i wanna check out the vibe at woodstock
Electronic festival Mysteryland to have first campout on Woodstock grounds since legendary festival
For the first time since the summer of 1969, thousands of tents will blanket the site of the Woodstock Festival over Memorial Day weekend. Mysteryland organizer Jeroen Jansen considers the location 'holy ground.'
BY
Justin Rocket Silverman
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, May 4, 2014, 8:53 PM
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The Kobal Collection The crowd at Woodstock Music and Art Festival in Bethel, N.Y., in August 1969.
Turn on, tune in and camp out — once more.
Thousands of tents will blanket the site of the Woodstock Festival over Memorial Day weekend for the first time since that legendary rock ’n’ roll event in the summer of 1969.
Instead of riffs from Jimi Hendrix and the Jefferson Airplane, this month’s event upstate is an electronic music festival called Mysteryland, and instead of flowers in their hair, visitors will have cell phones in their hands.
It marks the first time in 45 years that the town of Bethel will allow a mass camping event at the home of Woodstock, a place Mysteryland organizer Jeroen Jansen calls “holy ground.”
New York Daily News Daily News front page on August 16, 1969
“After that event 45 years ago, the town board was not so keen on having another campout,” said Jansen, who spent nine months lobbying town officials on the merits of Mysteryland.
He’s been running the festival in Europe since 1993, and this is the first time it’s in the United States.
“We try to create an experience where people let go and release, but also celebrate life and make a positive impact on human consciousness,” he said.
Naki Kouyioumtzis An electronic music festival called Mysteryland (pictured) will make its U.S. debut over Memorial Day weekend with a campout at the site of the Woodstock Festival.
In other words, said Jansen, this festival is the “Burning Man of electronic music.”
The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, near the site of the original Woodstock, has hosted plenty of events and concerts over the past decade, but Mysteryland will be the first campout.
HENRY DILTZ/AFP/Getty Images Jimi Hendrix performs at the Woodstock Festival in Bethel, N.Y., in August 1969.
“There was a lot of vetting on our end,” said Bethel Woods spokeswoman Liz McKay. “We have a lot faith in the company.”
Organizers of Mysteryland are hoping to limit the crowds to 20,000 visitors per day, with only 7,500 allowed to camp at the site.
At Woodstock in 1969, 400,000 people — roughly double the number anticipated — crashed through the fence to attend the three-day music festival.
Anonymous/AP
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Naki Kouyioumtzis
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A couple atop the ultimate hippie vehicle — a VW bus — at Woodstock. At right, Mysteryland festival in the Netherlands in 2010.
But unlike the original, there should be plenty of food and water at this year’s event, as well as security to prevent any gate-crashing.
Gay Braham of Manhattan was at that original festival when she was 18, and remembers it as a “beautiful, beautiful experience.”
Gero Breloer/AP Dancers at a music festival in Berlin, Germany, in 2012.
So beautiful, in fact, that she’s not sure Mysteryland will be able to recreate the flower power magic.
“Maybe they should have picked somewhere else to have their own uniqueness,” she said. “I know it will be on the same site, but you can’t get the same feeling.”
Yet the Grammy-nominated American DJ Kaskade, who will headline the second day of Mysterland, believes the festival location will bring attention that could help dispel some negative stereotypes about electronic music.
“There was a cultural shift with the original Woodstock,” he said. “People figured out that Janis Joplin was more than a singer. Santana is more than a guitarist. There’s more to electronic music than guys pressing play on their iPods, repetitive beats and ravers wearing fuzzy boots.”
Electronic festival Mysteryland to have first campout on Woodstock grounds since legendary festival - NY Daily News