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Woodstock
Aug. 15, 16 & 17, 1969
NBC photo
August 15, 2005 -- The Woodstock Music & Art Fair began 36 years ago today at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, N.Y. I had seen an advertisement in the July 27, 1969 Sunday New York Times Arts section, and ordered tickets -- $18 for all three days.
Twenty years later, I was lifestyles editor of The Providence Journal, and the task of doing the 20th anniversary package fell to me by default. I interviewed 50 other Rhode Islanders who were also there, and published a 3-day series on the concert.
Part One: Your neighbors may be natives of Woodstock Nation
Part Two: The music went for 24 hours
Part Three: We had pulled it off
Sidebar: Who actually played at Woodstock
Sidebar: An interview with Wavy Gravy ("...breakfast in bed for 400,000")
Editorial: The Providence Journal, Aug. 19 1969.
1989, Bethel N.Y.: The paper sent me back to Woodstock for the 20th anniversary, but not much was going on. Nevertheless, I hitchhiked out Saturday night to file for Sunday's page one from a pay phone in a bar. It was next to a blaring jukebox, I was using acoustic couplers ("rubber duckies") and the low-battery light on the Radio Shack laptop was flashing. Amazingly, it worked. Over the course of the next week, I saw wire stories suggesting the real action in Bethel was still building. On a hunch, I drove back to Bethel the following weekend, and filed two more stories.
8.13.89: Back in the mud at Max Yasgur's farm
8.19.89: Back to the garden: Crowd gathers at original site to recapture past
8.22.89: Woodstock II: Better than ever
Aftermath:
1994: Rather than go sit in the mud again for the 25th anniversary, I wrote an essay for the Sunday Magazine comparing Woodstock and the Web:
1999: The Journal's Century Project revisited the '60s, and again I was hauled out to comment. It's mercifully brief.
Other links:
Woodstock '69: Dozens of photos by Elliot Landy
1969 Woodstock Festival & Concert
Woodstock '69 Lives
Wavy Gravy
2005:
News from Bethel:
Is there still magic at Yasgur's Farm? (Aug. 14, Middletown, N.Y. Herald-Record): Remembering the 1989 reunion.
Woodstock just 'a party' (Aug. 14, Middletown, N.Y., Herald Record) The current owners of the farm are still fighting the permit police.
Were you there? Were your parents there? Anything you want to add? How do you view that time now, so many years down the road? Please comment...
Woodstock
