The festival of peace love and music known as Woodstock didn’t actually happen in Woodstock NY, but on a farm in Bethel about an hour outside of the town of Woodstock. The original 1969 concert was concocted by four men in their twenties who wanted to bring people together in a world changing concert event. One fact about Woodstock you may not realize is that you can still see bands play there today. The historic location is home to the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts and although the stage is in a slightly different location and the center seats 5,000 instead of 500,000, there is still a rich history that you can feel as soon as you step foot onto the grass. Read on for some more epic Woodstock facts!
Here are 5 Wacky Woodstock Facts
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- At the first festival in 1969, Jimi Hendrix performed at 9am on a Monday after the festival was intended to end due to scheduling delays. (source) Hendrix and his band received the largest sum of any booked talent, $18,000, which is over $125,000 in today’s dollars.
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- There have been three actual Woodstock festivals planned by the original crew that took place near the original location. (source) The first Woodstock took place in 1969 in Bethel, NY, about 50 miles southwest of Woodstock. The second, in 1994 was right next door in to Woodstock in Saugerties and the third was in 1999 in Rome, NY about 130 miles north of the original location.
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- At the original festival in 1969, three people died. (source) Two from drug overdoses and one from being run over by a tractor. No one died at the 1994 festival and three people died at Woodstock 1999, from heat, a car accident and a heart issue.
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- There was an infamous 17 mile long traffic jam. (source) Cars were delayed for eight hours between New York and White Lake which should have only taken around two hours at most. Many concert goers even gave up and started walking towards the show leaving their cars on the road.
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- In 2018, archaeologists set upon the original Woodstock site and began an excavation. (source) They found what they believe is the original “Peace Fence” which sat in front of the stage. Their goal was to outline the exact location for visitors for years to come.
Featured image photo credit: James M Shelley, 1969. Originally found on Wikimedia.org. Image was resized and cropped. Creative Commons 4.0.
