|
Sean
McKean
Post
Graduate Student
SUNY
Beyond
the Myth:
A
deeper look at the 1969 Woodstock Festival
Submitted
for History 609/631
Seminar in American History and Public Policy History
Authored
By
Sean
McKean
The host of the Woodstock
Festival, and town of Bethel, New York resident Max Yasgur said, “half a
million kids can get together for fun and music and have nothing but fun and
music.". Attendees of the festival did not let Max Yasgur down, as they
stayed three days without a single violent act. Max Yasgur should have thanked
his neighbors and the National Guard. It is more surprising that residents of
Bethel New York managed to stay peaceful. That part of the story is often left
out. The story of the 1969 Woodstock Festival is based mostly on oral history,
therefore it has largely become a mythical event. It is world renowned as a
successful concert, where the “hippies” proved that free love works. This
interpretation is very common, but clouds the complete history of the concert.
It tells nothing about the profit driven corporation who promoted the concert,
or how the idea for the festival was unmarketable, and found opposition in the
majority of potential buyers. That in the end, the festival obtained necessary
permits through backdoor dealings that defied zoning laws, and ignored local
opinion. The Woodstock Festival was a complete business failure for the
Woodstock Ventures Corporation, a political battle between the local government
and residents of the town of Bethel New York, and was a social success only
because the National Guard and local citizens organized to bring the crowd the
necessary resources.
In
late 1960 there was a growing “counterculture”, largely made up of people
under the age of thirty who were questioning the purpose of American Society.
Michael Wm. Doyle Ph.D. describes the development of this rebellious generation,
“a deep social division known as the generation gap, separated parents from
children, [and] half a million mostly young people removed themselves“. These
“hippies, longhairs, or freaks” as they became known, lived outside cultural
norms. They grew their hair long, attempted to give up capitalistic, competitive
American ideals, and advocated communal living and free love. Many people fear
things they don’t understand, and the new “hippie” culture was no
different.
The
Woodstock Festival attracted “hippies” from all over the United States. The
nearly half-million rock and roll fans, became the largest gathering of
counterculture youths. The musicians brought the counterculture ideals into the
public eye through radio, television, and extensive touring. Their music was
displeasing to the over thirty crowd, therefore it greatly appealed to the new
social group developing from the generation gap. Artists such as Bob Dylan,
Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix, created more than just music, they had a
significant influence on the youth. Many of the Sixties most popular artists
were featured at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. That is one reason why
it is recognized as the culmination of everything the counter culture had
idolized, and proved the drawing power of the music and musicians. Still today
the festival associated almost exclusively with the “hippie” counterculture.
The
idea for the Woodstock Festival developed from the realization that there was a
lot of money to be made from the constantly growing counterculture. Artie
Kornfeld, Michael Lang, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman saw their opportunity to
tap into this market. Roberts and Rosenman were both from wealthy families. They
were two young men searching for something to do with their lives. As John
Roberts explains, “the only problem was that we did not have enough business
experience…. So we decided to solve that problem by taking out an ad in the
Wall Street Journal: Young Men with Unlimited capital looking for interesting
and legitimate business ideas”. Kornfeld and Lang represented the more
counterculture of the four. Michael Lang was an aspiring musician and Artie
Kornfeld was vice president of Capitol Records. Kornfeld and Lang answered
Roberts and Rosenman’s advertisement and together they formed a company called
Woodstock Ventures. This corporation’s first goal was to produce a concert to
help raise funds for a music studio.
The
Woodstock Music and Arts Festival was not supposed to be a protest concert
similar to the “be ins” happening in California during this time. As
historian Michael Doyle explains the “be in” concerts were, “a cultural
form for evoking an alternative community in place, and garnered the
counterculture's first coverage by the national news media. Dozens of be-ins and
love-ins were organized across the country”. The group had set out on this
business venture to make money for a studio. With creation of Woodstock Ventures
Corporation, and the vision of enormous profits uniting the four business
partners, the company began production. As Joel Rosenman explains, “we wrote
up a shareholders agreement among the four of us….that we would take the
proceeds of the festival and build a recording studio”. The whole idea began
because two wealthy entrepreneurs signed legally binding contracts with two
musicians with the goal of becoming even wealthier.
