Rockfest for Peace - Santana, Clapton and the Spirit of Woodstock

He wants to promote world peace. With music. More specifically: with a new music festival. And when master guitarist Carlos Santana talks about music, it's not a sober job description. Then – interviewers know this – joy, happiness, and passion literally become loud. Then he might even run out of words mid-sentence, suddenly singing, improvising meaningless syllables for half a minute, stringing them together at a crazy pace.

For the 77-year-old, music is the means to move people physically, mentally, and spiritually, and to create a better world, song by song. The veteran of the legendary Woodstock Festival of 1969 truly believes in this. "We are all one" – according to the teachings of his guru, Sri Chinmoy. Santana has never truly shaken off the "Love & Peace" era in which his career began. He now wants to build on it with a new global festival in the spirit of "Woodstock." Together with British guitar master Eric Clapton. A dream, with no date yet.

“Starting in San Francisco, in Golden Gate Park, and then New York and London,” said Santana, who is coming to Europe this summer with his “Oneness Tour,” in an interview with the Spanish daily newspaper “La Vanguardia” (and previously in the “Hamburger Morgenpost”).

Looking at a present that some politicians and historians are already referring to as the "pre-war period," this seems, in principle, like an excellent idea. Too many wars and aggressive conflicts, too many narcissistic world leaders who, in word and deed, appear anything but pacifist. "The world needs positive vibes; there's too much negativity, too much fear, and angry people," Santana says in "La Vanguardia."

Were there 400,000 rock fans back then, or even half a million? The Woodstock Music & Art Fair (June 15-17, 1969) was the peace concert series that will forever symbolize the hippie era. It was a euphoric "against"—especially against the Vietnam War, which was dividing American society at the time. At the end of Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix shredded the US national anthem with his guitar—a middle finger to the establishment of the time.

Two months later, the arrest of the Manson Family on suspicion of murder brought hippie culture into disrepute, and the Rolling Stones' Altamont Festival in California was disrupted by violence on December 6, 1969. The "Festival for Peace" at the New York Mets' Shea Stadium was intended to unite 30,000 people under the logo of the peace dove on the 25th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (August 6, 1970), with 30 percent of the proceeds going to anti-war organizations.

The 12-hour concert marathon featured a top-notch lineup ranging from Creedence Clearwater Revival to Paul Simon to Janis Joplin (who sang a duet with Dionne Warwick). But there weren't even 20,000 people there to sing "Give Peace a Chance" with host Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary "so Nixon can hear!"

The Woodstock anniversary festivals are now lost in history; they were commercialized events when rock music was no longer the sound of the counterculture. Woodstock 30 – contrary to the spirit of the original – was overshadowed by acts of violence, and Woodstock 50 was canceled altogether. With Ravi Shankar's and George Harrison's two "Concerts for Bangladesh" at Madison Square Garden in 1971, rock peace successfully demonstrated itself for the first time in the form of a benefit, raising funds for refugees from the Bangladesh war.

The type of concert for good causes was the continuation of the peace festival and culminated on July 13, 1985, in "Live Aid" in London and Philadelphia - rock and pop charity for the benefit of the starving people in Ethiopia - with 1.9 billion people watching, 40 percent of the world's population at the time.

"Mostly, I was proud to have been there," Santana said when asked in 2011 whether he had ever felt burdened by the rock festival of rock festivals. "Woodstock was the birthplace of a global consciousness. Authority was questioned, religion, politics."

Even back then, he believed in the possibility of the spirit of the original festival returning. "There are many young musicians and bands who are characterized by a spirit of mindfulness," he told the "Neue Presse" newspaper in Hanover. "Musicians who make you feel like we're all one big family." Stylistically, Santana has always been open to everything – from jazz to African rhythms to hip-hop. "Life is diversity; at least it would be boring for me to always do just one thing."

While Woodstock was all about peace, today there are different ideas of peace. For some peace-lovers – see Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine – peace is unconditional, even if the result is the subjugation of the attacked to the dictates of the aggressor. On the other hand, there are advocates of a so-called just peace, who reject all demands of the aggressor, in this case the Russian one, as illegitimate.

In his statement about "angry people," Santana himself seems to also include social peace, which, especially in the United States, where the Trump administration is undermining the democratic foundations, appears so severely disrupted that some experts are even whispering about the possibility of another civil war. Is peace advisable where democratic freedom is under attack? Advocates of all peace go to rock concerts. The question remains whether music can give all forms of peace a chance, and whether adherents of different ideas of peace can remain peaceful among themselves.

Musicians who embrace a pacifist stance but rarely, if ever, reflect it in their songs can still be surprised by their fans today. Rod Stewart's peace statement for Ukraine—with war images in the video and a hearty "Fuck Putin!"—elicited boos at his performance in Leipzig in June 2024. It's a different story for Bruce Springsteen, whose lyrics have always been socially critical. He received widespread applause at his European concerts for his statements against the Trump administration and its threat to American democracy, and beyond that, to the entire world. However, according to E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt, he has lost half his fans in his home country because of his criticism of Make America Great Again.

The colleague with whom Santana plans to pull off the great peace rock festival is probably on par with him in legendary status: Eric Clapton (80) is one of the great white advocates of the blues and also a virtuoso on the guitar – whether with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, with Cream, the prototype of the supergroup, or solo. He still regrets not being involved in the "Three Days of Love and Peace" in 1969.

Eric Clapton is considered one of the most important blues and rock guitarists.

Source: IMAGO/Newscom World

But the musician also repeatedly attracted attention with his strange remarks—for example, at a 1976 concert in Birmingham, when he supported the ultra-right political hardliner Enoch Powell and uttered the racist cry "Keep England white!" (which helped found the "Rock Against Racism" music movement). And during the coronavirus pandemic, he joined the chorus of "crazy people," as Rolling Stone called it, "spreading ridiculous lies and conspiracy theories about Covid vaccines. He (Clapton) even recorded songs about the subject."

But he sees himself as a force for good in any case. Last year, in a conversation with YouTuber David Spuria, aka "The Real Music Observer," Clapton, in which he had previously championed Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), a critic of Israel and repeatedly suspected of anti-Semitism, told him "that I bring a message of hope, love, peace, and freedom." This, he said, is his responsibility as a musician. Clapton has yet to comment on the joint peace festival planned by Santana.

Even more so from Santana. "You don't win with bombs, you win with love. And I want to make music so that people remember that we are capable of bringing peace to this earth—now, in our time," said the musician, who feels "stronger than ever."

Everything is still vague; there are no dates yet, no list of artists, performers, or bands. But according to Santana, preparatory talks are already underway. Santana not only brings the energy and faith, but also has excellent connections. When Santana calls, the stars come. It's always been this way.