50 years on: The Generation still defined by Woodstock. Photo / Getty Images
50 years on: The Generation still defined by Woodstock. Photo / Getty Images
Last month plans for Woodstock 50 – a commemorative festival the marking a half-centenary since the 1969 music event – imploded in a muzz of controversy, confusion and millions of misspent dollars.
"Peace and love" are now far from the mind of Woodstock revivalists after the festival and its headlinerspulled the plug on the event with just weeks to go.
The site of the original festival site, now Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, will instead be a small-scale commemoration. This will be a strictly ticketed event.
Under the close watchful eye of New York State Troopers and with road-checks set up to intercept visitors, the atmosphere is far removed from the Woodstock love-in that happened in August 1969.
Fifty years ago today, 450,000 people descended on the site in chaotic scenes of traffic jams and mud. Event organisers were swamped by over ten-times the expected crowd turnout, many of whom would not be constrained by anything as deeply "un-groovy" as buying a ticket.
50 years: Woodstock organisers were swamped by 450,000 attendees. Photo / Bill Eppridge, Getty Images
This weekend, local officials are expecting around 100,000 to roll up anyway.
What awaits them is a maze of ticket barriers manned by state troopers and an army of tow trucks waiting to remove illegally parked vehicles.
"These agencies, they are informed, they are detailed and they are efficient," said Town of Bethel Supervisor Dan Sturm, who told the Poughkeepsie Journal that his department started planning crowd-calming measures eight months ago.
Field of dreams: The Woodstock Concert grounds in Bethel will not be inundated by mud and crowds. Photo / Getty Images
The Sullivan County Sheriff's Office would appear to be far better prepared than the organisers of the ill-fated festival.
"We're trying to encourage people that are not interested in the concert-side of things, and just want to come and sort of breathe the air and feel the vibes … to come on other weekends," Bethel Woods CEO Darlene Fedun told the Associated Press.
Mellow out: The Bethel Woods Art Center has become a tourist attraction. Photo / Bobby Bank, Getty Images
The site of Woodstock has become a tourist attraction, with Route 17B lined by stores flogging tie-dye trinkets. Bethel Woods itself is marked by a sculpted plaque detailing the events of the 1969 festival.
The show will go on, albeit in far smaller and tamer scale.
A contingency concert has been organised for August 15-18, that will feature some of the original acts.
Ringo Starr and Carlos Santana will headline shows at Bethel Woods' modest 16,000-capacity pavilion with a screening of the Academy-award nominated film Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation.
Those attending may have mellowed out and be well into their 70s, but it's this site and event that continues to define them.
