RIP: Michael Lang, co-creator of 1969 Woodstock music festival, dies aged 77.

Michael Lang, a co-creator and promoter of the 1969 Woodstock music festival, has died.

Michael Pagnotta, a spokesperson for Lang’s family, said the 77-year-old had non-Hodgkin lymphoma and died on Saturday at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

“He was absolutely an historic figure, and also a great guy,” Pagnotta said. “Both of those thing go hand in hand.”

With partners Artie Kornfeld, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman, Lang put together the festival billed as “three days of peace and music” in the summer of 1969, as the Vietnam war raged and led disaffected young Americans to turn away from traditional mores and embraced a lifestyle that celebrated freedom of expression.

Around 400,000 people descended on the hamlet of Bethel, about 50 miles north-west of New York City, enduring miles-long traffic jams, torrential rain, food shortages and overwhelmed sanitary facilities.

More than 30 acts performed on the main stage at the base of a hill on land owned by farmer Max Yasgur, concertgoers treated to famous performances from artists including Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, The Who and Jefferson Airplane.

Lang, sporting a head of bushy brown hair, is seen throughout Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 documentary that chronicled the festival.

Lang also played a role in organizing and appeared in the documentary that chronicled a somewhat less successful open-air 1969 rock festival — Altamont.