The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, a museum on the grounds of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair, is collecting accounts from those who attended the historic festival.
Since 2020, Bethel Woods has collected 1,200 stories on the Three Days of Peace and Music in August 1969.
Neal Hitch is Senior Curator at the Museum at Bethel Woods…
“The biggest thing we hear in an oral history is, ‘What I learned that weekend is that peace is possible. And I have spent the rest of my life with the understanding that there is hope that humans can live in peace with one another.’ And so, that’s kind of a really cool takeaway. Something that’s not necessarily written in a book, it comes from a human perspective. As far the museum goes, no one knows the whole story of Woodstock. Everyone has a tiny piece of the puzzle,” said Hitch.
Bethel Woods has a goal of collecting 300 stories this summer, and the museum is hitting the road, with the support of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Pop-up recording events are scheduled this summer in Bethel, Columbus, Ohio, and New York City.
Guests are invited to tell the story of Woodstock through their perspective. This audio is taken from an interview with festival attendee Elen Orson-Carysfort:
“To suddenly find out that there was going to be a gathering, from everywhere, of all these people, was a very thrilling idea. And the overall impression when you walked into the site, when you walked up to the gate – or lack of it – and saw all these people, you'd see people, and they were all being absolutely free. Their hair and their clothes were flowing. If they didn't have short hair, they were wearing army fatigue jackets or something that they had gotten from Salvation Army or a thrift store. And it was like one big wink, like, ‘Oh my God, here we are. We're all together, and there's a lot of us. Holy crow!’” said Orson-Carysfort.
Vlad Federoff was 8 years old when his mother took him to Max Yasgur’s dairy farm:
“I don’t know if you could say the word risk, but many other parents might think it would be hazardous to take an 8-year-old to a big festival, but it did turn out to be very peaceful. And I think she knew that it would be peaceful. It was a peace and love festival, so she felt very confident that we would have a great time and that there would be no problems. And that's exactly how it turned out. Except for the weather. So, the rain is what caused the discomfort a little bit,” said Federoff.
Bethel Woods has an ultimate goal of recording 4,500 oral histories – or 1 percent of Woodstock’s estimated attendance at the site that still hosts concerts today.
But Hitch says he wants more than just stories of Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix.
“Not just stories that, like we collect when an attendee comes back and sits on the field where they sat in Woodstock, but stories of people that had different life experiences, different experiences in the fights that they took up,” said Hitch.
Hitch says Bethel Woods wants to collect diverse stories that reflect the diverse community – and the social causes they rallied for – at Woodstock.
“This summer, in particular, we are partnering with the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York, and we're doing a whole series of New York-specific pop-ups to try and capture stories from people that were, kind of, in this fight to make critical cultural change in all areas,” said Hitch.
Hitch says attendees with stories to recount can also participate virtually. The in-person pop-up events run through the 55th anniversary summer. And anyone returning to Bethel Woods is invited to get involved.
“You can see the historic site, you can see the museum, you can let anyone in a gray shirt know that you attended the festival or that you were a member of an activist group, or you can come down to our studio we have and we do interviews every day at the museum,” said Hitch.
For more information visit: https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/museum/oral-history-initiative
