In light of Woodstock’s golden anniversary, and considering the daily vibe we are facing across the country these days, I would like to vent a little regarding human nature, mysticism, religion, hatred, and love. Living near the Woodstock site, and knowing many people who REALLY were at the original, it’s safe to say it was a part of my life from the beginning, hearing stories, not as tales, but as some kind of mantra, a mystical incantation depicting a Shanghai-la, an event that was so much more than a concert, (all that glorious music), it was an event that changed lives. It took me many years to fully understand. There are so many parallels between the summer of 1969, and the summer of 2019, how can we have come so far, and yet learned so little? Coming from a time when the nation was torn apart by Vietnam, the violence and horrors of Kent state, the missing boys in Mississippi, the subculture of height-ashbury, the drugs, the sexual revolution, the Beatles and the British Invasion. All the unrest. Everyone was running somewhere, protesting something, fighting unseen enemies, a boogeyman lurking around every corner. Sound familiar? The clean living, nuclear suburbania of the 50’s was dead. People were restless, pissed off, peripatetic, dirty, stoned, and in love, and more free than they had ever been. Woodstock was the culmination of a decade that had seen all these things and more. A pinnacle. It had come in with patty duke, and gone out with Jimi Hendrix and Vietnam. No one knew that the scene of one little old music festival would change the world, becoming synonymous with peace and love in the face of so much adversity. They would soon find out! When half a million kids and young adults came, (like on some strung out Mecca,) ten times what was expected,. as if by instinct, following an inner compass, they made the journey. so many came because they knew it was the place to be, knew it would change the future, and knew on some level things would never be the same again and it was time to say goodbye to the past and welcome the here and now. The New York thruway was CLOSED DOWN. Imagine such a thing, all the hundreds of thousands who never got close, but still felt compelled to try. Moths to the mother of all flames. at the beginning the residents of the county were very narrow minded and anti hippy culture, (except max!) and this wasn’t due to any hatred, but just lack of exposure. This would soon change. By the time it was over, the residents had become fans of the kids, many opening their homes and organizing food drives, to help feed what had become the second biggest city in all of New York. There was no food, no water, no beds, heat, rain, and endless mud, and without realizing it, suddenly, the most beautiful thing happened. Peace broke out. Everyone got along, no crime, no violence, no fighting. In such a turbulent time there was no war, no national guard, no racism, no hate. Strangers shared with one another, helped each other, fed each other. The residents of the county that had been so against these kids coming, gathered all the food they had in their homes, made sandwiches, gathered hundreds of thousands of eggs and got 400,000 kids fed. For a brief moment they were able to prove that all they had been fighting for all those years was actually possible. Attainable. It was working! They had stumbled on the secret recipe to utopia. Some say it was the time, some say it was the people, some think the music played the biggest part, and yes, I agree, it played a big part, but I think there are certain places in the world where magic exists. Where energy lines meet. Where monuments to ancient gods are erected, trying to honor and immortalize that feeling of being one with the universe. I wonder if the builders of Stonehenge felt what those who stood in that muddy field 50 years ago felt? In the years that followed, the land has faced much controversy, and I was lucky enough to experience a bite sized piece of what it must have been like. The 25th anniversary was met with a total obstruction, no one was going to be permitted entry to the then private land. Like 25 yrs prior, that was not to be the case. Sound stage was donated by billy vine and mike Shapiro who had done shows under the name snowH productions for the concord for many years, and the calling went out to performers. Around 59,000 people came. Arlo Guthrie, Melanie, and Ritchie havens came. (I met them all several times, but that’s a different tale), sha na na came, and soft parade and countless others. All for free, just to be a part of it. Some to get a first taste, some to revisit a lost time. Food pantry’s went up. Roads were closed due to traffic. Police walked around, chatted and joked as people smoked pot, sang, slid in the mud, and just played like children. Innocent. In the shadow of the “other” Woodstock that ended so violently in 1993, I’m sure they were expecting more of the same, but it was different. I can’t explain the feeling of warmth and love and freedom we experienced, it was like nothing I had ever felt before or since. There was a mix of original attendees and newbies, and I know it seems odd, but it was like they were passing the torch... giving us the secret keys to the magic garden.. and once again, there were no fights, no deaths, no crime, strangers helped strangers, people fed each other. The army provided medical teams once again.. and we proved that it was NOT a fluke, it COULD be reproduced, yes on a smaller scale, but still, the magic was there. I look back at my Woodstock moment, and think about the original, and compare the state of the world both then and now and am forced to ask myself, is all the hatred real or is it merely manufactured by groups in power who know if they keep us at each other’s throats, they can keep control? Have we glimpsed the very top rung of the ladder of secrets they so fully protect? When left to our own devices, people don’t give a SHIT about race, or political affiliation, or religion, all of those things, hatred too, are all taught and perpetuated by the media. People WILL help and love each other, but it can NOT be mandated! I was lucky enough to grow up with the great music and stories, and later to take a small bite of my own Woodstock utopia, and live to tell the tale. While I firmly believe there is magic in that field, I can’t help but believe there is magic in the heart and soul of all of us because I’ve seen it. That is what Woodstock was, is, and always will be. Fifty years from now, or one hundred, those three days will mark the time in history when despite us being at the end of one of the most violent decades in our nations history, half a million kids came together and showed the world what was really possible...