Woodstock
Ventures wanted to gain profits through marketing their concert to the under
thirty-counterculture group. Their hope was that ticket sales would be in the
twenty five thousand range, with the price costing attendees about six dollars a
day, and if the sales even came near 100,000 they would make incredible profits.
This miscalculation became a costly mistake. Costly not only to Woodstock
Ventures, the larger than anticipated crowd caused environmental, travel, and
legal problems for a sizeable portion of New York State. For Woodstock Ventures
it cost millions of dollars as rock journalist Simon Warner explains, “advance
ticket sales had generated $1.3 million and first day sales of $140,000 had
raised the total to 1.5 million, expenses would run close to 2 million.” These
finical problems were only an afterthought for the partners in Woodstock
Ventures, because their first big problem was finding someone, and somewhere
that would allow the festival.
The Woodstock Ventures Corporation’s drive
to produce the Woodstock Festival grew stronger as time continued. Even without
a guaranteed location, advance tickets sales fared well, promotions generated a
good buzz, and mostly everything fell into place. With the exception of where
the actual concert would be. Originally Lang had planned for a site near
Woodstock, New York. The preliminary negotiations fell though because no
landowners wanted to lease their property. Essentially Woodstock Ventures was
not a corporation that people wanted to make a deal with. As the search expanded
beyond the Woodstock area the frustration continued as Rosemnan explains, “we
walked into the room and were essentially stonewalled and kicked out by this
guy, who seemed to be amused by our request to rent his property. He had a
little fun and then kicked us out”. Eventually they met a farmer named Howard
Mills from Wallkill, New York. Mills was willing to let them use his land for
ten thousand dollars. Only because after the concert cleared out, he had plans
to have an industrial park built there.
Woodstock Ventures were accepted at first,
only because the locals from Wallkill may not have realized what type of
business there were dealing with. In Wallkill Woodstock Ventures quickly became
scrutinized by locals for drug use. The company’s administrative
troubleshooter Joel Rosenman, had the ingenious idea of circulating a memo,
which announced it was a company policy to discipline strongly anybody caught
with illegal drugs. Rosemnan thought it would calm the locals. In actuality it
had the opposite effect as he explains, “it just gave them further evidence
that we were a bunch of criminals with long hair. Druggies”. This was the
beginning of the end of the Wallkill location.
The
corporation did everything it could to make Wallkill a success, but it marked
Woodstock Ventures first failure, as local residents soon turned against the
concert. At first the zoning board in Wallkill, had led the corporation to
believe, it would not have problems getting the necessary permits.
When public outcry increased and the town-building inspector refused to
grant permits for the stage, the partners knew they would need legal assistance.
Woodstock Ventures hired Sam Eager, a son of a state Supreme Court justice to
lead their fight with the local government. During meetings with the town board,
local citizens raised many questions about the impact of the concert. Not simply
questions about construction plans and the actual concert, but about how it
affected the families of Wallkill. No matter how many plans, drawings, or
contracts the corporation showed the zoning board, it could not answer questions
of safety, and morality. As the campground coordinator Stanley Goldstein
recalls, “there was a lot of name-calling. There had been threats made that
the Millses were going to be bombed out of the house, that there were going to
be shotguns and pitchforks, and run the hippies out of town. That we were coming
up to infect the whole community with hepatitis and who knows what else”. At
this point Woodstock Ventures had spent over five hundred thousand dollars, and
did not want to lose the Wallkill sight. The government truly did not want
legally allow it and many of the residents did not want any hippy-type people in
their town. The locals solidified their case when they presented a petition of
over fifty -five “violent objectors” at a town board meeting, and the
debates deteriorated into shouting matches. Realizing that the local government
would not budge, the corporation pulled out of Wallkill. Rosenman and Roberts
believed the concert would never happen, but Lang recalled that, “I don’t
ever remember losing hope. There were moments of depression and moments of
reflection and times of sitting outside of town halls wondering about the
American dream and those kinds of things, and do we really have a system of
justice and laws for everyone?” Even though time was running short, in the end
the decision was made to forget about the Mill’s location. Many inside the
business thought all was lost, but Lang’s dedication to the Woodstock Festival
project drove him to find another location.
