Much has been written and documented on film over the last forty years regarding Woodstock. I've seen and read much of it, but I do not consider myself to be an expert. Take a look at N in Seattle's excellent 3 Days (+14,610) of Peace and Music if you missed it yesterday, for a first-hand account of being there.
I do, however, have my own first-hand experience at the All Points West music festival at Liberty State Park, just across NY Harbor from NYC in Jersey City, NJ earlier this month.
It was a three-day festival with three stages. Friday's headliner was originally scheduled to be The Beastie Boys, but they were replaced by Jay-Z after health problems disrupted the Beasties plans to perform. Saturday was headlined by Tool. Sunday, the day I attended (w/ my SigO) was headlined by Coldplay (but they weren't the ones who prompted us to buy our tickets).
It rained Friday.
It rained Saturday.
It rained Sunday.
The mud was one similarity with Woodstock, but I'm not sure that there were all that many others.
Pics and some thoughts after the jump...
So being daily straphangers on the NYC subways, we have plenty of opportunities to see ads for everything from bankruptcy attorneys to cosmetic surgeons to the latest romance novel by Nora Walker. Usually they're a good excuse to avoid making eye contact with the guy mumbling to himself, but the All Point West ad caught my attention. Included in the line-up for Sunday, August 2 was MGMT. We're fans of their music, and had missed previous opportunities to see our fellow Brooklynites perform at places like McCarren Park Pool, Keyspan Park at Coney Island, and at Prospect Park.
We decided to buy tickets after checking out the full Sunday line-up of artists: Coldplay, Echo & the Bunnymen, MGMT, the Black Keys, Elbow, Silversun Pickups, Mogwai, We Are Scientists, Ghostland Observatory, The Gaslight Anthem, Etienne De Crecy, Lykke Li, CollegeHumor Live, Akron/Family, Steel Train, Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, La Roux, Hey Champ, PT Walkley, Janeane Garofolo (!), and Todd Barry.
On the weekend of the event, we began reading reviews. Jay-Z scored points with the Beastie Boys fans by opening with No Sleep til Brooklyn, and Tool and My Bloody Valentine apparently engaged in a battle of decibel-level rock on Saturday. Everything we were reading, though, was mentioning that heavy rains early had turned the park into a sea of mud -- a soup with four main ingredients: goose poop, seagull poop, dirt and water. Close your eyes -- can you smell it yet? More on that later...
So, we awoke Sunday morning to another torrential downpour, donned our crappiest old shoes from the back of the closet, loaded up a backpack with some basics (empty water bottles, umbrellas, sun screen (for power of positive thinking!) and water-repellent windbreakers). Through a perk of my new job, we'd arranged a comp hotel room for Sunday night, so we journeyed via subway into Manhattan to drop an overnight bag at the hotel, and then boarded a ferry to cross NY Harbor to Liberty State Park.
It is at this point that I'll start using my pictures to help tell our story.
Ferrying from Battery Park past the Statue of Liberty to Jersey City:
So we arrived safe, sound & soggy, only to find that the organizers are in full liability avoidance mode, postponing the opening of the gates until the threat of 70mph winds and lightening had passed (apparently OK for us all to get electrocuted in standing water outside the gates, just not inside!)
Arriving, Killing Time, impromptu game of "Red Rover Red Rover:
A couple of hours and multiple cancelled performances later, the clouds part, the sun arrives, and the gates open:
Two stages, a dance tent, a DJ hut and some other objects d'art:
Dirty Fucking Hippies (21st century edition):
Food & Beverage:
Which smelled much better than the aforementioned Goose Poop Mud™:
But as the sun set:
The party and the show continued on:
There is not intended to be a moral to this little photo journal, but a couple of closing observations. There was definitely no sense of purpose in this event, no rallying cry for peace, freedom and justice. In the era of declining music sales and artists making their money by touring, this was without a doubt a very commercial event. That said, despite the sometimes nauseating stench of the mud, there was a decidedly communal atmosphere. The post 9/11 NY spirit of "we'll get through this together" was on full display early in the day when it was raining and utterly miserable, and as is so often the case here, the diversity in the crowd led to a full day of entertaining people-watching.
Would we do it again? Yeah probably. But wearing boots!
Peace.