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44-496: In its first year, the festival expected 6,000 visitors. The number was over three times the estimate, though. Nowadays the festival lasts a whole week and hosts 40,000–50,000 visits per year. Besides Finnish and international professional performers, 4,000–5,000 amateurs, forming 400–500 groups, participate the festival yearly. Over 1,000 scheduled performances in almost 30 venues and stages are given yearly, and dozens of workshops and other participatory programs are offered. Since 1970

88-549: A Donald Duck short, The Flying Jalopy . Following the 1941 Disney strike , Melendez was hired by Leon Schlesinger Productions , later known as Warner Bros. Cartoons , where he served as animator on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. He worked in Bob Clampett 's unit, first as an assistant animator for Rod Scribner , and then as a full animator starting with Wagon Heels . After Clampett's departure in 1946,

132-417: A 1982 interview: Woodstock was not yet even Woodstock. He was Snoopy's secretary, because by then I had also started to have Snoopy do a little bit of writing. I did a whole series on National Secretaries Week . Snoopy would dictate things to Woodstock and Woodstock would do the things that secretaries do, making fun of them. And then I realized that I had a nice little friendship going there. But if Woodstock

176-546: A Mystery, Charlie Brown was mainly centered around Woodstock. The entire cold open and first act of the special involves Woodstock building his nest and taking a bird bath, and getting caught in a rainstorm, which, to Woodstock, is like a typhoon. The special centers around the theft of his nest and Snoopy, dressed as the World Famous Detective, trying to find out who did it. Both Snoopy and Woodstock were voiced by Bill Melendez from 1972 to 2006. Schulz explained in

220-403: A cold early spring rain. At first, Woodstock refused to use it, so Snoopy forced the issue. Checking up later on Woodstock, Snoopy peers into the birdhouse to find Woodstock has converted it into a 1970s-style leisure room (complete with a quadraphonic stereo system) that appears much larger on the inside than from outside (much like Snoopy's doghouse). Unfortunately, Snoopy gets his nose stuck in

264-520: A day". He's a whiz at playing trivia too, and almost always manages to stump Snoopy. Woodstock is also a skilled whistler. In the TV special, She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown , when Peppermint Patty 's music for a skating competition fails to play due to a malfunction that cannot be repaired expediently, Woodstock steps up to the microphone and whistles a flawless O Mio Babbino Caro , to which Peppermint Patty performs her routine. He also whistles his part in

308-475: A duck!" Woodstock then cries and Snoopy hugs him and apologizes. Despite being a bird, Woodstock is a very poor flyer. It may be because of his small wings, or may be because, due to his mother abandoning him, Snoopy had to teach him to fly. He flitters around in erratic fashion, often upside down, and frequently crashes into things. Woodstock's bird friends are the same species, so they are all bad flyers. Once, Woodstock and his bird friends wanted to go hiking to

352-496: A fall a year earlier. Melendez was cremated and his ashes were given to his family. Archive recordings of his work as Snoopy and Woodstock were used for the film The Peanuts Movie . This makes him the only member of the film's cast to have been involved in a previous Peanuts project, save for Kristin Chenoweth , who won a Tony Award for her performance as Sally Brown in You're

396-571: A football team composed of Snoopy and the birds defeated a human football team led by Peppermint Patty ). The birds and Snoopy occasionally are shown playing bridge . Although all but Raymond (who is purple) and Harriet (with a red ribbon) look alike, Snoopy seems to be able to tell them apart. An important and recurring characteristic of Woodstock is his absurdly and hilariously high physical strength and endurance, considering he couldn't weigh more than about 50 grams. When playing hockey against Snoopy on his "home ice" (a frozen birdbath), he administers

440-418: A rest stop during migrations, a nesting site, a community hall , or a place to play cards. None of these birds were ever given a name, although they did, on occasion (e.g., July 10, 1962), use speech balloons, lettered in what would become the classic 'chicken scratch marks' of Woodstock's utterances. What set Woodstock apart from all these earlier birds was the fact that he attached himself to Snoopy and assumed

484-420: A second appearance as a supporting character for Snoopy (his wrist wrestling partner on April 25, 1968), the most important aspect of Woodstock's relationship with Snoopy is made clear: Snoopy first refers to this bird as his buddy. This identification was more than enough for readers to know if they hadn't already figured it out, that this little bird, name or no name, had assumed the role of a regular character in