With the legal battle over in Wallkill,
Woodstock Ventures became desperate, and attempted to find a location no matter
the cost. They put out advertisements, Lang took helicopter trips all over
upstate New York, and eventually they found a farmer from Sullivan County who
was willing to make a deal with the partners. That farmer was Max Yasgur, who
historian Michael Wm. Doyle describes as, “a well respected citizen of Bethel
Township with [an] extensive holding of rolling hills and woodlands. His health
was not good which made him more receptive to deriving income from pursuits
other than farming” With Yasgur’s assistance, the corporation obtained the
appropriate permits from the Town officials.
Although the validity of the permits were challenged heavily by the local
citizens right after construction began.
Many
residents were against the concert, some held fears similar to those in
Wallkill, others felt slighted by the town government. The decision to issue a
permit to Woodstock Ventures, did not include the town’s zoning board, and
ignored public policy by forgoing the necessary public hearing. Many of the
town’s residents came to the realization that the government had it’s own
agenda. Obviously if the town officials were concerned about the public’s
opinions, they would have made Woodstock Ventures apply for permits through the
proper channels. Many felt there would be no help from town officials, so on
July 28th of 1969, three hundred and twenty two citizens of the town
of Bethel signed a petition organized to oppose the concert. The residents saw
no other option, because with construction underway, and time running short they
were demanding the town board to issue a stop order for the Woodstock Festival.
Many residents questioned the motives of some of their government, and
wanted answers about the legality of the permit given to Woodstock Ventures. At
a heated town board meeting on August 1st, the head of the zoning
board tried to explain the situation to the angry town citizens:
the
people in Woodstock Ventures were under the impression that they had the Green
Light. At the informal discussion
July
21, 19
69
after which the green light statement was made, there were no minutes taken nor
was there a vote and no member of the Zoning Board of Appeals was acting in the
official capacity of his membership on this board. As a result of this we in no
way deem ourselves responsible for any action taken, or progress exercised.
This
statement did not answer any questions regarding how a permit was issued. The
zoning board basically stated, that the decision was not made at an official
meeting, and that no member of the board was at the private meeting, therefore
it was not the zoning board’s problem. Citizens now knew that the zoning board
was not to blame and they focused on the town board members.
Fed up with the lack of action from the local government, the town’s
residents took their case to higher level. On August 9th the Bethel
petitioners sent a letter to the Sullivan County Supreme Court. Opposers to the
concert and the town board were hoping that the courts would rule in favor of
the people, and put an end to the concert. The petitioners complied a list of
all the zoning violations, which the town board and the building inspector of
Bethel had allowed. In the letter angry citizens claimed, that the town board
had given authorization to the building inspector to issue a temporary permit,
without the consent of the Town zoning board of appeals. The locals were
desperately trying to enforce a law enacted in 1967 that attempted to “promote
the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of [Bethel].”. Three days
before the start of the concert the Supreme Court set up a hearing to be held.
On August 12th the case went before the county’s Supreme Court, and
after several hours of debates the final decision was in favor of Woodstock
Ventures.. Woodstock was going to happen in Bethel, regardless of how many
zoning laws were broken, and in spite of the over three hundred and twenty two
citizens who opposed it.
Many of the townspeople fought the concert on legal grounds, rather than
relying on stereotypes and verbal threats. Their local government had made a
quick backdoor deal with an outside corporation. The locals felt that their
small town could not handle the huge crowds, regardless if they were one hundred
thousand hippies or one hundred thousands farmers like themselves. As one
citizen clearly argued, “From the standpoint of health, transportation on the
narrow dirt or stone-bedded town road, especially Happy Avenue which abuts my 88
acres will be taxed beyond its physical capacity.” The citizens of Bethel were
put in a very tough spot by their local government. Despite their opposition to
concert, Bethel residents did not threaten attendees or Max Yasgur. As historian
Dr. Doyle explains, “The same spirit of cooperation that was noted among
festival goers was also exhibited by people on farms adjacent to the site and in
neighboring communities, many of whom provided housing, food, and water upon
hearing of shortages at the site.”
