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By Mack Harrison
Special to The Battalion
S augerties, n.y. — The peo
ple. The music. The mud. The
drugs.
Woodstock is dead. Long live
Woodstock.
No way, people said, that you
could ever duplicate the original
Woodstock. Not today. Different
generation, different music.
Wrohg. _
Through thg three days in the
mud and drug-induced haze, con
cert-goers at the festival Aug. 12-14
in Saugerties found the same expe
rience as their spiritual ancestors
did 25 years earlier at the original
Woodstock in Bethel, N.Y. — a
weekend-long party.
The security
Advance coverage and conven
tional wisdom had suggested mas
sive security measures at the site,
but our group boarded the shuttle
buses after an hour's wait, a cursory
sweep of the metal detector wand
and some perfunctory questions:
"Do you have any contraband
on you?"
No.
"Any guns or knives?"
No.
"Any drugs or alcohol?"
No, of course not.
The rules said no weapons,
drugs or alcohol, no aerosol sprays,
no open fires, no this, no that. In
reality, however, security was lax
enough that people brought in
pretty much whatever they wanted.
Once ticket holders stepped off
the shuttle bus at the concert site,
another brace of security guards
wearing Woodstock "Peace Patrol"
T-shirts casually searched the dis
embarking passengers' belongings,
looking for any contraband, drugs
or alcohol hidden in bedrolls or
tents.
As we trekked down the path to
ward the stage, we saw swarms of
people scaling the fences around
the woods.
"Environmentally Sensitive
Area," the signs mounted on the
fences told the ecologically apa
thetic crowd as hundreds of people
broke through the barrier to camp
in the wetlands under the trees.
We continued down the path to
ward the music. As we topped the
rise, the sights, sounds, smells and
spectacle of Woodstock '94 em
braced us.
1 The scene
We wandered into the field,
adrift in a sea of tents. Far, far
! away, we could make out the north
! stage and the twin towers of speak-
| ers flanking it. Overhead, heli-
1 copters carrying VIPs swooped to
il ward the backstage area, a camera-
I laden chopper swept over the
I crowd and a blimp floated high
1 above in stately silence.
To our left were the food booths,
the port-a-potties, the south stage
and the Eco-Fest area — where all
the tree-hugger groups had their
booths. To our right stretched more
tents, food, restrooms and the Surre
al Field — a computer geek haven
of computer company pavilions and
a couple of "virtual reality" attrac
tions which were the equivalent of
the Star Wars ride at Disneyland.
The drugs
Woodstock '94 seemed to rede
fine the term "casual drug use." No
one worried about cops. Marijuana
was everywhere. You couldn't walk
five feet without stumbling over
someone smoking weed.
In an odd parallel to the first
concert, announcements from the
stage warned the crowd about
tainted drugs — not bad acid this
time, but laced marijuana.
One unconventional intoxicant
came in gaseous form: Peddlers
sold balloons filled with nitrous ox
ide — laughing gas. People would
buy the balloons and breathe the
gas; it didn't make your voice high-
pitched like helium, but it did pro
vide a lift of its own.
Entrepreneurs offered any man
ner of intoxicant desired — and the
crowd desired. Individuals carried
handmade signs reading "need
acid," "need 'shrooms," or "need
doses." Possibly the best sign rest
ed in the hands of a young man
seated next to a main path: "Don't
need anything," it read. "Just like to
hold signs."
And those substances — al
though of dubious quality or au
thenticity — were available. For a
price. Single hits of acid sold for
three to five dollars; one young
entrepreneur sold hashish for $15
a gram.
Concert-goers stand atop some of the 2,800 portable toilets at Woodstock ‘94 in efforts to get a better
view of the stage. The swelling crowd strained the carefully laid plans of the festival’s organizers.
tival. By Sunday all the local stores
had sold out of beer, and those
lucky individuals who had some
stockpiled wouldn't part with it for
any price.
Souvenir booths sprouted like
psychedelic mushrooms across the
festival area. Vendors offered
everything from tie-dyed shirts to
jewelry to clothing made from
hemp. Some individuals braided
hair or sold jewelry on blankets
spread on the ground. One woman
with only a chair and a sign read
palms by
flashlight.
