My Woodstock 50th Anniversary Diary

Bethel Woods, Wednesday 14th August 2019

This is a special day - my first visit to the sacred ground, the field at Bethel in upstate New York, where the 1969 Woodstock Music & Arts Fair was held, in all its catastrophic glory.

 I've travelled a long way for this, from New Zealand, via Hong Kong and the UK; an eight week tour culminating in this pleasure pilgrimage to where the mother of all festivals took place.

As I have travelled around, a lot of people have been asking me if I was at the original Woodstock. Well no, I was 10 years old and living in England. But like many others of my generation, I am imbued with the spirit of peace, love and music. I grew up listening to the music of the 1960s and a great deal of it has stayed with me. Reading Michael Lang's book The Road To Woodstock took me closer to how this amazing event unfolded during 1969. I'm fascinated by it and have always wanted to come here and see it for myself.

One of New York's legendary jazz clubs

I spent last week, prior to coming upstate, in New York City having business meetings and visiting favourite haunts. One of the things I love about New York is you can see top musicians playing in small clubs virtually any night of the week.

One night I went to see the Bill Frisell Trio at the Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village. Wow, those guys are good. They improvised around half a dozen tunes for 90 minutes straight - no between song breaks, just one tune merging into the next seamlessly. That's impressive.

This morning I packed my things ("suitcase and guitar in hand") and caught the Trailways bus from the Port Authority bus terminal at 42nd Street. The bus headed north along the Hudson river, up to the town of Woodstock.

As many will know, this is not where the 1969 festival was held. The organisers of 'Woodstock' had planned to open a recording studio in Woodstock town and had the idea of holding a festival there to promote the studio. They imagined encouraging local musicians, including Bob Dylan, to record at the facility. That plan didn't come to anything, but the four individuals involved in 'Woodstock Ventures' decided to pursue the festival idea.

The house where I stayed in Woodstock town

It was the Age of Aquarius and the proposed festival was billed as 'An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music'. No one could have dreamt it would become a moment that defined a generation.

But it nearly didn't happen at all, after town officials in Woodstock and landowners in nearby Saugerties closed ranks to block the festival plan. Woodstock had been an artists colony since the 1920s, but even before the festival was proposed, local people were complaining about the number of long hairs who were camping out on public land in and around the town. Lang and Co's festival idea was nipped in the bud. 

Arrangements and infrastructure development for the festival were more advanced in the town of Wallkill, before that too was voted down by local councillors, all wary of the long-haired freak invasion.

With only a few weeks to go, the organisers found an alternative site - the perfect bowl at Bethel, 40 miles west of Woodstock - and a sympathetic dairy farmer, Max Yasgur, who rented them the land for their festival. The rest is all laid out in the movie and the books. Ang Lee even made a movie - Taking Woodstock - about the bizarre circumstances that brought the promoters to Bethel. It's a story of blind devotion and blind luck, showing that peace, love and music can overcome most anything. 

So I'm staying one night at an Airbnb here in Woodstock town. The house is owned by a local lady who lives alone with her cats, surrounded by paintings and many sculptures created by her late father. It's rustic, laid back and bohemian.

On the road to 'Woodstock'

This area of upstate New York is actually little changed from 50 years ago. The main highways are maybe a little wider and the trees have grown taller, but the houses - in that distinctive Catskills style - are still the same, all quite spread out. The region is mainly farmland, with mountains and forest in close proximity.

During the week, the area is very quiet. There is not much local industry and many of the houses are only occupied at weekends by people coming up from their jobs in the City.

Someone told me that as many as 60% of homeowners in Woodstock are weekenders. So the local tourist trade and events in the wider area, such as the Bethel Woods concerts, are a big deal for the local community.

Now an official 'historic place'

This afternoon I'm driving over to the festival site. It's the day before the festivities are due to begin and I'm driving south west about 40 miles to the town of Bethel.

As I get nearer, I begin to recognise the gently rolling highway 17B I've seen in photos, that leads to the White Lake community which Bethel is part of.

I arrive at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts - the site of the 1969 festival - to collect the necessary entry and parking passes. Security will be tight in the immediate vicinity during the weekend, to prevent a repeat of what happened in '69, when half a million people turned up, many of them without tickets.

