Wandering Woodstock, USA

Let’s wander Woodstock!

What were you doing in the Summer of ’69? Were you by chance one of the faithful at Yasgur’s Farm at the very first Woodstock Music and Art Fair Festival? If so, I need to hear from you.

What was it like? Do you ever go back?* Would you believe it was more than 50 years ago?  Those who return say it makes them feel forever young again.

I’m wondering whether the summer of 2022 could be shaping up for a rerun of the sentiment which made Woodstock the most iconic of the 1960s rock festivals. We had Vietnam then, and we have Ukraine now. People then felt drawn together by the peace-loving ideals of the hippie movement. It was chaotic and muddy, yet love was all you needed for those three days.

This year, you could be sitting on that famous lawn listening to The Who, Chicago, Jethro Tull’s Aqualung 50th Anniversary tour, and more. 

How I became a rock festival volunteer

We very much enjoyed our trip to Woodstock (well, the Bethel Woods Centre), which must have stuck with me because a few years later this happened…

Your little Wren went to watch the movie Bohemian Rhapsody and found herself in touch with her inner Rock Chick. Days later, an e-mail appeared in my inbox. One of those Do you want to go to Glastonbury 2019? I replied YES.

This was how I was recruited to volunteer for a charity at Britain’s most famous pop festival, Glastonbury. It was just me, Kylie, and over 200,000 other festival-goers! I am returning for the Summer of 22 for more volunteering fun.

C’mon let’s rock on!

Visiting Woodstock

Our Woodstock, New York visit was back in 2014. We spent a pleasant but slightly disappointing morning in the town, which somehow I expected to be wilder, more creative, and just plain more exciting than it really was. But then again, 

Woodstock festival didn’t actually take place in Woodstock:

Woodstock was the original chosen site, but there was nowhere suitable. Honestly, where IS ever suitable for a festival? Things have not changed much! The organisers then chose an industrial site near Middletown, New York (Town of Wallkill), before permits were revoked a month before the event.

Finally, dairy farmer Max Yasgur agreed to hold the festival on one of his hay fields in the Town of Bethel, New York; the rest is history.

“no-one who was there will ever be the same”

Words taken from museum walls at the Bethel Woods Center of the Arts Museum.

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts

This Arts Centre was opened in 2006 at the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair site.

We had a fabulous day out here, wandering around the farmland and museum, imagining what it was like at the original festival. And you needed a bit of imagination, for sure! Here is what it looked like when we were there.

Half a million people came to this gentle rolling farmland to hear 32 acts play over the course of four days (August 15-18). Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, the Who, Janis Joplin and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were among the line-up.

Our tour guide, forty-five years later, had been a mere youngster at Woodstock. Suddenly, we were transported back to that famous August weekend—a muddy weekend of peace, love, and music that has been described as a pivotal moment in history.

We felt very fortunate to get chatting to someone who was there; the stories he could tell.

THAT SONG ‘FREEDOM’

I like the story of how Richie Havens got the gig of opening the Woodstock Festival because the booked band was stuck in heavy traffic. Having played “every song he knew,” he began strumming, getting into a groove when the word “Freedom” came to mind. He sang his now-famous song “Freedom” for the first time on stage at Woodstock, making the words up as he played.

We got to sit on the historic hill where the festival audience sat and imagine the summer of ’69. A lot of good things came out of the sixties, including yours truly!

The Swinging Sixties

No, seriously, the museum does a good job of showing this transformative decade. It was a time of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War, a time for love and peace, and, of course, psychedelic colour. Movements for the environment, women’s rights, and equal rights gathered momentum.

Don’t you think that we might just be ready for another Woodstock game-changer in today’s rather rocky, unstable political world?

Even to this day, the Centre still hosts outdoor concerts in the summer months.

It still seems like a special happy place, or is that just me getting carried away? A place where you could imagine that people could believe they could change the world.

Has anyone else been either to the orginal Woodstock or Bethel Green Museum? What did you think?

The details

Address: 200 Hurd Road, Bethel, New York 12720.

Website: Bethel Woods Center For The Arts

For a map and directions, click here.

The museum is open from April through December.

WOODSTOCK 50 years on

In 2019, they held a concert at Bethel Woods to celebrate the 50th anniversary with ‘peace, love, and a very modern musical twist.’

Roger Daltry, lead singer of the Who was quoted in the Times on Saturday, March 23rd, saying:

‘You can’t redo Woodstock because the stars of Woodstock were the audience.’

and each year, the loyal audience still returns to relive the memories.

And then there’s Glastonbury 2022

We missed Glastonbury’s 50th Anniversary. The British legendary festival was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. This year is going to be mega!

Paul Macartney and Diana Ross have the top billing. I can’t wait for my summer. It’s going to be full-on sleeping in a tent for six nights, dishing out large doses of;

‘Love, are you ok? And yes, the Pyramid Stage is to the left, and the toilets are over there!’ 

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

They say that the best music festivals bring people together to celebrate something bigger, something special. It’s for people and for the planet. It is time to forget the chaos of life and embrace good hopes. This year, the terrible atrocities in Ukraine are very much at the forefront of our minds. I feel we need this in the world more than ever now.

Life’s a festival if you want it to be

What do you think? Can a pop festival really make that much difference in the world? They said it did back in the 1960s. We can but live in hope.

Will you seek peace and love with a musical twist at Woodstock or Glastonbury 2022 this summer?

Do let me know!

You might also enjoy: Everything Glitters at Glastonbury, and Wandering Glastonbury