"The Watkins Glen site is further afield, about 30 miles west of Ithaca."
Haha. If you've reached Ithaca, you're already afield my friend. Watkins Glen isn't exactly a stretch.
We used to drive hours to work shows at Levon Helm's place in Woodstock. He'd give you a concert and a meal if you cleaned up for him afterwards. You'd usually get back just in time for Hal's Deli to start serving breakfast. Nothing like fried eggs and latkes after an all-nighter.
I'm a little too young for any of the "Woodstock" Woodstocks. I remember Billie Joe Armstrong getting pelted with mud in '94. All I remember about '99 was riots and water shortages. I don't really need to watch the original. I've been to music festivals that weren't a commercial enterprise.
That's the real problem with all the major festival these days. You have a surplus of rich urbanites looking for an culturally authentic experience but they aren't quite willing to let go either. I mean... Kanye was at Bonnaroo. What is that about?
The silent stages and the shaving parlors and the aging headliners and the RVs and on and on and on. Burning Man was never my thing but even Burning Man is an embarrassment these days.
If you don't know how to find a music festival worth travelling, I'm not going to tell you how to find one. Woodstock 50 probably isn't the answer though.
If Lang wanted to make Woodstock "Woodstock" again, there wouldn't be any ticket fees. There would be no one to work the ticket booth.
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Who is this guy kidding? Woodstock 50 will be nothing even close to the original; audience members will make up a sea of cell phone lights as young people check Facebook, Twitter, etc.....no one will be present in the way they would have been in 69. Sure, bring hundreds of thousands of people together, hire talent, and you have both a concert and a money making machine. But you don't have Woodstock. Not even close.
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Ted-Talks in Bethel, NY? In Woodstock?
I'm going to get back to the land and let my soul free.
Beam me up Scotie. I've found intelligent life here.
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Woodstock is in Bethel NY, never in the town of Woostock
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My parents didn't let me go to the original. Maybe this time they will.
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Just another example of our endless need to bathe in nostalgia for a romantic past that never really existed, and of our perennial willingness to pay for the privilege.
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For some perspective, 50 years before Woodstock, World War I had only recently ended. The year 1919, if baby boomers thought about it at all, fell under the heading of Ancient History.
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@Richard - True, but 50 years doesn’t always equal 50 years. 1969 is much closer to 2019 than it was to 1919 in terms of culture and technology. I recently asked my kids a related question, whether they considered the 1980s to be really long ago (reminding them that it was 30 years ago). I was relating it to how the 1950s was the Stone Age to those of us growing up in the 1980s. They said “Nope. The 80s is modern time.” I suspect it’s because even in the 80s we had jet airplanes, personal computers, modern rock music, and fairly modern cars. We have kind of “plateaued” as a society in many regards. Just think about how teens today gobble up popular 80s music. By contrast, in the 80s no kids were singing along to Buddy Holly songs.
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