Woodstock Ventures didn’t
have time to worry about the legal actions being taken by local residents. Two
days before the concerts start date, people began to arrive, creating new
problems for Woodstock Ventures, and for Bethel. The corporation scrambled to
find a place for all the people and, more importantly their cars. No one was
ready for the early arrivals. Woodstock Ventures planned to have a crew of three
hundred and forty six, New State police officers to help with crowd control.
Unfortunately police commissioner Howard Leary decided to remind all of the
officers, that in 1967 moonlighting regulations had been enacted, which forbid
policeman to have outside jobs involving security. Leary deliberately enforced
this regulation, because he did not want to have any association, with the
Woodstock Festival. By allowing officers to participate in the concert it may
have been assumed that New York State Police supported the concert.
With
no support from the State government promoters had no choice but to use some of
their own already overworked employees. The corporation asked some of the one
hundred workers from the Hog Farm Commune assist with security. The commune had
originally planned to run a free food stand, as well as organize a treatment
center for attendees on bad acid trips. To help with crowd control members of
the Hog Farm labeled themselves the “please force” and threatened
lawbreakers with seltzer and pies. In
the end the lack of state police inside the festival was perhaps a good thing.
The members of the Hog Farm were devout followers of the free love movement.
Their peaceful and brotherly manner was contagious, and served as an example to
other concertgoers.
The State police also tried to sabotage the concert by arriving later
than necessary to direct traffic, a delay that was very costly The week before
the concert, director of operations Wes Pomeroy attempted to set up a plan with
state troopers for traffic control. He tried to explain that massive amounts of
people would soon flood the highway, police officials ignored his warnings.
According to Pomeroy, “I had a firm commitment from these guys that they would
have their people up there at a certain time, and they didn’t show up until
almost eight or ten hours later.” Woodstock
Ventures had over five hundred acres for parking and hired workers to direct
people in. But the police were not there in time to keep the highway traffic
flowing. The blockage began long before the concert was set to begin, and it
truly was the most serious problem as Doyle explains, “It was the first and
only time that the state actually closed a portion of the New York Throughway,
after festival goers, trapped in a seemingly endless traffic jam that in places
featured four, sometimes five columns of vehicles splayed across a two-lane
turnpike, simply abandoned their cars and set off for the festival site on
foot.” Those who abandoned their cars and headed for the concert grounds found
a similar scene when they arrived. Thousands of people were ready for the
concert, but the concert was hardly ready for them.
The
traffic jam that ensued due to the lack of State police involvement became one
of the most notorious problems of the concert because no one inside the block
could get out. This had a terrible effect on the local farmers, especially the
dairy farmers whose milk trucks couldn’t pick up their daily shipments. As one
farmer explains, “ the boys just milked the cows then dumped the milk over the
side.” Many fields were ruined as
attendees
camped wherever they pleased, picked farmers crops, and turned fertile fields
into latrines.
The
overflow of people caused as much financial strain for Woodstock Ventures as it
did for the Bethel Farmers. The corporation had managed to get most aspects of
the concert grounds ready to go. The stage was up and running, they had rented
every available Porto potty (which still was far from enough), and at the last
minute the perimeter fences had gone up. The fences were a short-lived endeavor,
because they simply didn’t do their job. The enormous influx of people merely
pushed through the barrier. It was at this point when the leaders of Woodstock
Ventures took a hard look at the situation at hand. The overwhelming amount of
people coming in and the loss of the fencing, meant there was no way of
collecting or selling tickets. Most concerts have one front entrance from which
the vendor collects and sells tickets. With no perimeter fences, people just
walked in through a hole. The corporation realized it would be nearly impossible
to organize the crowd, and force people to buy tickets. At one point there was a
thought to simply cancel the event, and to tell everyone to go home. This was
far too dangerous, with enormous size of the crowd, no one wanted to start a
riot. Other suggestions were to send collection trays around similar to church,
or they could make an announcement over the loud speaker. These appeared
reasonable, but no one wanted to risk upsetting the mood of the crowd. Finally
they decided to accept their financial failure by ending ticket sales and making
it a free concert. The announcement was made to the crowd by the production
coordinator John Morris, who remembers, “
everybody loved it, it got everybody up, everybody was into it. There’s
nothing like telling somebody whose in the middle of a field of a few thousand
people for free that they’re there for free and it’s ok, But it worked. It
was share with your neighbor and if you got a can of beans and the guy next to
you has a can opener….it was one of the greatest things in the world”.
