These two things for me as well. I still have the vinyl album, and I’ve visited the site and also attended a Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson/John Mellencamp concert there in 2009.
In addition, in my work as a salesman of commercial pest control services, I inspected the main buildings on the site and prepared a proposal for preventive services, which I submitted to Bethel Woods management. This would have been around 2013. Didn’t get the sale, though; one of the competitors must have come in cheaper.
I grew up in Kingston, and my parents considered going. They decided against it, having two kids in diapers at the time. Woodstock had a great old movie theater that sold Necco wafers for 25 cents from an old pull-handle machine.
The Woodstock festival wasn’t in Woodstock, NY. It was in Bethel, which is down in Sullivan County, not up in Ulster. However, Bob Dylan lived in Woodstock for a while, and that’s where Big Pink was located.
I used to live near the site, and flew over it all the time when I was a flight instructor. Also ran into Sam Yasgur once at a restaurant. He was Max’s son, and supposedly convinced his dad to allow the festival on his land.
The graveyard security officer at my work was there. He and his friends got there late Saturday night after two sleepless days on the road. I asked him about The Who’s performance–did he see Abbie Hoffman get Kabonged? He said he slept through their whole set. :smack:
Was it still in a messy state when you first saw it? Were there any relics like the stage still there? When did it become as clean looking as we see it today?
I saw it long after the festival, so no artifacts were apparent from the air. But I did see the construction of the present-day Bethel Woods performing arts center. Prior to that it was pretty much another hill among hills in the Catskills.
Frequently when I pointed it out to my students I’d marvel at the fact that not only had something once actually happened in Sullivan County, but Janis Joplin and Jimi freakin’ Hendrix played here!
The local lore is interesting. I’m told that many natives were embarrassed by the whole thing and tried to forget it all. They actively discouraged any tourist interest, which was spectacularly stupid IMHO. The area has pretty much been a depressed, if somewhat scenic, dump for decades. Meanwhile, the town of Woodstock - where the festival did NOT happen - is a tourist destination to this day because they chose to capitalize on the name. To this day people visit there, not realizing the festival took place nowhere near it.
Two coworkers were there. The one doesn’t remember much about the music, but remembers having sex with several women in the mud. The other one remembers most of the music, and never gets tired of telling people about it. It’s clear she had a great time, but doesn’t like to give out any details.
My parents went. My mother recalls a lot of people, music and “shit loads of mud”. My father hasn’t talked about it much at all, not sure he remembers…lol