The Woodstock 1969 Concert Location in Bethel New York - Max Yasgur Farm That Changed Music History
Woodstock 1969 Location in Bethel NY
Transcript
0:01
welcome everyone
0:02
adam the woo here as the recording of
0:03
this sunday june 26th
0:06
2022 i'm standing here on a bridge
0:09
i will be heading
0:11
this direction to bethel
0:14
new york currently just on the outskirts
0:16
of hancock new york this very small
0:18
community
0:20
35 miles or so from where i am standing
0:23
drinking a piping hot caffeinated
0:24
beverage is the site
0:27
of a historic
0:28
music event that happened in august 1969
0:37
by the name of woodstock
0:37
was not in woodstock new york originally
0:39
it was going to be there but there were
0:41
some
0:42
issues with the location and it ended up
0:45
being moved
0:46
to a farm in just on the outskirts of
0:49
bethel i've never been there i'm
0:51
inviting you to join me
0:54
shall you
0:57
about 30 miles down that road
0:59
i'm pretty excited about this and the
1:01
river i was just standing over is the
1:04
delaware river
1:05
i'm not in the state of delaware i'm in
1:07
the state of new york
1:08
but it is given that name the upper
1:11
delaware
1:13
scenic byway
1:14
new york state route 97
1:17
so i am there where that little
1:20
red dot is
1:21
and i will be traversing down
1:23
and then veering off and going over here
1:26
to the bethel woods center for the arts
1:28
which is the spot
1:30
of woodstock
1:32
right there on the outskirts of bethel
1:36
woodstock is about an hour hour and a
1:38
half from here fun fact it wasn't in
1:41
woodstock and as i cruise along this
1:43
road i try to put myself in the
1:45
perspective
1:46
of those going
1:48
not the direction the motorcycle is
1:49
going but the way up
1:56
they are leaving the area that i am
1:56
going to
1:58
but basically this road was one of a few
2:01
different accessible
2:04
ways up to the music festival
2:07
that became basically a parking lot
2:10
traffic was so backed up
2:12
that they
2:13
just left their cars here and walked
2:16
traversed in
2:20
40
2:20
what am i saying 40. 400 000 people
2:24
some estimates half a million people
2:25
showed up in reality i don't know the
2:27
exact spot where everyone
2:29
left the their vehicles probably was a
2:31
little closer to the
2:34
the real spot i'm still probably another
2:35
20 miles away
2:49
and not deal with the traffic jam so it
2:50
just turned into
2:51
a bunch of cars sitting along the along
2:53
the thoroughfare
2:55
and the musical acts had to be
2:56
helicoptered and supplies had to be
2:58
helicoptered in
3:00
they told the locals they were expecting
3:02
about thirty to forty thousand but the
3:05
organizers were expecting about two
3:08
hundred thousand they had sold a lot of
3:10
tickets
3:11
the event eventually became free
3:14
more on that later but they kept it
3:16
under wrapped if they sold 200 tickets
3:18
and the locals thought they were going
3:20
to be you know 30 to 40 000 people 10
3:22
times that many
3:24
showed up 400 000 by some accounts
3:26
definitely some beautiful countryside
3:29
out here
3:34
a lot of bridges
3:34
and scenic beauty and that's looking out
3:36
the other window
3:45
just cross through basket and here's a
3:45
photo an example of that traffic jam i
3:47
was referring to everyone just sitting
3:48
on their cars and
3:50
they're not sitting on the car they're
3:51
just walking it into the festival
3:53
a lot of people i'm passing through
3:55
calacune now
3:57
a pretty cool little town
4:05
this little hotel here a railroad town
4:05
at the train station right over here
4:12
i like it
4:12
that's a real beehive of activity down
4:14
here that hotel what i thought was a
4:16
hotel is really a pub restaurant
4:23
cala is the name of this area
4:23
they've had movies here since the 1940s
4:25
at this theater
4:27
still open and now approaching
4:30
the town of bethel
4:51
straight ahead drove up another mile or
4:51
so
4:52
and how random is this
4:56
a muffler man
4:58
here in another
5:00
field
5:01
another farmland
5:18
was not expecting to see one of these
5:18
out here near the woodstock site
5:21
still a couple miles away
5:23
it's just right here off this
5:24
thoroughfare
5:34
and it looks like some of the local
5:34
businesses are embracing the theme the
5:38
country store here
5:40
and the post office
5:42
here in bethel
5:44
as a recording of this it's a sunday
5:46
so the store is not open but you can see
5:48
the peace sign
5:50
right there
5:51
now turning off the road i was just on
5:53
onto heard road which is very familiar
5:56
to me over the course of my life i've
5:58
always seen photos from this event and
6:00
watched a lot of the documentaries and
6:01
videos and whatnot
6:04
and this road definitely rings a bell
6:06
and where i'm going is to bethel woods
6:09
center for the arts sign right there