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts was created in 2006 after the 800 acre site was acquired by a local entrepreneur.

The '69 festival field, with the new pavilion in the background

It takes inspiration from and commemorates the Woodstock generation, while taking that spirit forward in a wide-ranging community arts and learning centre.

It's really impressive what they've done, in preserving the original festival field and restoring some of the areas around it, like the Bindy Bazaar and the trails in the woods where many of the 1969 concession stands were.

The view across the bowl in '69

I wandered across to the festival field. It's a breathtaking vista, even though I've seen it a thousand times in photos.  This hallowed ground is relatively quiet today, with the site still being prepared for the weekend's festivities. There's a special vibe, provided by the people milling around the monument and in the festival field itself, many of whom were here in 1969.

The festival field from the monument at Bethel

Walking across the field, halfway down the hill towards the stage area is a big 5-0 (with the zero as a peace sign) mown into the grass. There I met two people, Jeannie and Van, who had met up on the road to Woodstock in '69. She was 16 years old and had run away from home in Atlanta - she didn't say why. He was a bit older, maybe late teens and picked up Jeannie and her friend who were hitch-hiking.

They arrived two weeks before the festival began and attached themselves to the different groups who were supposed to provide food and facilities. During the festival, Jeannie helped out with supplying food, not as part of the legendary Hog Farm, who worked for free, but as one of the contracted suppliers, Food for Love who, it transpired, were hopelessly under resourced to feed 400,000 people.

Van and Jeannie, veterans of Woodstock '69

Van worked as security - again, not as part of the Hog Farm's 'Please Force', but as a paid employee of the festival organisers. He got $138 for the weekend, which would have been pretty good money at the time.

They lost touch with each other after the festival. Jeannie stayed on to help with the clear up and ended up providing childcare to a family in nearby Monticello before moving back down south when the weather got too cold.

By the wonders of the internet, Jeannie and Van made contact again after 40 years when Van spotted Jeannie in an online chat about Life Magazine's Woodstock special edition.

They are both named in the credits at the end of the Woodstock movie. The 50th anniversary week is a special occasion for them and they are making the most of it, by sharing their memories. Jeannie was carrying with her a folio of pages from Life Magazine's original report on Woodstock. She is the girl in the photos.

I met several other people today who were at the festival in '69, all of whom spoke fondly of the spirit in the crowd, despite the conditions they endured over the weekend, with the lack of water, food, adequate toilet facilities - and any way to escape! Everyone said how well behaved people were and that there was a sense, even then, that they were part of something historic.

Me on the '69 festival field, Sunday afternoon - just before the concert, the sky turned black

There were periods of rain on Friday night and Saturday morning. Although the weather was mostly warm and sunny on the Saturday in 1969, the Life Magazine photos really convey just how bedraggled those who stuck it out became after the big storm on the Sunday. Later on in my weekend, I would get a vivid illustration of how dramatic the weather can be in these parts. 

Thursday 15th - Woodstock, Bethel and Livingston Manor

I drove back to Woodstock and stayed one night there, just to get a feel for what the town is like. A guy I met in Bethel yesterday told me "Woodstock never left the 60s" - and he has a point.

Woodstock town

The main street’s over-riding theme (tie-dye t-shirts, peace and love) is the 1969 festival. The locals claim now that the spirit of Woodstock resides here, which is ironic in view of the fact they didn't want the freaks there back in '69.

Woodstock the town is home to many artists and musicians, some of whom told me how much they enjoyed the lifestyle here. They manage to scrape a living. Like many towns in the area, Woodstock would be quite depressed if it weren't for the links to the festival and the resulting Airbnb and taxi trade. But for old hippies, it's a home from home.

Arlo Guthrie, 50 years on from his first visit

Thursday night back at Bethel there was an official opening evening, with live music from Arlo Guthrie and the plan was to show the Woodstock movie on the festival field. Arlo's set included some old favourites like 'Ukelele Lady', his old man's song 'This Land Is Your Land' and a fine cover of Bob Dylan's 'Gates of Eden'.

