Woodstock

A quick vacation to PA last weekend to live out “a bucket list” dream - Woodstock!

In 1969 I was too young to go to the 3-day hippie fest, so now, 41 years later, the dream was still on my mind so I traveled to see the site where history was made.
If you are not aware of Woodstock-era, this is a time when the Vietnam War was being protested during the "flower power" generation. Love, peace .... and drugs.

The vision was to hold the concert in Woodstock, New York, just north of NYC where Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, The Band and other artists were living. But the permit was revoked by the town at the last minute. Meantime, 50 miles away, another concert permit was approved for a totally different arts festival. This local festival was in Bethel New York in the community of White Lake. The promoters of the “Woodstock” moved their show to Bethel.

The show was held on a farm owned by Max Yasgur. The field had a natural bowl shape for campers, dancers, hippie vans and tents. Max didn’t like the hippie look but he liked young people and he rented his field to the promoter.

Almost everyone came. Janis Joplin, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, the Jefferson Airplane. The rumour is the Stones turned down the offer and the Beatles hadn’t played live in three years so they chickened out!

On the third day there was torrential rain, turning the field to mud. There was a shortage of food, toilets and medicine. There was one death and one birth and Bethel was named a National Disaster.

Bethel is a very small town, off every major highway and close to nothing.

(The photo of me and Janice marks the location overlooking the field. To the left is a rectangular flat area where the stage sat, and behind Janice is where the audience would have sat.)

A few years ago the town erected the Bethel Woods Centre For The Arts where a major outdoor theatre has been built, completely unrelated to Woodstock. Legendary artists perform regularly in the state of the art amphitheatre.

Inside, is a small but professionally assembled museum spotlighting the 60's culture including Woodstock videos, tickets, contracts, setlists and the program. The coolest item is a portion of the fence that surrounded the site. It's a good (pardon the pun) flashback to 1969 but it's too bad that "Bethel Woods Centre For The Arts has egotistically overshadowed the iconic "venue of the past" literally 100 feet next door. (To me, it's kind of like having a museum for bottled water built next to Niagara Falls - coz it’s there.)

Oh, and the souvenir shop - you won't find any t-shirts, or pens or flags about Woodstock. It's all labelled "1969 Bethel". But you can get a nice "Bethel Woods" over-priced hoodie!

But in 1969 it was real. It was the concert of all concerts - $8 a day, for three days in what is remembered by most as “3 Days Of Peace and Music”.

It's hard to imagine a concert about "peace" with 450,000 fans taking place now in this day and age. If there were to be a festival of this kind, I'm afraid it would be a haven for gang violence, bomb threats, rapes and looting - the complete opposite to everything Woodstock stood for - peace, baby.