6:15
up this direction there appears to be a
6:15
museum on site
6:17
i parked over in the lot
6:19
and here's a general layout of the land
6:29
okay
6:29
festival historic site there
6:32
yazger's farm cafe yasgar was the farmer
6:35
who gave them permission
6:36
thanks to him this event was able to
6:38
take place
6:39
and that cafe was named after him he's
6:41
passed on many years ago
6:43
and there's also a little
6:45
sculpture over there of some sort all
6:48
right go find this can't really see it
6:49
from the road as best i can tell
6:52
i mean i didn't drive down there but
6:54
from this angle it looks like it's kind
6:55
of obscure so i'm not sure if there's an
6:57
admission fee
6:58
or anything
7:00
but there is this placard
7:02
music festival side august of 69 has
7:05
been placed on the national register of
7:06
historic places
7:08
back in 2017 well it took him a long
7:10
time
7:11
to get on the national register
7:14
which means this whole area cannot be
7:16
changed it'll be here for future
7:17
generations to see
7:20
all right it looks as if i could just
7:21
walk in that gate the gate is open
7:24
this says meet me at woodstock and you
7:26
can see
7:27
the sheer magnitude well it's just part
7:30
of
7:31
the magnitude of the crowd
7:37
the interesting thing about this is the
7:37
design
7:39
of the hillside
7:40
which is part of the reason they really
7:41
wanted to use it i mean obviously thanks
7:44
to the the farmer for letting them use
7:46
it
7:47
but the acoustics
7:48
of the slant
7:50
of the lawn really help so the stage
7:53
will be off over that way
7:54
and it should still look the same modern
7:56
day the wind is blowing the sign
7:59
they either just had an event or setting
8:02
up for a future event there's some tents
8:04
down here
8:05
the stage over here
8:13
that's kind of neat
8:13
imagine seeing a concert or being a
8:15
musical act that could perform at the
8:17
spot of the original woodstock
8:20
that'd be pretty dang neat this arrow is
8:22
guiding me to peace overlook
8:39
wow look at this massive valley down
8:39
here oh wow okay this is cool
8:42
imagine yourself in a crowd of almost
8:45
half a million
8:47
people
8:49
i like that they did this you are here
8:51
so at the moment
8:53
i'm standing right there where this
8:56
little section here is in the food for
8:58
love area
8:59
looking down so you see the incline
9:02
of the hillside there was also the bindi
9:06
bazaar which would have been
9:08
over that way
9:10
and then you got all the backstage where
9:12
all the musicians that were flown in and
9:13
they kind of went up
9:15
to go on to the stage and the stage
9:17
would have been down
9:18
at the bottom of this hill this massive
9:21
incline so the stage
9:23
was right down there
9:25
yeah i like that they did this
9:27
so you got
9:28
me right up here
9:29
where this yellow arrow is
9:32
stretching across here
9:34
i mean obviously the people went way
9:35
farther out than what is even pictured
9:37
on this because they were over here in
9:39
the bindi bazaar and then scattered up
9:42
here you can see all the tents
9:44
which would be
9:45
over that way and then
9:47
the main stage area
9:49
right there there's also a message tree
9:51
starting on friday afternoon august 15th
9:53
and going to a monday morning it was
9:55
going to be a three-day fest but ended
9:56
up being four days because of the rain
9:58
450 000
10:00
people came to this hillside
10:03
the stage was the bottom of the hill to
10:04
the right six towers made of yellow
10:05
construction scaffolding held lights
10:08
which people climbed up on
10:10
and they were kind of in that area there
10:17
so right right over there is where the
10:18
stage was
10:20
i'm gonna walk down there
10:34
sign this is just kind of mind-blowing
10:34
you know it's an event that i've always
10:35
heard about
10:36
i've seen so many different videos on it
10:39
the history of it
10:40
it's like unavoidable
10:42
one of the most well-known concerts ever
10:44
to be put on in existence
10:47
happened right here
10:49
not meant to be of the magnitude and the
10:50
size
10:52
that it was about half a million people
10:54
later
10:56
history was made and on the back side of
10:58
what i was just looking at and reading
11:00
is the fifth fly just went around me is
11:02
the 50th anniversary back in 2019 making
11:05
this the 53rd coming up
11:07
in about a month will be the 53rd
11:09
anniversary
11:11
originally i think it was seven or eight
11:12
dollars to get in per day
11:15
eighteen twenty dollars for the entire
11:16
weekend
11:17
and once the people putting on
11:20
the event and the concert realized that
11:22
they did not have enough time because of
11:24
the shifting from the original location
11:26
was gonna be in woodstock and then to
11:27
another area this was going to be the