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528-559: Is a small yellow bird of unknown species and Snoopy 's best friend. The character first appeared in the March 4, 1966, strip, though he was not given a name until June 22, 1970. He is named after the Woodstock festival of 1969. Snoopy wordlessly interacted with an unnamed bird, using only punctuation and musical notes, as early as 1951. In the early 1960s, Snoopy began befriending birds when they started using his doghouse for various purposes:

572-514: Is prone to beak-bleeds if he goes over 10 feet in the air. Despite his difficulty in flying like a bird, he is skilled in piloting Snoopy as a canine helicopter. When asked where he learned to pilot, Woodstock replied (speaking in his usual chicken scratches, but translated), " Nam ." This gag appeared in the strip several times as well as in It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown . During the winter, he relaxes by either skating or playing ice hockey on top of

616-501: Is when Snoopy, posing as a football coach, is angry at his player Woodstock for losing "the book with all our secret plays" and orders the bird to run twenty thousand laps around the field as punishment. Woodstock fearfully complies. Woodstock wears a watch on his right wing? in The Peanuts Movie (at time point 15:02) and in 2021's The Snoopy Show (episode 2 "Nest Friends", episode 5 "Happy Bird-Day"). The TV special It's

660-452: The Peanuts cast. Schulz did not give him a name until June 22, 1970. Schulz acknowledged in several print and TV interviews in the mid-1970s that he took Woodstock's name from the rock festival . (The festival's logo shows a bird perched on a guitar.) Woodstock is a bird who is Snoopy's best friend. The only non-bird character who can understand Woodstock's speech is Snoopy. When depicted in

704-564: The Arts ). On completion of his studies, Melendez found his first job at a lumber mill. After watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , he gained employment at Disney in 1938, where he worked as an assistant animator to Hawley Pratt whom he befriended and worked together to developed a naval game with toy ships. He worked on what are now considered classics: Pinocchio , Fantasia , Dumbo , and Bambi and he worked once as an animator for

748-663: The Town (1983), as well as Frosty Returns (1992), the pseudo-sequel to Rankin/Bass ' Frosty the Snowman (1969). During the 1980s and 1990s Melendez served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute . On September 2, 2008, Bill Melendez died at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California at the age of 91. No cause of his death was made public, but he had been in declining health after

792-436: The air at wings' length, finally allowing Linus to climb the tree. Another strip has Snoopy once again try to determine what species Woodstock belongs to. Snoopy theorizes Woodstock might be an eagle. Since Snoopy has heard somewhere that eagles are capable of lifting a small child, he suggests Woodstock try that with Linus. The bird successfully lifts Linus with his wings three inches in the air and holds him up. The last instance

836-657: The ball but, due to his size, he is simply hit by it; sometimes getting embedded into the ground a short distance. Woodstock is a small and good-hearted yellow bird. He resourcefully wins the river rafting race in Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown after all other contestants have been eliminated. He routinely takes Snoopy's gentle verbal digs and practical jokes in stride, though he does not hesitate to stand up to Snoopy if his friend goes too far. Once, he and Snoopy stopped speaking to each other because of Snoopy's practice of reading War and Peace one word per day. When told that Woodstock

880-503: The basement of his Hollywood home. Bill Melendez Productions is still active and is currently run by his son Steven C. Melendez . In addition to animation, Melendez was once a faculty member at the University of Southern California 's Cinema Arts Department. Melendez would also be referenced in the 1961 Looney Tunes short The Pied Piper of Guadalupe , where his name was used for a music instructor for Sylvester to learn how to play

924-400: The beagle a severe body check that sends Snoopy flying clear out of the birdbath. In another instance, Woodstock discovers a "strange creature" in his nest. Linus wants to investigate the nest and asks Snoopy to "give him a boost" so he can reach the tree's lowest branch, which Snoopy does. The branch being still out of Linus's reach, Woodstock gives Snoopy and Linus both a boost, holding them in

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968-498: The bird is his new mechanic, Woodstock's first supporting role. After this introduction, the unnamed Woodstock is seen with Snoopy on occasion, and other birds continue to appear as they had for years. But Woodstock is singled out as the bird who befriended Snoopy, in part by continuing references to him as the Flying Ace's mechanic (July 12, 1967; June 12–14, 1968). On June 14, 1968, 14 months after his first landing on Snoopy and after

