Culture

Half a million people choosing vitality over everything - three days of music, mud, and genuine aliveness.

Uninhibited aliveness as both liberation and political statement - a Black American woman electrifying Europe.

George Wein creating a space where jazz could be heard outdoors, in daylight, by mixed audiences. Vitality as access - the music finally given the room it had always deserved.

The night after MLK's assassination, city officials wanted to cancel the concert. Brown insisted on playing. The broadcast kept Boston off the streets. Vitality as a civic act - the music that held a city together when everything was about to come apart.