11:28
third spot
11:30
don't quote me on that
11:31
they did not have the time
11:33
or the resources sources or the money to
11:36
build both a stage and fences so they
11:39
opted out of the fences and they made
11:40
the event free
11:42
word spread
11:44
earlier in that week and by wednesday
11:46
there were already tens of thousands
11:49
of people camped out here even two days
11:52
before the festivities
11:54
originally began
11:56
and word throughout the nation
11:58
spread that this was going to be a free
12:00
event
12:02
and people came out in droves
12:04
so many in fact that they said another
12:06
half a million couldn't even get here
12:08
they had to put out
12:10
you know press releases and
12:11
advertisements and the word on the
12:13
street out across the nation
12:15
do not show up here
12:17
there's no way you can make it because
12:19
of the traffic jams
12:21
and there just was no room on the roads
12:23
to get in here
12:25
wild
12:26
looking at another photo so the stage is
12:29
there that tree line is about to point
12:31
the camera at the tree line
12:33
but just look at the sheer magnitude
12:36
of that crowd
12:39
and obviously that was taken from a
12:41
aerial perspective but that's kind of
12:44
the angle so the stage is just down over
12:45
the little berm there
12:48
looking up on the hillside
12:50
of that crowd that stretches way past
12:52
those tents
12:53
and to what now is
12:55
the modern day museum
13:01
so many great documented moments from
13:01
that like janice joplin backstage seeing
13:04
the crowd and saying to whoever was
13:06
standing near well there's like a
13:08
paraphrasing there's a lot of people
13:10
here
13:11
i was not alive that i was born in 74
13:13
five years prior
13:15
there i cannot even imagine what it
13:17
would be like
13:18
to have the memory saying i was a
13:20
woodstock
13:22
i that's what a what a moment
13:28
i mean that's something
13:28
that's a conversation at a party that
13:30
would
13:31
give you a lot of traction
13:37
i don't know what traction what but it
13:37
would be a
13:38
conversation starter is what i mean
13:41
oh look there's a peace sign over there
13:43
in that little dip
13:59
man that's so cool
13:59
i'm just letting it sink in
14:01
think about it
14:03
there was no room anywhere this was just
14:05
people upon people upon people no elbow
14:08
room everyone
14:11
smushed in here having a good time
14:12
enjoying
14:15
a few days of music
14:17
something that had never been done by
14:19
this magnitude by a lot by
14:21
leaps and bounds the biggest
14:23
congregation of people
14:24
to watch live music
14:32
sitting along here sometimes standing
14:32
along here
14:34
the stage right there
14:47
wow
14:47
jimi hendrix rendition of the
14:49
star-spangled banner happened
14:51
right there a lot of famous photos from
14:53
that weekend
14:54
but this is probably one of the most you
14:56
know overused ones the couple standing
14:58
here with their blankets around them
15:05
i'm not standing in the exact spot but
15:05
pretty pretty close they were probably a
15:07
little further up the hill with the
15:09
camera facing that way
15:11
oh yeah
15:15
this is this is a good spot to have this
15:15
got the peace sign
15:17
right down the middle there
15:28
that's funny this is not have the fourth
15:28
day listed on it
15:30
i think originally it was only gonna be
15:31
those three days but
15:42
i believe richie havens was the very
15:42
first one to perform
15:44
and most of the artists on the first day
15:46
all played acoustically because there
15:47
was so much rain and
15:50
mud
15:52
that they didn't want to have all the
15:53
all the equipment with electricity up
15:55
there
15:57
even though i guess you would have to
15:58
amplify even an acoustic guitar but they
16:00
want the full bands up there
16:02
so they save those for the second day
16:03
and on
16:05
but just look at this
16:06
lineup joplin hendrix
16:10
ccr
16:11
santana the who
16:20
grateful dead
16:20
jefferson airplane crosby stills nash
16:22
and young blood sweat and tears
16:26
just
16:26
an incredible lineup
16:33
one artist i would have loved to have
16:33
seen live
16:35
would have been janice joplin
16:37
as obviously before my time but what a
16:39
voice what a legend the music of rock
16:42
and roll would have filled these
16:43
hillsides
16:45
have to wonder what the locals thought
16:46
about not only the traffic but the
16:49
congestion the amount of sheer magnitude
16:51
of people
16:52
congregation of folks
16:54
what they thought about all this i think
16:55
you they could probably sit in their
16:57
living room and hear the music
16:58
projecting over the hillside
17:00
added bonus for being a local except if
17:03
you had to make run any errands you
17:04
couldn't get on the roads that was one
17:06
