Moving it to Maryland is an act of desperation by the promoters - there's no connection to the actual Woodstock festival other than the name, and as the article notes, some acts have already pulled out because of the distance change.
There is still going to be a weekend series of concerts at the original site commemorating the festival, which will include some of the artists who were there originally, but attendance will be strictly limited.
http://www.apnews.com/0856a22d42ba42c597d5e54ea0b3c316
About 15 years ago I was vacationing with a friend through that part of NY and didn't realize I was on the same stretch of road that was so jammed with traffic all those years ago that people just abandoned their cars and walked for miles the rest of the way. We saw a sign directing us to the town of Bethel; I turned to my friend and asked, "Bethel? Isn't that Woodstock?"
We took a quick detour and were able to quickly find the festival site, which is now maintained by the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. It's basically just an open field now; they host Farmer's Markets at the top of the hill as well as cultural events from time to time. There is a plaque indicating where the Woodstock stage was and other information about the festival posted around the site. Standing there where the stage was and taking it all in, it wasn't hard to imagine what it must have looked like with 100,000+ people - most of them stoned out of their minds... |
