-30 people on it, which turned out to be a van.” […] “I got the tap on the shoulder, and it’s like: ‘We gotta stop the music. The vans gotta go, and I said ‘Aw, not tonight. You know this is Woodstock. It was all going so well.” […] “The adrenaline was going out of my ears, I did exactly as I was told and I ran.”

And he did run… so much so that he left all of his records and equipment on-site as he and his team swiftly departed the festival grounds and headed for the nearest airport. When the van was finally stopped by staff at the venue, it was discovered that a sexual assault had been taking place in the back of the vehicle; one of countless assaults that have been reported from the event since.

You can learn more about the horrific events that unfolded during the disastrous Woodstock 99′ as ‘Trainwreck: Woodstock 99′ is now available on Netflix.

Image Credit: Rukes.com

Tags: Fatboy Slim, Woodstock, woodstock '99

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