The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, N.Y., hosts internationally known musicians and performers. The center is located at the top of a hill overlooking the site of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair.
By the time I got to Wood- stock, it was 41 years gone, but everywhere was the rem-inder of song and celebration.
Besides two outdoor amphitheatres, the institute houses a psychedelic museum documenting three days of peace, music, and mud in the New York countryside that became one of the defining moments in late- Sixties pop culture. Visitors walk through a decade captured in multimedia exhibits.
To understand the lasting meaning of Woodstock, you have to consider the time. Social revolution was happening in every aspect of society. The decade had been full of momentous events – man set foot on the moon, major political figures were assassinated, and music was reinvented as the language of a generation.
Enter four lads from New York City with the idea of staging an arts and music fair. Less than 30 days before the event, the festival was moved to Max Yasgur’s dairy farm outside of Bethel. They expected 150,000 attendees, not nearly 500,000. To the governor, it was a disaster; to others, it was a garden party. By opening day, Friday, Aug. 15, 1969, the infrastructure was only partially complete, and there were 175,000 fans on the hillside waiting to hear music.
Of the 30 artists that performed over the weekend, Creedence Clearwater Revival was the first band to agree to play. The Who played a 24-song set beginning at 4am on Sunday morning. Jimi Hendrix played a 19-song set to a crowd that had dwindled to approximately 40,000 hearty souls early Monday morning.
The museum immerses visitors in the sights and sounds of the unique event. Just as the Academy Award-winning documentary film solidified the festival’s place in history, nine short films tell the festival’s story. The museum is a combination of history lesson and nostalgia. It’s an unblinking look at the three days, and at the end it asks: “Was it just a three-day vacation devoted to fun, music, and self-indulgence?”
For many who attended the event or dreamed they did, Yasgur’s pasture called them back every year to reminisce, even when access was impeded. Now it is part of the art center’s grounds and open to the public. Standing at the Woodstock monument near where the stage was, it all looks so much smaller now.
In 1996 Alan Gerry purchased the site, and in 2004 the Gerry Foundation began building the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. The museum opened in 2008 and has collected physical and audio memories from the festival and is developing an alumni registry.
Bethel Woods Center for the Arts and the Woodstock museum are about seven miles outside of Bethel, N.Y. For more information, go to www.bethelwoodscenter.org.
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This article appears in November 19 • 2010.