1012-464: The birdbath, complete with his own Zamboni machine to keep the surface clean (except one year where Woodstock asks Snoopy to migrate with him, and the duo takes the trip on foot). His one-goal throughout the comic is to track down his mother so he can send her a Mother's Day card. In the TV special, It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown , Snoopy buys Woodstock a birdhouse to replace his nest after

1056-477: The characters in the studio by uttering gibberish, and the voices were mechanically sped up at different speeds to represent the two different characters, although some later specials had Snoopy speaking in a clear voice, reflecting how he would be thinking to himself in the comics. According to an article in The New York Times published shortly after his death, Melendez did not intend to do voice acting for

1100-399: The chicken scratches are rendered audibly as a staccato series of high-pitched honks and squawks by Snoopy's voice actor Bill Melendez . Woodstock often works as Snoopy's secretary (most notably when the latter was appointed "Head Beagle"), and caddies for him when he plays golf (usually with some difficulty). Woodstock also plays American football with Snoopy, usually attempting to catch

1144-446: The comic strip entitled A Boy Named Charlie Brown . Melendez was the only person Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz trusted to turn his popular comic creations into television specials . He and his studio worked on every single television special and direct-to-video film for the Peanuts gang and Melendez directed the majority of them. He provided the vocal effects for Snoopy and Woodstock in every single production, voice acting

1188-429: The comic strip, his speech is rendered almost entirely in "chicken scratch" marks, with Snoopy's either directly translating or allowing the reader to deduce Woodstock's meaning in the context of Snoopy's replies. Woodstock does make nonverbal noises such as yawns, laughter, sighs and "Z"s or snores to indicate sleep. He also uses punctuation marks like "!" or "??" to indicate emotions. In the movies and television specials,

1232-671: The door and demolishes the house, so he buys Woodstock a second birdhouse, which Woodstock accepts. Woodstock and his fellow yellow birds (named Bill, Harriet, Olivier, Raymond, Fred, Roy, Wilson and Conrad) often join Snoopy for group activities, with Snoopy as the de facto leader. Most frequently, they embark on Beagle Scout expeditions with Snoopy as scoutmaster, or as a patrol of the French Foreign Legion on their march for Fort Zinderneuf , led by Snoopy as their sergeant. They also have formed football and ice hockey teams (on one occasion

1276-601: The festival has nominated yearly one or more persons as Master Folk Musician, Master Folk Singer or Master Folk Dancer, on the basis of their repertoire, skills and work for keeping up the traditions, as well as an Ensemble of the Year. These nominations are highly valued in Finnish folk music and dance community. The festival is organized since 2012 by Pro Kaustinen Society, which is formed by three Kaustinen tradition bearers' organizations. The Peanuts comic strip bird Woodstock , named for

1320-463: The flute. At that point, Melendez has been away from Warner Bros. for 10 years. In 1959, Melendez was hired to do some animated television commercials featuring characters from the comic strip Peanuts for the Ford Motor Company . These animations were seen by documentary producer Lee Mendelson , and Mendelson hired Melendez to do some interstitial animations for a film he was producing about

1364-498: The name " Kaustinen ", without a specified gender and Spanish translations use the name "Emilio"—a male name. At one point Snoopy attempts to identify what type of bird Woodstock is with the aid of a field guide , asking Woodstock to attempt to imitate various birds: American bittern , Carolina wren , rufous-sided towhee , yellow-billed cuckoo , Canada goose , warbler , and mourning warbler . Snoopy finally gives up trying to figure it out, and says, "For all I know, you're

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1408-474: The nest, one of which hung around Snoopy throughout the spring, and returned the following spring on April 4, 1967. Schulz began to establish character traits for Snoopy's new friend by revealing that he could talk (or at least emote), that he didn't like flying south every winter, and that he struggled with flying. By the end of this four-strip sequence, Snoopy, in character as the World War I Flying Ace, learns that

1452-523: The rock music festival in Woodstock, New York, is called Kaustinen in Finnish with obvious reference to this folk music festival. 63°33′46″N 023°41′34″E  /  63.56278°N 23.69278°E  / 63.56278; 23.69278 Woodstock (Peanuts) April 4, 1967 (solo) (unnamed until June 22, 1970) Woodstock is a fictional character in Charles M. Schulz 's comic strip Peanuts . He