downfall it might seem kind of odd and
17:08
pointless
17:10
but something i've always wanted to do
17:11
was stand at the base of the stage and
17:14
look up the hillside
17:17
because there's just so much footage
17:18
that was filmed from the stage angle
17:21
looking at the artists and the musicians
17:23
looking up the hill
17:25
and i knew one day i'd make it here i've
17:27
never been here before
17:29
this was on my list
17:31
and to add to that list i just wanted to
17:33
stand at the base of the stage and
17:35
look up the hill
17:37
just something i've always wanted to do
17:39
not the precise pinpointed down to the
17:41
inch or down to the foot but you know
17:42
the approximate area
17:50
so i would guess they have placed these
17:50
rocks here
17:51
to symbolize where the stage was in fact
17:54
there's a marker over here with the
17:56
number six on it
17:57
like a historical marker
18:09
i'm getting the vibes right now i'm not
18:09
gonna lie getting the vibes
18:20
i mean modern day it's just an empty
18:20
field it's just a
18:22
grassy region
18:25
but go back in time 53 years
18:34
on every angle every side just people
18:34
having a
18:35
just a good time
18:37
no major problems
18:40
just people enjoying life
18:49
you see a lot of the photos from the
18:49
stage you just see a lot of happy faces
18:51
a lot of people dancing and
18:53
kind of singing along
18:56
right in here
18:58
just heads as far as you can see
19:04
this guy coming down the hill up here
19:04
he's wearing a woodstock shirt pretty
19:06
awesome and some rocks have been placed
19:08
over here
19:11
spells out a few things
19:14
can't make out what this says s o
19:20
s o something but this is the p sign
19:22
p sign and a d
19:25
and then people have stacked up the
19:27
little rocks there
19:32
another piece sign here kind of broken
19:32
up
19:44
a piece of history music history and
19:44
just you know history in general
19:47
fashion history a lot of fashion came
19:49
from that weekend and i never realized
19:51
until i'm standing here the incline of
19:53
the road that kind of went backstage
19:56
now i knew like the the side of the hill
19:58
it created like that berm
20:00
it's pretty dramatic but
20:02
all those photos of videos i've seen i
20:03
never realized that there was such a
20:05
steep incline going back behind the
20:07
stage
20:08
backstage if you will the stage began
20:11
here and there's this
20:12
kind of little berm here too this may
20:14
have been a little more level you see
20:15
where that car just went down that was
20:16
all just traffic you couldn't even get
20:18
back through there
20:20
i really have to wonder where the
20:21
helicopter landed
20:23
when they were the artists and music the
20:24
musicians were flying in
20:26
because they couldn't get in because of
20:27
the traffic where the helicopter landed
20:28
back here somewhere
20:41
all right i'll go check out the museum
20:41
this thing is big
20:43
carved out here in the grass
21:03
with where the stage was in view this
21:03
would have been a really good spot
21:06
i probably would have been
21:07
if i would have been here i could have
21:09
been here
21:17
probably would have picked this spot
21:17
what a view
21:25
stage is right down there
21:25
you can't
21:26
really hear any faint ghostly musical
21:30
instruments permeating over the hillside
21:37
but if you're quiet enough you can
21:37
almost imagine it
21:46
that's people talking at the top of the
21:46
hill and yelling up there
21:48
but you can almost imagine it
21:50
just listen
22:07
now as incredible as an event it was
22:07
it wasn't all perfection
22:09
there was not enough restroom facilities
22:12
there's not enough food
22:14
there's not enough water
22:16
the people trudged on made the best of
22:25
and all in all it will be remembered
22:25
as a monumental
22:28
in music history
22:46
why are those shaking like that
22:46
i mean i know it's the wind but wow
22:52
it's an overload of shaking
22:52
and it was just about to close but
22:54
stepping inside the museum of bethel
22:56
woods center for the arts
22:58
pretty amazing as you walk in it's just
23:00
the display the way it's all set up with
23:02
the exhibits and all the information and
23:04
the history
23:05
definitely recommend if you ever come
23:07
here and see the spot from the festival
23:09
to stop in here as well
23:11
they have kind of a psychedelic bus
23:14
as well as a bug
23:16
some artifacts even some
23:18
of the clothing the musicians were
23:20
wearing
23:20
things like that is a pretty good
23:22
display
23:23
and they even have a little homage to
23:25
max who was the owner
23:27
of the farm
23:29
and gives a little information about him
23:31
and who he was
23:33
and kind of thanking him because without
23:34
him they would not have had a place to
23:36
have to have
23:37
woodstock 69.
