Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 ending- Why did the crowd end up rioting at the festival?

Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 just premiered on Netflix on August 3, 2022, releasing all three parts at once. The three-part feature documentary, with episodes ranging from 45 to 52 minutes in length, focused on the infamous Woodstock music festival in 1999, which was notorious for its riots, chaos, and overall unhygienic approach. All this, coupled with poor management and security, resulted in a full-blown riot at the end of the festival.

The exploratory documentary by filmmaker Jamie Crawford slowly unraveled the root cause behind the massive unrest and the prime reasons behind the agitation. The three episodes carefully traced each day at the music festival, with the third episode putting a significant emphasis on the riots. In the end, the documentary showed how the management and the creators of the festival refused to be held accountable.

But how did a music festival end up being the big riot that it was? Read on to decipher the ending of Trainwreck: Woodstock '99.

---

Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 ending- Why did the riot take place?

The major reason behind the infamous incidents at the end of the fabled Woodstock reboot was the result of an amalgamation of negative things that ultimately led to a mob mentality.

The setting of the festival and the management's desire to generate enormous profits played a big part in the chaos that ensued. For instance, to generate the maximum amount of profit, food and water rights were sold to independent companies. Naturally, it made things very expensive inside the venue.

Food could be considered secondary, but in the scorching heat of the mainly concrete and asphalt space of the former air force base in Rome in upstate New York, water became a significant issue, especially clean water. When these basic needs were not met, it generated some significant angst among the already riled-up youth of the 90s.

Moreover, the lack of proper security, another gimmick to reduce expenses, resulted in even more disarray, with numerous complaints of sexual assault, molestation, and violence against women. With attendees ranging to a whopping 250,000, the lack of security was meant to cause significant trouble, especially with all kinds of people being part of a constantly intoxicated group.

By the end of Trainwreck: Woodstock '99, the documentary skillfully showed how this angst resulted in a full-blown riot when the festival failed to surprise the viewers with anything exceptional on the last day. This started with the poor decision of handing out candles to an already agitated mob during Red Hot Chilli Peppers' charged performance.

What erupted next was a full-blown riot, with music towers being torched, ATMs being looted, and women possibly harassed throughout the venue. When Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 dived into the interviews of the management at the end of the reel, it showed how they refused to take the blame; passing it around constantly - blaming everything, from American youth to films like Fight Club (which wasn't even released when the show took place), but themselves.

This summed up the purpose of Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 by shedding light on the important events that led to the downfall of the festival.