Here's a link to Arlo's set:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W36wI5UBKE

The pavilion and lawn at Bethel Woods

The weather altered plans for a showing of the movie on the field though, with a thunder storm moving in that evening. So the film showing shifted to the Pavilion, where the concerts are held nowadays.

It's a fine auditorium, open at the back and sides in a natural bowl, but the movie fell a bit flat with the weather closing in, and people began to drift away. 

I did too, just in time to meet a (rare) Uber driver as the mountain sky became lit up by lightning. With an electric storm passing overhead, marshalls at the Bethel Woods centre were very keen that we should all move indoors. I had to obey their orders and was pleading with my Uber driver by text to wait for me. Eventually I made a run for it through the storm to meet up with the driver on 17B, since they wouldn't allow him onto Hurd Road. It was a pretty dicey ride through the storm back up into the mountains to my next Airbnb. I'm amazed we found it, frankly.

My accommodation at Livingston Manor

Friday 16th
It's pretty wild where I'm staying in Livingston Manor, 20 miles north of Bethel. It's bear country and there's plenty of other wildlife here too. Some of the best fishing in the country apparently.

The lady I'm staying with is originally from Taiwan, so we chatted about the troubles in that part of the world, with Taiwan and Hong Kong both at odds with big brother on the mainland.

Her chief problem here at the house is dealing with the beavers who continually dam up her ponds and risk flooding the area when it rains. Though she really doesn't want to, she may be forced to bring in someone to exterminate them.

The pond and beaver dam at bottom left

After a peaceful morning in this wilderness, to lower my blood pressure after last night, I picked up my car and drove back to Bethel, where the Woodstock anniversary weekend kicked off in fine style, with music from Blood, Sweat & Tears, the Edgar Winter Group and headliner Ringo Starr with his All-Starr Band.

The weather was kind - a clear blue sky and low humidity meant that tie-dyes and all manner of retro-hippy garb were on display. Everyone carried a positive vibe - I was among friends.

I wore my 1969 Abbey Road 50th anniversary t-shirt, bought last month when I was in London and visited the famous studio in St John's Wood. (Almost 30 years ago, I met my wife at the apartment block on the other side of the road, across the famous zebra crossing).

I sat with some lovely people for the show tonight; like me, who grew up with the Woodstock movie and were heavily influenced by the music of the late 60s and early 70s.

An appropriate shirt for Ringo's show

Blood, Sweat & Tears were really good, with their distinctive horn section and big band swing feel. BS&T played at the original Woodstock festival in 1969 and were playing almost the exact same set as they did then.

Actually, it was just like listening to their first album. Smiling Phases, More and More, And When I Die, Spinning Wheel etc. Good start.

This is BS&T doing the Laura Nyro song 'And When I Die' at Bethel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU5ohS76Nqw

Edgar Winter was quite brilliant. I was a big fan of the 'White Trash' and 'They Only Come Out At Night' albums back in the 1970s and he started his set with 'Free Ride' - such a great song.

Edgar's a consummate showman and his interactions with the young guys in his three piece band - all really good musicians - were very entertaining. Of course, they finished their set with Frankenstein, Edgar on key-tar, sax and percussion.

Here's a link to the Edgar Winter Band doing 'Frankenstein' at Bethel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFs4keBPMRU

There was talk that Paul McCartney might appear as a guest with Ringo, but I wasn't holding my breath, which was just as well, because he didn't.

Ringo's show is as much a showcase for his band as it is a chance for Ringo himself to sing a few tunes. For this show, Gregg Rolie, the keyboard player with Santana (and later, Journey), was given pride of place, since he had performed here in '69 with Santana.

Gregg Rolie, another Woodstock veteran

Gregg spoke about the impact of playing "over there", pointing to the festival field - just as Santana were about to release their first album (it was released on August 30, 1969).

The Santana songs played by Ringo's band were Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman and Oye Como Va, with Toto's Steve Lukather doing the Carlos duties.

Here is their take on Oye Como Va
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anjxVN_0NGU

The good thing about the Ringo show is that every tune is a big hit and there's a lot of variety. Other highlights included Colin Hay's two contributions from his Men At Work days, 'Down Under' and 'Who Can It Be Now'. The Average White Band's Hamish Stuart's led an excellent Pick Up The Pieces. Lukather did Toto's Rosanna and Hold The Line.

