Here & There Column 3-4-08

Remembering Some Of
The 69 Woodstock Festival


A homage to the era that spawned the famous 1969 Woodstock Festival that in turn put the Town of Bethel on the map will be unveiled in several months with the official opening of the Museum at Bethel Woods.
And as he always does, Alan Gerry has taken the proper steps to make sure that the Museum will be a cultural institution in its own right.
Alan's professional approach to transforming the entire Bethel Woods Center for the Arts into what it is today has directly put the Town of Bethel and Sullivan County on the musical map of the world.
The Museum at Bethel Woods is a cultural institution in it own right where visitors will be able to see, hear and feel the era of the 60's and where they will see the history of the three-day festival and its legacy.
We are personally looking forward to the Museum where I hope to be able to relive my three to four day experience while working at the site as a report-photographer for the Times-Herald Record which at that time I believe was just called The Record.
I remember there was no Sunday edition of The Record at the time of the 69 Woodstock event and the event became such a "happening" that a special Sunday edition was printed.
Once our contingent of several reporters got into the site there was no easy method to get out.
Remember fairly well flying over the mass gathering in a helicopter, what a sight to see.
The drugs and all that was taking place there made a young reporter writing a story feel like he was in a fantasy land.
Some folks just couldn't believe what we were writing but it was real and something this columnist will never forget.
Remember well the process we used for getting our film out of the Bethel site to the Middletown office of The Record. Since travel in and out of the site was not possible with an automobile the paper hired someone with a motorcycle and that's how film was taken to Middletown.
We even helped out medical personnel and doctors in the Medical Tent for those who overdosed and others with various injuries (cuts, bruised and broken bones)..........and this was a tough experience to later write about.
The 69 Woodstock festival story within the Museum will be told with video, audio, artifacts, wall panels and huge color murals that show how the psychedelic culture merges with the ideas of civil rights and protest, amidst confrontations taking place in the world at that time.
The Museum will definitely be a major draw in its own right and thousands and thousands of visitors will come to see what the 69 Woodstock Festival was all about.....another important step that will more than help the Sullivan County economy.