It was a great time of my life 18 years old and Woodstock 1994 was once-in-a-lifetime event. From Columbus ohio wish I could go back but all we have left is memories and photos of this wonderful weekend
I was there and at the original Woodstock. I had a couple beers with Country Joe at a small micro brewery bar in Boulder Creek, CA before the 25th anniversary.
Melanie was a friend of ours and got us on stage to do a couple of our songs. My husband played guitar and i sang. I was so nervous as we were doing the music my husband wrote and didn't know what the ppl would think and wow they LOVED us. Melanies granddaughter took videos of us for us. Our little boy was also onstage with us. Then we hung out with Melanies brother who loved our music and with Arlo Guthrie. Was like going back in time.
Summer of 1994 my coming of age right of passage included this concert as well as my first pagan festival, also in Upstate NY called Starwood. At this concert, we got shut in by all the other cars after we arrived. My mom's boyfriend at the time was a music journalist who had backstage passes to both the reunion show as well as the Pepsi "Woodstock" that was going on at that other site. We could not leave this one after arriving. I experienced my first Shakedown Street scene, buying blotter acid also a first. After consumption, I ended up wandering onto a double decker bus where an older guy with a white beard and ponytail named "Sunbear" offered me some tea. We sat and talked about life for a bit, then he pitched me on the idea of living with him. I told him I have a stepmom and go to high school in Ohio, thus I could not accept the offer jjjj. Also remember tagging a white van with a Sharpie marker - "LSD is grooooooovy EMI '94"
I remember hearing Ritchie take the stage as I drove in. I took the back way having worked late everyone else was there already. I lied and kept telling cops I had to find my 13 yr old sister and kept getting waved through. I parked ten feet behind stage
![KRK - ชนิสรา Ft.WanMai , N/A [Official MV] Prod. By Sakarin](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/C-WMwwYobcU/mqdefault.jpg)
In light of Woodstock’s golden anniversary, and considering the daily vibe we are facing across the country these days, I would like to vent a little regarding human nature, mysticism, religion, hatred, and love.
Living near the Woodstock site, and knowing many people who REALLY were at the original, it’s safe to say it was a part of my life from the beginning, hearing stories, not as tales, but as some kind of mantra, a mystical incantation depicting a Shanghai-la, an event that was so much more than a concert, (all that glorious music), it was an event that changed lives. It took me many years to fully understand. There are so many parallels between the summer of 1969, and the summer of 2019, how can we have come so far, and yet learned so little? Coming from a time when the nation was torn apart by Vietnam, the violence and horrors of Kent state, the missing boys in Mississippi, the subculture of height-ashbury, the drugs, the sexual revolution, the Beatles and the British Invasion. All the unrest. Everyone was running somewhere, protesting something, fighting unseen enemies, a boogeyman lurking around every corner. Sound familiar? The clean living, nuclear suburbania of the 50’s was dead. People were restless, pissed off, peripatetic, dirty, stoned, and in love, and more free than they had ever been.
Woodstock was the culmination of a decade that had seen all these things and more. A pinnacle. It had come in with patty duke, and gone out with Jimi Hendrix and Vietnam.
No one knew that the scene of one little old music festival would change the world, becoming synonymous with peace and love in the face of so much adversity. They would soon find out!
When half a million kids and young adults came, (like on some strung out Mecca,) ten times what was expected,. as if by instinct, following an inner compass, they made the journey. so many came because they knew it was the place to be, knew it would change the future, and knew on some level things would never be the same again and it was time to say goodbye to the past and welcome the here and now.
The New York thruway was CLOSED DOWN. Imagine such a thing, all the hundreds of thousands who never got close, but still felt compelled to try. Moths to the mother of all flames.
at the beginning the residents of the county were very narrow minded and anti hippy culture, (except max!) and this wasn’t due to any hatred, but just lack of exposure. This would soon change.
By the time it was over, the residents had become fans of the kids, many opening their homes and organizing food drives, to help feed what had become the second biggest city in all of New York. There was no food, no water, no beds, heat, rain, and endless mud, and without realizing it, suddenly, the most beautiful thing happened. Peace broke out. Everyone got along, no crime, no violence, no fighting. In such a turbulent time there was no war, no national guard, no racism, no hate. Strangers shared with one another, helped each other, fed each other. The residents of the county that had been so against these kids coming, gathered all the food they had in their homes, made sandwiches, gathered hundreds of thousands of eggs and got 400,000 kids fed. For a brief moment they were able to prove that all they had been fighting for all those years was actually possible. Attainable. It was working! They had stumbled on the secret recipe to utopia.