1496-495: The role of Snoopy's sidekick and assistant. There had been no recurring relationships between Snoopy and the earlier birds who visited the yard of the Browns, and Snoopy was more often than not more hostile than friendly toward those birds. In the Peanuts daily comic strip on March 3, 1966, a mother bird flew in while Snoopy was lying on top of his doghouse, nested on top of his stomach and flew away. Soon afterward two chicks hatched in

1540-452: The song "The Best of Buddies" (via an instrumental version entitled "Woodstock's Samba") in the feature film Snoopy Come Home . For all of Woodstock's acumen and talent, he is physically a very poor flyer, which has been a character trait since he first appeared. He flutters around erratically, often upside down, and frequently crashes into things. He usually manages to get where he wants to go as long as he doesn't have to fly too high. He

1584-540: The summit of "Point Lobos". Lucy laughs at them and says that they are stupid because they are birds and can just fly. Schulz was a keen bridge player, and Peanuts occasionally included bridge references. In 1997 the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), awarded both Snoopy and Woodstock the honorary rank of Life Master , and Schulz was delighted. Bill Melendez José Cuauhtémoc " Bill " Melendez (November 15, 1916 – September 2, 2008)

1628-478: The two characters. "Schulz would not countenance the idea of a beagle uttering English dialogue, Mr. Melendez recited gibberish into a tape recorder, sped it up and put the result on the soundtrack." He also directed, did the animation for, and provided voice acting in the first four Peanuts theatrical films, A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), Snoopy Come Home (1972), Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977), and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (1980), as well as

1672-636: The unit was given to Arthur Davis . When the number of animation units at Warner Bros. was reduced from four to three in 1949, Melendez along with Emery Hawkins moved to Robert McKimson 's unit for a time. After animating a several shorts for McKimson, Melendez was fired by producer Edward Selzer . Afterwards, he moved over to United Productions of America (UPA), where he animated on cartoons such as Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950). Melendez also produced and directed thousands of television commercials, first at UPA, then John Sutherland Productions and Playhouse Pictures. In 1963, Melendez founded his own studio in

1716-476: The video games Get Ready for School, Charlie Brown! (1995) and Snoopy's Campfire Stories (1996). The last Peanuts-related production he worked on was He's a Bully, Charlie Brown (2006). Melendez and Lee Mendelson , who also worked on the Peanuts specials, films, and TV shows, formed their own production team and did other animated specials. They were responsible for the first two Garfield animated specials, Here Comes Garfield (1982) and Garfield on

1760-500: The whole thing over a period of years developed into one little character. And then, as the character developed, Woodstock took over a lot of the innocence that Snoopy had when he was a lot younger. Despite this, Woodstock was referred to as a male as early as the strip from June 12, 1968. In the Norwegian translation of Peanuts , the bird is named "Fredrikke"—a female name—and is always referred to as female. Finnish translation uses

1804-540: Was Snoopy's secretary, it would most likely mean that this little bird was a girl. Well, having her be a girl spoiled the little relationship between Snoopy and the bird. So, after reading Life magazine and all about the Woodstock Festival , I decided that Woodstock would make a good name for the bird. Then this secretary suddenly became a little male bird and instead of a secretary was simply Snoopy's friend, although he still takes dictation now and then. But that's how

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1848-487: Was an American animator, director, producer, and voice actor. Melendez is known for working on the Peanuts animated specials , as well as providing the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock . Before Peanuts , he previously worked as an animator for Walt Disney Productions , Warner Bros. Cartoons , and UPA . In a career spanning over 60 years, he won six Primetime Emmy Awards and was nominated for thirteen more. In addition, he

1892-492: Was being attacked by the cat next door, Snoopy immediately rushed to his aid, getting clobbered in the process (what the cat was attacking ended up being a yellow glove). He also hates being mistaken for the wrong species of bird (though we are never told what species he actually is), and he is reluctant to eat thrown bread crumbs because he doesn't want anyone to think he's on welfare , and when asked about his net income by Snoopy in his 'census-taker' persona, he replied "four worms

1936-671: Was nominated for an Oscar and five Grammy Awards . The two Peanuts specials, A Charlie Brown Christmas and What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? , which he directed, were each honored with a Peabody Award . A native of Hermosillo , Sonora , Mexico, Melendez was educated in American public schools in Douglas, Arizona . He later attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles (which would later become California Institute of

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