This
decision beyond doubt led to the financial failure of the Woodstock Event. By
allowing everyone in for free it was no longer business opportunity for
Woodstock Ventures, but an experiment in counterculture society. Woodstock
Ventures succeeded in their goal of having the concert, but failed miserably at
creating a profit.
The
only chance left to make a profit for Woodstock Ventures came from the Food for
Love concession stands, setup inside the concert grounds. Originally Woodstock
Ventures president John Roberts, had hoped to work with the more legitimate
Restaurant Associates, but they had backed out a month earlier. In the end, Food
for Love was hired, due to the fact they were the only ones available, who would
associate with Woodstock Ventures. This became another fiscal catastrophe for
the business. The corporation maintained only two sources of food, so most
concertgoers simply quenched themselves with mostly soft drinks and beer.
The concession stand business failed for many reasons, one being that
many stand workers were trading the company’s food for drugs, and alcohol.
Another downfall of the stands were their overpriced food and consumers were
appalled at being forced to pay for water. The capitalistic concession stands
are linked to the only threat of violence as Roberts recalls “a band of
outraged consumers had organized under a flaming torch and were heading up to
the Food for Love encampment to once and all, get rid of this plague upon the
land, selling them five dollar hot dogs”.
By
the end of the first day the Woodstock Ventures Corporation had to stop focusing
on profits and use all their resources to keep the festival’s crowd under
control. The roadblock had reached its pinnacle, and police and Rosenman had
both tried with no avail to turn away cars that were heading to the festival.
The New York State Government had declared the area a state of emergency, and a
large part of interstate 87 became a parking lot. At first the state government
wanted to take complete control of the situation. Government officials had
planned to mobilize the National Guard and simply clear everyone out. John
Morris, the production’s coordinator, quickly got on the phone and purposed a
new plan, he advised that the best way to help was to send supplies. Since the
crowds had already grown beyond what anyone had prepared for, the major problems
became food, water, shelter from the rainstorms, and medical care. As Time
magazine writer John Dominis explains, “ the festival had the look of a
massive poorly supervised, three day summer camp for city kids. Disaster was
always just around the corner.” Many people had not adequately prepared
themselves, believing that there would be concession stands, or local businesses
available. Even those who did prepare found that once they were inside the
concert, getting back to their car was an impossible task. Not only that, going
back meant losing a spot to watch the concert from
The
state and local governments also proved crucial to providing food and resources.
The National Guard airlifted food and water, the local towns held food drives,
and even local restaurants made sandwiches, which they brought via back roads.
The extra help was actually a bit of overkill, because the Hog Farm actually
took home 700 pounds of extra bulgur wheat. The Hog farm commune had adequately
prepared for the festival, the problem was that not everybody was willing to eat
what the unfamiliar foods they were serving. Also the media created the idea
that people were starving, because they found people hadn’t eaten in a day,
but never asked if by choice. Some concertgoers were simply uninterested in
whether they ate or not as Stanley Goldstein explains, “they were content to
sit in the mud so long as they were in front of the stage hearing the music, and
if they had to leave that particular patch of ground to go get some food, they
weren’t gonna do it” Hunger was definitely not the biggest problem that
Woodstock Ventures dealt with thanks to help from the locals and airlifts by the
National Guard.
The
National Guard played it most important role delivering packages of medical
supplies. The first aid building was very busy treating drug overdoses and bad
trips. Medical teams at Woodstock also dealt with the major problem of cut feet,
which arose due to the high number of people walking shoeless. Still by far the
biggest medical concern stemmed from the rampant drug use. The main drug of
choice for concertgoers was marijuana, but the use of LSD was the most notable.
With no direct police involvement in the concert, drugs were widely available.