Some say it was the time, some say it was the people, some think the music played the biggest part, and yes, I agree, it played a big part, but I think there are certain places in the world where magic exists. Where energy lines meet. Where monuments to ancient gods are erected, trying to honor and immortalize that feeling of being one with the universe. I wonder if the builders of Stonehenge felt what those who stood in that muddy field 50 years ago felt?
In the years that followed, the land has faced much controversy, and I was lucky enough to experience a bite sized piece of what it must have been like. The 25th anniversary was met with a total obstruction, no one was going to be permitted entry to the then private land. Like 25 yrs prior, that was not to be the case. Sound stage was donated by billy vine and mike Shapiro who had done shows under the name snowH productions for the concord for many years, and the calling went out to performers. Around 59,000 people came. Arlo Guthrie, Melanie, and Ritchie havens came. (I met them all several times, but that’s a different tale), sha na na came, and soft parade and countless others. All for free, just to be a part of it. Some to get a first taste, some to revisit a lost time. Food pantry’s went up. Roads were closed due to traffic. Police walked around, chatted and joked as people smoked pot, sang, slid in the mud, and just played like children. Innocent. In the shadow of the “other” Woodstock that ended so violently in 1993, I’m sure they were expecting more of the same, but it was different. I can’t explain the feeling of warmth and love and freedom we experienced, it was like nothing I had ever felt before or since. There was a mix of original attendees and newbies, and I know it seems odd, but it was like they were passing the torch... giving us the secret keys to the magic garden.. and once again, there were no fights, no deaths, no crime, strangers helped strangers, people fed each other. The army provided medical teams once again.. and we proved that it was NOT a fluke, it COULD be reproduced, yes on a smaller scale, but still, the magic was there.
I look back at my Woodstock moment, and think about the original, and compare the state of the world both then and now and am forced to ask myself, is all the hatred real or is it merely manufactured by groups in power who know if they keep us at each other’s throats, they can keep control? Have we glimpsed the very top rung of the ladder of secrets they so fully protect?
When left to our own devices, people don’t give a SHIT about race, or political affiliation, or religion, all of those things, hatred too, are all taught and perpetuated by the media. People WILL help and love each other, but it can NOT be mandated!
I was lucky enough to grow up with the great music and stories, and later to take a small bite of my own Woodstock utopia, and live to tell the tale. While I firmly believe there is magic in that field, I can’t help but believe there is magic in the heart and soul of all of us because I’ve seen it.
That is what Woodstock was, is, and always will be. Fifty years from now, or one hundred, those three days will mark the time in history when despite us being at the end of one of the most violent decades in our nations history, half a million kids came together and showed the world what was really possible...
It was a great time of my life 18 years old and Woodstock 1994 was once-in-a-lifetime event. From Columbus ohio wish I could go back but all we have left is memories and photos of this wonderful weekend
I was there. Crazy to see this
I was there and at the original Woodstock. I had a couple beers with Country Joe at a small micro brewery bar in Boulder Creek, CA before the 25th anniversary.
Melanie was a friend of ours and got us on stage to do a couple of our songs. My husband played guitar and i sang. I was so nervous as we were doing the music my husband wrote and didn't know what the ppl would think and wow they LOVED us. Melanies granddaughter took videos of us for us. Our little boy was also onstage with us. Then we hung out with Melanies brother who loved our music and with Arlo Guthrie. Was like going back in time.
I was there. I also went to the 20th reunion in ‘’89. Thanks for posting this! Good times!
Summer of 1994 my coming of age right of passage included this concert as well as my first pagan festival, also in Upstate NY called Starwood. At this concert, we got shut in by all the other cars after we arrived. My mom's boyfriend at the time was a music journalist who had backstage passes to both the reunion show as well as the Pepsi "Woodstock" that was going on at that other site. We could not leave this one after arriving. I experienced my first Shakedown Street scene, buying blotter acid also a first. After consumption, I ended up wandering onto a double decker bus where an older guy with a white beard and ponytail named "Sunbear" offered me some tea. We sat and talked about life for a bit, then he pitched me on the idea of living with him. I told him I have a stepmom and go to high school in Ohio, thus I could not accept the offer jjjj. Also remember tagging a white van with a Sharpie marker - "LSD is grooooooovy EMI '94"
It was Great I was There !!!!!
Same... amazing 👏 time. Unforgettable
I remember hearing Ritchie take the stage as I drove in. I took the back way having worked late everyone else was there already. I lied and kept telling cops I had to find my 13 yr old sister and kept getting waved through. I parked ten feet behind stage
So proud to say, I was there. 0:41 That was me in the tie-dyed shirt on the top of the scaffold, holding the rope attached to the tarp.
I was there 👍
good stuff. thanks bernard.
bethel means house of god
It looks just as muddy as the original.