“The back roads through the countryside took me back to where I spent youthful summers; however, I was too young at the time to experience the Woodstock Festival other than through follow up taped music and the legend. This week, August 15, 16 and 17 marks the 37th anniversary of the Woodstock Art and Music Fair and it was time to find my way back to the garden– upstate New York through the Catskill Mountains to Woodstock, known for a hundred years as the “Colony of the Arts.” That was my podcast opening eight years ago when I attended a Crosby Stills Nash & Young concert at Bethel Woods, White Lake, upstate New York.
It was a late Sunday afternoon, August 13, and the country roads took me to White Lake, Bethel, New York without much traffic. Along the way, roadsides were cluttered with parked cars and biker camps, makeshift stands selling tie dyed T-shirts and love beads. In contrast, the newly erected Bethel Woods Center for the Arts overlooks the site where the original Woodstock Festival took place, it’s pavilion sheltering a seated audience from the elements.
Back in 1969 there was no shelter from the elements – a rainy weekend for some 500,000 people who came out to this rural corner of nowhere, 80 miles northwest of New York City. Advertised as “3 days of Peace & Music” promoters staged the concert on the dairy farm August 15-17, after being rejected by the Catskill arts colony that gave the show its name. Some of the best music of that time – Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joan Baez, Ten Years After, John Sebastian, Santana and Crosby Stills Nash & Young – performed before the masses. And while the farm eventually returned to its bucolic pasture setting, this present day afternoon crowd of ticketholders gathered excitedly in anticipation.
For many it was a nostalgic reminder with a contemporary twist as young music lovers and old hippies filed past solid, brick ticket booths manned by bag-checking security. Tie-dyed shirts and lawn chairs filled the hillside surrounding the ampitheatre just beyond the overhang and as the sunset waned, twilight dimmed the cool, clear night, CSNY took the stage and ignited a crowd of 16,000 people into the night.
Later that week still on this particular road trip, I met Meira Blaustein, Executive Director of the Woodstock Film Festival where mavericks and fiercely independent filmmakers come out and show their work. It’s the same spirit as Woodstock 69 and in the podcast reminiscing the past and introducing present Woodstock Film Festival
Meira and I talked about “How to Festival” the upcoming festival that was going on in October.
To date, it’s a great film festival and I look forward to it every year although I wasn’t always able to get back to the “Garden” as often as I would have liked. I did last year and this year I plan on taking in more of the days, nights, movies, panels, parties in a beautiful Catskill Mountain environment. There is something magical about the area.
The 15th Annual Woodstock Film Festival will happen during the week of October 15-19, 2014 and will be a great opportunity for an innovative variety of films first-class concerts, workshops, celebrity-led panels, an awards ceremony, and fantastic parties (from their website). I’ll be writing more about it as we get closer to the date.
From their website: The Hudson Valley Film Commission, working under the auspices of the festival, has consistently developed sustainable economic initiatives in the Hudson Valley/Catskill region by attracting, supporting and promoting regional film, video, and media production including feature films, television shoots, print media, short films, and TV ads. To facilitate local production, the commission provides and constantly updates its online location info and free production services directory to service the film, fashion and media industries.
07/29/2014
Film Festivals