Here's a clip of them doing 'Who Can It be Now?'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHm7vXs__7c

Ringo did all his hits and, at times, his was a bit of a cabaret act compared to the others, so it was probably well-judged that he took his seat at the drums for much of the show. His finale of 'With A Little Help From My Friends' was excellent, though.

Here's the clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYpn6zn576w

A great night of music. Looking forward to Saturday night with Santana and the Doobie Brothers.

Richie Havens faces the crowd who had waited many hours for the music to start on Friday in 1969

Saturday 17th

Before the show today, I visited the Bethel Woods museum, which contains a wealth of memorabilia from 1969 and some revealing artefacts, such as papers regarding the negotiations for the festival. It's clear the organisers went to great lengths to placate the locals, some of whom were against holding the festival in the area and threatened to boycott Max Yasgur's dairy. This archive is mixed in with contemporary history, for those too young to know the political background of 1960s America.

Dan (in the yellow shirt) and Pete, on the bus

There are also exhibits from some of the lesser-known official photographers at Woodstock. Here I met Dan and Pete who attended in '69 as 16 year olds up from Florida.

They are pictured here atop a psychedelic bus. Dan explained that when the rains came, they were taken under the wing of a bunch of students from Berklee who owned the bus and allowed them to hide under it during the rainstorm.

Tonight raised the bar musically, with two of my favourite bands. I'd always wanted to see the Doobie Brothers and they delivered one hell of an opening act for Santana. All the hits and a few choice album tracks such as 'Clear As The Driven Snow' from the 'Captain and Me' album. Played crisp and true to the originals, and with Bill Payne from Little Feat on keyboards too. The crowd loved every minute of it.

Here's one of the encore songs - Blackwater:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsg-QFkU_Tk

My shirt for Santana's show, bought in Woodstock

The festival vibes were also raised on Saturday. Last night I had seats in the covered area, but tonight I was on the lawn, which it turns out is party central. I put down my Mexican rug, to match my Mex-Afro shirt and met some lovely folks!

The weather intervened for a short while and just before Santana took the stage it started to rain quite heavily. Then the video screens started showing the rain dance from the Woodstock movie and tonight's crowd joined in with the chant - WOAH-OOOOOO!!

Then the lights went up and Santana launched immediately into Soul Sacrifice - just like on the Woodstock album - what an entrance!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q-JDkfsLgI

And it stopped raining!

Santana's show was a stunner - wave upon wave of great music

Santana's show is tremendously varied in musical style, including rock, latin, jazz, reggae, afrobeat and rap. Carlos likes to acknowledge all the greats that have influenced him: John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, The Grateful Dead etc, and he works in these many musical themes and riffs into his set.

Santana devoted the early part of the set to material from the first albums - a rousing Jingo Lo Ba and Evil Ways, as well as Soul Sacrifice from the first album; Black Magic Woman, Oye Como Va and Hope You're Feeling Better from Abraxas. He threw in some snatches of Welcome and Borboletta too.

"How many people here are on acid?" enquired Carlos. "Or Mescalin? Give me some!"

Their set was like a musical history lesson. At one point they did Bob Marley's 'Exodus' and 'Get Up, Stand Up', then Jimi's 'Voodoo Chile'  and later on they did a little bit of 'Miss You' by the Rolling Stones.

Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' has been a feature of his set for many years, but Carlos always finds a way to keep the music fresh. His son Salvador is one of the singers and proved to be an accomplished rapper. Cindy Blackman (Mrs Santana) on the drums sang and played John Lennon's 'Imagine'. There was so much to absorb and enjoy.

Santana at Woodstock in 1969. Their first album had just been released

Carlos talked to the audience a lot about Woodstock, the special spirit of those times and how important it remains.

He didn't hold back in his view that Bethel and the spirit of Woodstock is "the real America, not the bullshit politicians, liars and hate speech peddlers."

He concluded the show with a message of peace and brotherhood, before playing out with a cover of The Youngblood's 'Get Together'.

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

Carlos Santana leaves you in no doubt that he still has the fire and he can put on a fantastic show.

