The Location | The Music | The Venue
In this review, we will try to tell you our experience and what we feel would have made the event a better one.
To us "Woodstock" is a public entity and should be observed in every state in the year 2000, as a celebration of music across the nation. Smaller crowds would mean less problems. "Woodstock" is a cultural icon and should be observed nationwide. There are 50 states and each could have a different weekend for their state. It would increase tourism tremendously and give everyone a chance to participate. Take off 1 week for Christmas and one for Thanksgiving. Each state could use this as part of their millennium celebration.
We met some really interesting people, like "Love 22". Yes, he even had a photo ID to prove it. He is the World Frisbee Champion and did all sorts of tricks and knew many ways to conjure up the number 22. He drew large crowds when he put on his spontaneous show around the grounds. And we saw license plates from every state except Hawaii and Alabama. They may have been there, but we missed them.
I guess how you feel about this year's event will be based primarily on your initial expectations. We loved it in the RV area but, the tent camping area was so compact that I don't see how anyone could have really enjoyed themselves. It was especially bad for those that had tents along the trails leading people to the stages. The dirt trails to the venue left tents covered in dust as the thousands proceeded by. And by Sunday afternoon hundreds of tents and other belongings were just left behind.
People had no where to really escape the heat. I even caught a girl dumping the trash out of a barrel so she could lay it down and try to find shade. Under trucks, plastic canopies, beside buildings and some even chased the blimps' shadow to try and find relief for a moment. Of course, some did mud sliding or covering up in it. And some opted for quick relief in the rain rooms. The only suggestion here would have been open-sided tents for shade, but it would have taken a lot to make a difference. Some kids feigned heat trouble to get inside the shaded medical tents, away from the sun and get free water when funds were exhausted.
But the biggest problem was TRASH !!! It started slow but grew quickly and multiplied. There were too few canisters and they never came close to being emptied enough. In fairness, it would have taken an army of hundreds to have even made the trash situation better and the only thing that would have really made a difference was the concert-goers themselves.
I must commend the New York State Troopers outside the venue and the Peace Patrol inside for their efforts. I didn't see one fight at the event nor any police harassment. The tow truck business looked like they did all right too, as a lot of people decided to just park anywhere and learned the hard way. Rome, New York should especially be proud. The businesses and people took us in and treated us very well. They said, "It was like a parade", as the concert-goers passed the townspeople sitting in lawn chairs watching the procession onto Griffiss.
We can only apologize for those that chose on the last night of the event to be malicious. We're not sure if it was the "mixture" of groups attending and playing that could have set things on their course or the fact that these folks had been geared up for three days, had just had a dose of "Red Hot Chili Peppers" and then been told to "go home", it's 10:00. Maybe if the concert had ended with a more mellow note and later…. Things may have been different. But things are learned at every event and they were this time as well.
Having read, viewed videos and tapes and heard about the original Woodstock, it is amusing to note some of the differences in our culture today:
