Woodstock '94 was held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original Woodstock festival of 1969. It was promoted as "2 More Days of Peace and Music". The event took place on Winston Farm, just west of Saugerties, New York, 70 miles northeast of the original 1969 festival site near Bethel. Tickets cost $135 – the original Woodstock 3-day ticket was $18. The weather was hot and dry on Friday but by Saturday afternoon the storms rolled in and the rains turned much of the field into mud.
Performers from the original Woodstock appearing at Woodstock '94 included The Band, Santana, Joe Cocker, Country Joe McDonald, John Sebastian, and Crosby, Stills, & Nash. Additionally, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna, and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, all Woodstock alumni, also appeared, performing with The Band. Bob Dylan, who had declined to go to the original Woodstock accepted an invitation to perform at Woodstock '94, and was introduced with the phrase: "We waited twenty-five years to hear this. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Bob Dylan.”
Though only 164,000 tickets were sold, the crowd at Woodstock '94 was estimated at 550,000. The size of the crowd was larger than concert organizers had planned for and by the second night many of the event policies were logistically unenforceable. Woodstock '94 has also been referred to as Mudstock, partly due to the rainy weather that resulted in mud pits and the mud-covered performances of Nine Inch Nails and Primus. Notably, the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed in lightbulb costumes for the first song of their set. Later in the set they would all dress up as Jimi Hendrix had at the original Woodstock.