Within the first twenty-four hours, people suffering from unhealthy reactions to
drugs comprised one third of the one thousand people seeking medical attention.
The large percentage of people at the concert taking LSD caused some problems,
but it also may have kept things in control. Asides from those attendees on bad
acid trips, the LSD helped users tap into the feeling of brotherhood among
attendees. It also focused them on the music rather than the situation around
them, and no doubt help keep morale up throughout the concert
Since
no profits had been made from concert, even after the concert ended the
financial problems continued to grow. The mess left behind by nearly half a
million people, took more than two weeks to clean up. The corporation hired a
cleaning crew, but could not afford to pay the workers at the end of the job.
Eventually the cleaning crews were sent checks, but at the time they received
only enough money to send them home after the cleanup was over. The corporation
was also responsible for brining Max Yasgur’s farmland back to a useable
quality. This was a daunting task because the rainy weekend did nothing but
increase the damage to the farmer’s fields. After everything was cleaned and
packed up, Woodstock Ventures could put the concert behind them.
Even
after the concert ended, residents of Bethel still wanted answers from their
local government. Many still wanted to know about why the concert was allowed to
proceed. Residents who knew that a temporary permit had been issued expected
answers from the town zoning board, which existed to prevent catastrophes such
as the concert. At a town board meeting on September 2, residents questioned
building inspector Donald Clark so he could explain what happened. He told the
upset citizens, that with the advice of the Town Attorney, he had issued the
permit according to local zoning ordinances. Clark’s account was seconded by
the planning consultant, who claimed that the festival fell under a special uses
provision of the zoning laws. The town board next discussed how they would
prevent this from ever happing again. The Town Supervisor stated that the local
government now realized the town could not handle such gatherings. The town
board agreed that another meeting would be held to discuss changes to the zoning
laws. As well as call a public hearing to discuss the proposed changes with the
town’s residents. Finally the town justice thanked all the people of the town
for their help and cooperation during the festival.
Many
Bethel citizens continued to organize around the issue of the concert even after
the September 2 meeting. Still discontent with the local government,
“concerned citizens” of Bethel posted an advertisement in an October issue
of the Catskill Shopper. The advertisement called the Woodstock Festival “ the
biggest political swindle since Boss Tweed, the biggest drug and sex orgy since
the Roman Empire, the biggest pile of filth since the sewers of Paris” The
advertisement also posed ten “who dunnit” questions. The “concerned
citizens” asked why their local government and law enforcement had ignored
public outcry against the concert. They wanted answers about why the New York
State Health department processed a permit in a few weeks, when it usually took
a minimum of several months. This advertisement published the day before the
next town meeting implored residents to come ask their own questions.
Bethel
citizens received only a few answers, and only from local officials at the
October 2 meeting. The meeting began with discussion of the new plan to outlaw
gatherings of over one thousand people. The town attorney thought the plan
needed some improvements, so he suggested it be turned over the town planning
board. This resolution was seconded voted on, and passed by citizens who felt
the planning board was unjustly left out of the Woodstock decision. The meeting
turned personal when the town board read excerpts from the inflammatory Catskill
shopper advertisement. The town attorney asked each person whose name appeared
on the advertisement, if they truly believed the wild accusations. All of the
accused responded affirmatively, but also stated that being questioned in that
manner upset them. The town attorney, in order to control rising tension,
reminded the crowd that a court stenographer is writing everything that was
said. Next the advertisement was read in full to the crowd of citizens. After
the town attorney had finished reading, an angered citizen spoke up, reminding
attendees about what Bethel had suffered during Woodstock, and asked if the
board had an answer for the advertisements accusations. Finally the town
attorney admitted that the Town Board had no power to issue the permit. Town
Official did not take full responsibility as they explained that the building
inspector had good reason to believe the permits he gave were covered in the
special zoning provision, that he issued tickets to Woodstock Ventures, and the
fines had been paid. The meeting
ended in a stalemate. The local government took some blame but basically avoided
accusations by promising that measures would be taken to prevent further
situations.
