Fifty-six years ago yesterday the Woodstock concert ended. It was one of the biggest concerts in the country. It was before my time (I was born in 1970), but have lasting memories of it all the way up to today. I grew up 15 minutes from the original site of Woodstock and have been going to the reunions most years since the mid-1980's. My father was the head electrician for Woodstock, so had lots of stories of the setup and breakdown. He also had a Bell & Howell color video camera, so filmed people sliding in the mud, lovers loving in the tents, and Jimmy Hendrix doing the Star Spangled Banner up on the stage. We still have discarded new blankets that he dragged out of the mud to use to raise his six kids.
Over the years, the original Woodstock site became a sore spot for the local government because thousands of people would show up from all over the country every year to celebrate the anniversary, and the local government wasn't making any money off of them. So then in following years, the police would wait at the site and kick people off. Some years they spread cow manure over the whole site to deter people. That didn't stop the thousands of people coming though, they just camped in neighboring fields instead.
Eventually a local rich man (one of the top ten richest men in Forbes Magazine in the 1980's, and coincidentally an elementary school classmate of my father) bought the property and commercialized it with a formal concert venue, a museum, a heliport, a champagne stocked viewing tent with air conditioning, and camping sites for $350 per night. There are still local properties nearby that allow camping for the everyday poor people that come every anniversary. I was just at one of them on Friday, listening to an awesome Greatful Dead tribute band playing on a stage in the woods. The local government is still trying to shut down all these local camping properties because the government is not making any money from them.
If anyone remembers, there were so many people at Woodstock, that the interstate thruway was shut down because of heavy traffic, and also the main highway up to the area was shut down because of traffic jams. So people ended up ditching their cars on the highway and walking/hitch hiking to Woodstock. The local towing companies were then tasked with removing thousands of abandoned/blocked cars, so the roads could open. Up in the woods in some local areas around Woodstock, there are still hundreds of cars that were abandoned at Woodstock and towed to where they sit today.
Over the years, the original Woodstock site became a sore spot for the local government because thousands of people would show up from all over the country every year to celebrate the anniversary, and the local government wasn't making any money off of them. So then in following years, the police would wait at the site and kick people off. Some years they spread cow manure over the whole site to deter people. That didn't stop the thousands of people coming though, they just camped in neighboring fields instead.
Eventually a local rich man (one of the top ten richest men in Forbes Magazine in the 1980's, and coincidentally an elementary school classmate of my father) bought the property and commercialized it with a formal concert venue, a museum, a heliport, a champagne stocked viewing tent with air conditioning, and camping sites for $350 per night. There are still local properties nearby that allow camping for the everyday poor people that come every anniversary. I was just at one of them on Friday, listening to an awesome Greatful Dead tribute band playing on a stage in the woods. The local government is still trying to shut down all these local camping properties because the government is not making any money from them.
If anyone remembers, there were so many people at Woodstock, that the interstate thruway was shut down because of heavy traffic, and also the main highway up to the area was shut down because of traffic jams. So people ended up ditching their cars on the highway and walking/hitch hiking to Woodstock. The local towing companies were then tasked with removing thousands of abandoned/blocked cars, so the roads could open. Up in the woods in some local areas around Woodstock, there are still hundreds of cars that were abandoned at Woodstock and towed to where they sit today.