The cost
In fact, capitalism
seemed to run ram- * -
pant at this so-called ^ | HE BODY COUNT
"revolutionary" event.
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Photos
jRAPHICS
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BY AP
Evidence of the ''cor
porateness" so dread
ed by detractors of
Woodstock '94 was ail
around. From the Pepsi
logo slapped on the con
cession stands and paper
cups to the Phillips Elec
tronics CD-I pavilion in
the Surreal Field, spon
sors abounded.
Prices were not outra
geous, however — they
were usurious. The $135
tickets were just the
start. Soft drinks went
for two dollars and
meals cost anywhere
from six to eight dollars.
Our group, unwilling to
spend $10 on lunch, had
brought in canned goods
and granola bars, which last
ed us through the weekend.
Beer, of course, was banned
from the festival, so its price v ent
up accordingly. People jumped the
fence, bought it at nearby conve
nience stores and smuggled it back
onto the site. Back there, budding
brewmeisters sold two beers for
five dollars; a 12-pack went for
$20.
But this was at the start of the fes-
1 /'T
Estimated population at Woodstock
‘94: 350,000
Tickets sold: 200,000
Deaths: 2
People treated for first aid at the
event: 5,000
People taken to area hospitals: 75
Arrests: 24
Marriages: 1
— Source: MTV News
there actually was a sense of broth
erhood among the people at Wood-
stock '94. Everyone felt a kinship
with everyone else at the festival,
and people were happy to help each
other out.
In fact, the wide variety of indi
viduals in attendance is what made
the event unique. All age groups —
from infants to senior citizens —
were represented. Bikers, hippies,
rednecks, Yankees, parents, chil
dren, students, professionals — all
contributed to the synergistic
gestalt that defined the event like
some Aquarian melting pot.
The parking
The situation at Woodstock
made parking at Texas A&M seem
like some kind of nirvana. Man,
what a mess.
When we arrived at the site
we followed the directions
on the back of our parking
pass. Unfortunately, our
assigned lot had filled up
and the parking powers-
that-be had taken the sign
down. We drove around
for an hour until we asked
a worker where to park.
The lot we pulled in was
already over capacity, and
the ground soft as we left
our vehicle. Little did we
know we'd have to spend
the Sunday night after the
concert in the car. The
round was so muddy after
alF the rain that we couldn't
leave until a tow truck
winched us out of the mud
the next morning — for $50.
Apart from these inclines, things
remained dry — until the rains
came down. We heard the thunder
and saw the lightning as we hud
dled in our tents Friday night. The
next day we looked out at the
tents, floating like pond scum on a
sea of mud.
Rain and thousands of footsteps
rendered all bare ground nearly
impassible. The only grassy areas
remaining were hidden under
tents. The mud was so deep and
thick it sucked people's shoes off
their feet.
As hikers walked up or down
the treacherous slopes, many lost
their footing. At several inclines,
people hurled themselves down
the muddy slopes, skidding 50
yards or more and transforming
into the infamous Mud People.
The nudity
Some people — male and fe
male — who got caught in the rain
and mud decided to shed their
clothing, without much reaction
from their neighbors. Although
most of the nudists were men dis
robing to take a shower at the wa
ter fountains, the atmosphere con
vinced many women to go topless.
In addition, this reporter will al
ways remember the sight of one
man and two women walking past
the campsite wearing nothing but
backpacks.
The music
Sorry. Don't remember
much about this one.
too
The people
At night, after the music ended,
we returned to our tents along with
300,000 of our closest friends and
neighbors. As cheesy as it sounds,
The mud
It just wouldn't be Woodstock
without the mud, would it? The
first day, the mud was a result of
runoff from the water fountains,
which the concert planners had
thoughtfully placed at the tops of
the hills. The overflow ran straight
down the dirt paths leading up to
the faucets, immediately turning
them into Slip'n'Slides.
Did Woodstock '94 have the
same cultural significance as the
original concert? Not yet.
It won't achieve that importance
until the people who attended are
able to see the movie and hear all
the media hype. Then they'll realize
what a defining moment it really
was — a realization they weren't
able to make at the festival itself,
because they were too busy having
fun in a sea of mud.