Robin Williams said it best: "If you remember the sixties, you weren't there." But if there's anything to remember about the hippie-loving sixties, it's Woodstock, the iconic music and art fair of 1969. Some 32 artists--including legends Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and of course, Jimi Hendrix--performed in front of 500,000 people on a few hundred acres of land in Bethel, New York. For years people have tried to recreate Woodstock, but despite their high-profile mud-slathered attempts, none have come close. But this year marks the three-day counterculture concert's fortieth anniversary, and the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts is celebrating by offering a whole season's worth of performers, including Earth, Wind, & Fire, Chicago, Peter, Paul, & Mary, Dave Matthews Band, Brad Paisley, and many others.
The Bethel Woods Center is also home to a museum, which will celebrate Woodstock with exhibits like Give Peace a Chance: John and Yoko's Bed-In for Peace, Rock Heroes: Woodstock-Inspired Selections from the Hard Rock International Music Memorabilia Collection, and even a motorcycle built by Orange County Choppers.
The summer lineup starts June 14 and ends September 26, so there's plenty of time to make plans to get up to New York and celebrate Woodstock, twenty-first-century-style.
Did you go to Woodstock? How do you plan to commemorate the event this summer?
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My 17 year old daughter just did a Power Point presentation on Woodstock and the 1960's for her history class.
I remember Woodstock well, having been to the original in 1969 and the sequential concerts for the 25th and 30th anniversaries. There will never be another music festival like the first Woodstock. Thank you for this beautifully written article, it was the single best time of my life.