Today was the day that I have been waiting for. The one thing that I wanted from this trip across the US. WOODSTOCK! It was as wonderful as I could have imagined. Since I was in high school, I’ve been wanting to visit the festival site and today we did it! It was a 3 ½ trip one way, so a long day in the car. But that was ok.
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair took place in Bethel, NY. It was originally planned for Woodstock, NY, but there were problems with permits, etc so it ended up at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, NY. It was a 3-day festival beginning August 15, 1969. Today is the 56th anniversary, so it’s a fitting day to visit.
The site of Woodstock is now the site of Bethel Woods Performing Arts Center and the Bethel Woods Museum. You can actually see concerts there today with the original festival site in the background. The museum opened in 2008. The museum has information not just about Woodstock, but of the 1960’s- including digging into the political, social and cultural events that defined the 1960s and that brought about the iconic music of the 60’s. All of which brought people together for that 3-day concert in Bethel, NY. I am very thankful for the Rock and the Counterculture class I took my second year at Ripon College.
We took highway 17B to get to Woodstock and that is one of the highways that became a parking lot when so many people showed up and they ended up just leaving their cars and walking to the festival grounds. So many people and cars and buses that the performers had to be flown in by helicopter. I tried to get some pictures to give an idea of where the music stage was and the slopping hill that so many enjoyed the music from. It does not do it justice. It’s just an amazing place. We met people who were at the concert. One guy said he’d just gotten off a plane from Europe and headed straight there. There are quite a few volunteers at the museum who were at the original Woodstock. If this is something that interests you, I’d highly recommend it.
We have some pictures from watching the sun set on Lake Ontario yesterday. There were a lot of people there sitting on the rocks and outside the ice-cream shop waiting for the sunset. It was a beautiful evening and the sunset was amazing. Pictures can’t quite capture it.
Joe’s heading over to Bev’s Dairy Treats for an ice cream tonight. Tomorrow is a 52-mile day. We did notice an awful lot of hills as we traveled around New York today. We will see what the future brings.
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