Here's another perspective on the Santana show at Bethel.
And this couple travelled to see Santana in a vintage hippy bus.

Sunday 18th

And so we come to the final day of the 50th anniversary, the hottest day of the week weather-wise, punctuated by a thunder storm just prior to showtime, which curtailed Grace Potter's opening act. Most people came prepared - this area is prone to some fairly dramatic weather, as we saw in 1969. Later in the evening, John Fogerty quipped "400,000 people and no one brought an umbrella"!

Kiki on the festival field as the storm approached

I was joined today by Kiki - an American friend from when we both lived in Hong Kong. We parked up and were about to walk down the 69 festival field when we saw this huge black cloud loom over us. The site stewards insisted everyone had to take cover, so we rushed into one of the merchandise tents (more tie-dye shirts, magical rings and incense) until the storm passed.

I have seen Tedeschi Trucks Band before, at the Beacon Theatre in New York City two years ago and they were amazing, a big band covering a wide range of blues and jazz-tinged rock. So I think they were perfect to play at Woodstock, because their act is often dotted with songs from the era.

They really hit the high notes when they played the old Woodstock-era covers, because they do them so well. They kicked off the set with their take on 'Soul Sacrifice'. They also covered 'The Letter' which went down well with the crowd.

Here's a clip of TTB doing their own song 'Don't Know What It Means' followed by 'The Letter'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI6BvDgwPj8

Tedeschi Trucks Band, right at home at Bethel Woods

They dotted their set with other Woodstock-era songs, including John Sebastian's 'Darling Be Home Soon'. Another highlight was their rousing version of Sly Stone's 'Sing A Simple Song' and 'I Want To Take You Higher'.

Here's the full clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP_mtmehCaQ

Headliner John Fogerty didn't disappoint on the covers score either, doing a really excellent job on Joe Cocker's 'With A Little Help From My Friends'. It was a bit surreal hearing the keyboard intro played note perfect from the Cocker version. The backing singers added a welcome touch of gloss.

Here's the cover of 'With A Little Help From My Friends':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2GkaZ1AlJk&list=PL_BMMYxYUtQPCco7EVD3zQmOuFUjrYJ3a&index=4

Fogerty was full of surprises, including an unlikely triumph on Sly Stone's 'Dance To The Music'. His son Shane, on lead guitar, even did a passable version of Jimi Hendrix's 'Star Spangled Banner'.

In between songs, Fogerty made jokes about how it was CCR's bad luck to follow the Grateful Dead on stage late at night in '69 (here's a link to CCR's set). The Dead, it is universally agreed, played a rotten set, fuelled by copious amounts of LSD and spooked by the threat of electrocution after the rain storm. Creedence Clearwater Revival were undeterred, but the Dead had put everyone to sleep. Fogerty was for years unhappy with having to play to a sleeping audience, although those who were there say people were still awake, in spite of the Dead.

The concert footage of CCR from 1969, see link above, shows that Fogerty was clearly unhappy with the stage sound and is constantly looking across to the sound engineer, at one point saying, "Can you turn that thing on, is it on now?" presumably referring to a stage monitor. 

It's hard for modern day performers to fathom how hard it was for singers to hear themselves properly back then, before the advent of stage-front monitors.

John Fogerty giving it the full psychedelic stage look

Anyway, tonight there were no such vibes and Fogerty gave us the full range of Creedence's hits. 1969 was the year of CCR, with three albums released that year. I believe they out-sold everyone but The Beatles. So you name it, they played it and rocked the house.

It was a perfect way to end this special weekend. Cue the streamers and fireworks. Well done everyone!

This whole pilgrimage to the 50th anniversary was worth every cent. The set-up at Bethel Woods really does capture the Woodstock spirit. They have done a great job in preserving the original festival field and building a new facility around it. Other festivals may try to cash in on the Woodstock name, but this place is where the Woodstock Generation can rightly call home.

I hope to get back to the garden one day.

We are stardust - We are golden - And we've got to get ourselves - back to the garden

1969, during and after, from the gatefolds of the Woodstock and Woodstock 2 records

The festival field 50 years later in August 2019