These
empty words did nothing to repair destroyed farmland or to replace gallons of
milk lost due to blocked shipping routes. Many farmers had threatened both the
Town Board and Woodstock Ventures with lawsuits. Most of these suits were simply
dropped while others lost in court. Many
were outraged at everyone for the damage done to their property. Others blamed
their government but sympathized with the concertgoers, realizing that they too
were promised adequate conditions by Woodstock Ventures.
The
economic and political story of the Woodstock Ventures Corporation, Bethel and
the Woodstock Festival is as important as the social. The events chosen for this
paper are not meant to tarnish the image of the festival, or to belittle the
cultural significance of it. Nothing can change the fact that overall the
festival was a social success. But these events are significant because they
show a different side of the story. It is important to see the festival for more
than just a gathering of young people celebrating counter-culture ideals and
listening to some good music. The festival has significance because Woodstock
Ventures found ways to get around local laws and regulations. The corporation
learned from the Wallkill experience, and knew what town officials they needed
to convince to let them in. Bethel town officials ignored the public outcry
against the concert because a business promised them fame and fortune. Many
residents attempted every legal way to stop the concert from happening. In the
end the local government decision couldn’t be changed and the citizens were
left with the consequences. The complete story of Woodstock is also significant,
because it exemplifies the tension between the conservative generation, which
was fading and being replaced by the growing liberal/counterculture group. The
New York State Troopers showed this animosity when the two deals were broken. If
the troopers had arrived on time to direct the traffic, a huge crisis would have
been averted. In Wallkill the hostility shown towards Woodstock Ventures’
hippy employees caused major problems. If the corporation had adequate time to
construct the fairgrounds the concert would have sold out, and never become the
free concert that it is world renowned for.
The political and economical story of Woodstock makes it appear less of a
myth and more of a story of counterculture entrepreneurs attempting to be
successful against all odds. The story is not complete without recognizing that
many citizens of Bethel fought the corporation in every legal way possible, and
found that in the end they were powerless. The Woodstock Aquarian Arts and Music
Festival, was not peace, love, and happiness for everyone, for some in Bethel it
was destroyed fields, lost milk, and a local government that turned its back on
its citizens.
Works Cited
General
Works:
Bennet,
Andy. Remembering Woodstock, Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2004
Collier,
Barnard. “Tired Rock Fans Begin Exodus,” The
New York Times, 18 August, 1969
Dominis,
John. “The Big Woodstock Rock Trip; Hundreds of Kids Mob Catskill
Mountain Farm,” Life , Vol .67, Issue 9, 1969,
Doyle,
Michael Wm. Ph.D. Statement on
the Historical and Cultural Significance of the 1969 Woodstock Festival Site,
Indiana: Ball State University, 2001
Fosburgh,
Lacey. “346 Policeman Quit Music Festival,” New
York Times, 15 August, 1969
Makower,
Joel. Woodstock: The Oral History, New York: Bantam DoubleDay Dell
Publishing, 1989
Navraez,
Alfonso “Bethel Farmers Call Fair a Plot to Avoid the Law,” The
New York Times, 20 August, 1969
“On
This Day”, (August 18, 1969), http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/:
(accessed March 19,
2006)
“Ruckus
erupts as rock fete rocks Wallkill”, The
Times Herald Record, 13 June, 1969
Winslow,
Albert “Show will go on, rock fete promoters boast”, The Times Herald Record, 15 July, 1969,
“Workers
Who Remain Unpaid Still Cleaning Rock Festival Site”, Special to the New York Times, 28 August, 1969
Bethel
Archive Sources:
organized by date
August
1, 19
69:
Town Board Meeting, file 241, Office of the Bethel Town Clerk, White Lake, New
York
Camp
Chipinaw Inc., to Supreme Court of the State of New York, Sullivan County,
9
August, 1969. Petition by Camp
Chipinaw, Office of the Bethel Town Clerk, White Lake, New York
September
2, 19
69:
Town Board Meeting, file 243, Office of the Bethel Town Clerk White Lake, New
York
43
Callicoon Center, New York. “Catskill Shopper”,
October 1, 19
69: Vol 3, No 16
October
2, 19
69
1969: Town Board Meeting, file 245, Office of the Bethel Town Clerk, White Lake,
New York
Used with permission.
Edited for this website.
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