No, I wasn’t there in 1969. I was 15 years old when it took place. Fifty two years later, I decided to visit the festival site in Bethel, NY. The field where Woodstock took place has been preserved by the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Going to the site has been on my bucket for a couple of years. It’s about 220 miles from my home. So, my son and I recently took a short RV trip to visit the 1969 Woodstock Festival Site.

Prepping for my Visit

I prepped for this trip much like I do when I visit other historic sites. I read up about the festival – the planning, the producers, the bands, the land owner. My son and I watched the Woodstock movie and listened to the music again. I watched documentaries and interviews of attendees on YouTube. When we drove the RV out of the driveway I was humming “Goin Up the Country” by Canned Heat.

The history and music of the event are well documented so for this post I want to focus my observations of the site and some new things I learned about Woodstock.

Observations

Bethel, NY is very rural and has a small (population 4,200). It’s mostly farm country. And I’m guessing it still looks much like it did in 1969.

When you enter Bethel Woods it’s like entering another world – very nice, manicured, and peaceful (feels like a resort). The festival site is huge. The field where the festival was held is about 40 acres. You can walk all around the field.

There’s a public museum (The Museum at Bethel Woods) onsite. It’s about the 1960’s and the festival. There’s a fee to get in ($16 for geezers). It’s good for folks who don’t remember or know about the 1960’s or are not from the US. The staff we encountered were all very helpful and friendly. There are few memorabilia items (I only saw Richie Haven’s guitar). The museum is interesting and gets you into the mood for seeing the site.

I made a video of my visit which you can see below.

Some New Things I Learned

As I mentioned above, I did some research about Woodstock before we left. My prior knowledge was mostly about the music and groups that performed. For this trip, I wanted to make sure I could appreciate and understand all that I would see. Here are some of the new things I learned.

• The organizers had just 3 weeks to prepare the site at Bethel. The work never got fully completed. The organizers attempted to hold the festival in Woodstock, Saugerties, and Wallkill but were turned down by each town.
• Max Yasgur leased a 37 acre field of his 600 acre dairy farm to the festival. He needed the money because of a bad hay crop that year. He also felt the festival would help close a divide that he perceived local people had with the younger generation.
• Yasgur and the town were told to expect 40,000 people per day at the festival. Everything was built around that number.
• There were many in Bethel who opposed having the festival in their town. Yasgur experienced criticism, threats, and push back from many.
• Instead of 40,000, more than 400,000 arrived for the festival. The numbers overwhelmed everything. The roads were blocked with cars. Food and water ran out the first day. Yasgur said afterwards that if he knew there would be that many people he would never have leased his land for the festival.
• It was remarkably peaceful over the course of the weekend. It’s estimated that there were only about 12 official law enforcement personnel on duty at Woodstock (there were more contract security personnel). Two people died – one from being run over by a tractor while he was sleeping and one from an apparent drug overdose. About 100 people were arrested; most for small drug possessions. There were no incidences of violence.

My New Perspective

I gained a new perspective about Woodstock during my visit. My young teenage brain had stored Woodstock as a historic music event with some legendary performances. My 67 year old brain drew a new focus on the attendees. Woodstock was a incredibly large and peaceful gathering of people at a time in history that was marred with division and unrest. In 1968, there had been several tumultuous incidents – The Vietnam War and war protests, MLK’s assassination, the Washington DC riots, RFK’s assassination, the Chicago DNC convention riots, and 1968 Olympic protests.

Woodstock could have turned into a massive riot, which the promoters feared could happen at any moment once they saw the massive crowds of people overwhelm the site. The food and water ran out on Friday, the roads were blocked, people couldn’t get to the site, the weather was unsettled, and the music was late to start because the bands couldn’t get to the site. All or just a couple of these circumstances could have caused the throng of young people to become disgruntled and riot.

But it never happened. The local residents, many of whom didn’t want the festival in their town, banded together and provided food and water. A Boy Scout troop made sandwiches. The local fire department opened hydrants and made their tanker truck available for water. The US Army provided a helicopter and pilot to fly in medical personnel, food, and supplies. The Hog Farm cooperative prepared food and delivered it to the crowd so people didn’t have to leave their spots. Bands and musicians were asked to extend their sets to keep the music going to minimize idle time for the attendees.

With a calm voice, stage announcer Chip Monck asked people to help one another and look out for each other. The Hog Farm personnel used non-intrusive tactics to guide and direct people (their “please force”). Promoter John Roberts convince the governor not to send in 10,000 National Guard troops. The promoters extended the music into Monday morning so people would not have to leave in the dark on Sunday night. It all worked. The people got along, helped each other, and enjoyed a weekend of freedom and music.

Love and Peace was on Display

The most heartwarming story I heard was in a YouTube video by one of the police officers on duty at Woodstock. At one point during the festival, the officer was assigned to go with an ambulance to take an injured person to the hospital. They soon ran into a segment of the road that was completely blocked with abandon cars. There were 5 cars shoulder to shoulder all blocking the road with no way for the ambulance to get through. The officer checked the cars for keys but found none. He was standing in the road trying to figure out what to do, when a young man in his 20’s approached him and asked if he could offer any help. The police officer explained his dilemma. The young man quickly rounded up 20 other young men and together they proceeded to lift one of the cars and carried it into the field bordering the road. The ambulance could get now get through. By the time the officer turned around to the thank the men, they had already dispersed.

As I sat in the middle of the huge field at Woodstock, remembering all I had read and absorbed as part of my visit, I started to see Woodstock through a different lens. I thought about people sitting peacefully, shoulder to shoulder on the field. Woodstock wasn’t a religious event but I sense that the spirit of Jesus was there. Jesus taught and preached about doing good, living in peace, and loving your neighbor. Those things were beautifully displayed and shined bright in many who were there on that August weekend in 1969.