For playing host to a musical happening that became a cultural byword for the entire 1960s despite being, from a business and planning perspective, basically the Fyre Festival of its time, the venue for Woodstock is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Tuesday that Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in the Hudson Valley town of Bethel has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Cuomo says the festival that drew nearly half a million people to Max Yasgur’s dairy farm was a “pivotal moment in both New York and American history,” and the recognition will preserve the landmark for future generations
The venue is, of course, no longer a farm turned giant mud pit populated by hippies. NPR explains that it is now more of an arts complex:
Bethel Woods, which was a farm when half a million people trekked to upstate New York for the festival that created its legend, includes an 800-acre “campus” with a museum, a 15,000-seat amphitheater, a smaller gallery space and arts conservatory which opened in June 2008 following a $100 million investment. The onetime “Aquarian Exposition” now takes as its mission educating people on the “issues and lessons” of that turbulent decade which was both culminated and dispatched by that mid-August, rain-flecked, three-day celebration of peace and love.
The next show will feature Train, O.A.R., and Natasha Bedingfield.
Congrats to the Baby Boomers. Can’t wait to see what gets landmarked on behalf us beleaguered millennials.