The Most Historic Music Venue

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts is the original site of the Woodstock Music Festival of 1969. The 600-acre dairy farm was host to people from all over the area, as an initial idea to raise money to build a music studio retreat in the country. Tickets were printed and then sold in mostly record stores in the month prior. The plan was to have 50,000 people attend. With a mixed bag of experience organizing an event of this size, things quickly went awry for the four men behind it. A few days before the August festival, and entry fences were put in place, 50,000 people were already on-site camping in front of the stage. They had come in before the organizers were ready. The event team immediately realized they were in over their heads and declared it a free event. This of course would be their biggest mistake as over 500,000 people would find their way to this tiny town in the Catskills.

The three day festival turned into four as well known artists took the stage. These legends included Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana,  Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead and The Who among many others. Thankfully over the long weekend, the crowd would dwindle down to only 25,000 on the fourth day. It would go down as the most historical music festival ever, full of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll and a whole lot of mud.

Today, Bethel Woods is a well manicured and efficiently run site that celebrates its origins and brings worldwide talent to its stages each year. As an outdoor concert venue, there is a great lawn as well as covered seating to accommodate every kind of attendee. Indoors there is space for more intimate shows including musical artists, creative artist exhibitions and a museum. They even have an educational program to inspire, educate and empower people. Throughout the summer and fall season the calendar includes harvest festivals, wine and craft beer festivals and a holiday market.

At first the lawn is empty and then it fills up. Thankfully the max these days is around 10,000!

The upcoming season of musical talent is sure to bring in a great crowd. It includes performances by Train, The Frey, Tony Bennett with Lady Gaga, Zac Brown Band, Rascal Flats and Van Halen, plus others. I've attended many shows at Bethel Woods and can say first hand that it's one of my favorite music venues. The average ticket price is $35 for the lawn with an extra $5 for a lawn chair. The sound system is amazing, there are food and drink vendors sprinkled around the entire place along with ample restrooms. It beats an indoor coliseum any day!