23:44
yeah pretty good little visit here to
23:44
bethel
23:45
new york
23:47
to the side of i guess probably the
23:49
first big music festival
23:59
glad i stopped off i know most artwork
23:59
is up for or you know interpretation
24:02
from the viewer
24:03
i'm kind of looking at this as almost
24:05
like a person
24:10
with the head the arms
24:10
got a dress on and legs
24:13
that's my interpretation and also
24:15
through this area they have something
24:17
called the sullivan catskills dove trail
24:20
and this is one of the doves
24:26
i see some hearts in there some upside
24:26
down hearts and regular
24:28
parts that aren't upside down and some
24:30
trees that are right side up and upside
24:32
down
24:37
not sure what kind of flowers those are
24:37
and i'm driving around to the back of
24:39
where the stage
24:41
was
24:42
all those photos of the traffic all
24:44
backed up
24:45
through here
24:47
i'm driving over here so that's the
24:48
stage would have been right by these
24:49
trees
24:51
and the field is on the other side of
24:52
these trees just gonna go along real
24:54
slow here
24:56
i mean i was walking up there but i'm
24:58
just doing a little
25:01
little driving move here
25:04
so there's no parking anytime
25:21
and even though this is kind of well not
25:21
really off-site but
25:23
away from the main area that they have
25:25
all marked up
25:26
just imagine people all camped out
25:28
through here in tents
25:30
not even not everyone having a tent just
25:33
sleeping on the ground
25:35
they had said that they expected most
25:37
people to leave and come back each day
25:39
no one left couldn't leave so it was
25:42
just a four day
25:44
conglomeration of people just sleeping
25:46
wherever they could sleep
25:49
enjoying the weekend
25:51
and there was a lot of people having to
25:52
bathe there's photos of people bathing
25:54
and
25:55
you know video documentation and the
25:57
documentaries and whatnot of people
25:59
bathing
26:01
and this looks like where they would
26:03
have bathed
26:08
looks very similar to some of those
26:08
photos of everyone bathing and
26:11
jumping and
26:12
playing around in the water
26:14
kind of off to the side here
26:28
and now into bethel proper into the
26:28
uh called the downtown the it's a very
26:30
small community
26:38
a little homage here it's carol's dream
26:38
aquarium exposition
26:41
because woodstock was also going to be
26:43
at art fair and aquarium exposition but
26:45
it was just shortened to woodstock once
26:47
the media got a hold of it there are
26:48
some mcdonald's characters painted on
26:50
the side of this bus
27:06
and some very friendly fries
27:06
i had to look it up the town of bethel's
27:08
only 4 000 people
27:26
definitely we're probably not expecting
27:26
400 000
27:28
to arrive
27:31
i pulled off the side of the road to
27:32
check this out there's a cow over here
27:33
wearing a cowboy hat
27:36
and there's also a bigfoot very
27:38
reminiscent to my air freshener big the
27:40
foot
27:46
got some got some little paintings and
27:48
murals appropriate to the area
27:56
even some aliens
27:56
and some pirates
28:17
i have arrived at my destination for the
28:17
evening i drove quite a bit today over
28:19
500 miles about 520 miles give or take
28:24
i have arrived at my accommodations
28:26
hotel
28:27
for the night
28:28
i'm gonna go check in
28:35
get some shut eye
28:35
it's been a long day
28:38
a long travel day
28:40
i'll see the next video the vlog
28:43
is over