'Woodstock: The Director's Cut' to screen at 11 San Diego-area theaters

Jefferson Airplane performs at the 1969 Woodstock festival in upstate New York.

You can watch the Oscar-winning film and performances by Jimi Hendrix and other rock legends, mud-free. Bladder-control could be an issue at the nearly four-hour-long movie.

San Diego Union-Tribune

Aug. 12, 2019 9:41 AM PT

Next weekend marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the legendary rock festival in upstate New York that drew at least 400,000 people and created the template for Coachella, Bonnaroo, Glastonbury, Lollapalooza, KAABOO, Rock in Rio and many other festivals.

The 1970 “Woodstock” film documentary won an Oscar and had an international impact. So did the accompanying live triple-album soundtrack.

You can experience some of the highlights of the three-day festival — including performances by Jim Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who and Sly & The Family Stone — Thursday when the expanded director’s cut of the film screens at 10 San Diego area theaters and one in Temecula.

Bladder control may be an issue; the movie clocks in at three hours and 44 minutes.

“Woodstock: The Director’s Cut”: 7 p.m. Thursday at AMC Mission Valley 20, AMC Fashion Valley 18, AMC La Jolla 12, AMC Palm Promenade 24, Regal Carlsbad 12, Regal Escondido Stadium 16, Regal Mira Mesa Stadium 18, Regal Parkway Plaza 18, Regal Rancho San Diego Stadium 15, Regal San Marcos Stadium 18 and Regal Temecula Stadium 15. $12.50. fathomevents.com

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George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards and a double first prize-winner at the 2022 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”