Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Woodstock ’99 performance and the riots they were blamed for

Twenty years ago, before there was the Fyre Festival, there was fire — literally — at the Woodstock ’99 festival. What had been intended as a celebration of peace and love, in the spirit of the original 1969 event, sadly devolved into violent chaos. Tensions mounted throughout the poorly planned festival, which took place on the scalding tarmac of Rome, New York’s Griffiss Air Force Base July 22-25, 1999, as concertgoers grew grumpy from the overcrowding, overheating, overpriced food and water, and understaffed security. By the long, hot weekend’s end, there had been 44 arrests, roughly 10,000 fans needing medical treatment, and eight reported sexual assaults — and at the center of the media coverage was the Red Hot Chili Peppers.