300,000 Rock Fans Strip, Isolate Town

By NAOMI ROCK

WHITE LAKE, N.Y. - The rock music festival staggered forward Saturday as an estimated 300,000 young fans left this small lake community with short rations, inadequate medical service and cut off from the outside except by aircraft.

A medical airlift to bring 30 more doctors from New York City was organized by the festival management.

The scene generally was peaceful, an aura of content spread among the long-haired and blue-jeaned youngsters from around the nation here for three days of rock in the open air.

But as far as facilities went, it was the equivalent of putting the population of Omaha, Neb. into a town geared to serve 3,000 residents.

And they kept coming through roads clogged by abandoned cars and unmindful of warnings that food, water and the necessities of life were becoming critically short.

Organizers of the festival estimated the crowd size, which by their count grew by 100,000 since the three-day gathering opened Friday.

One youth was reported fatally injured when a tractor rolled over him as he slept. Upward of 1,000 others were treated for minor injuries and illness.

Helicopters plied back and forth over the Catskill Mountain terrain carrying food and medical supplies to the isolated area. To travel by car was virtually impossible.

State police reported 73 persons had been arrested on various drug charges.

A security guard said "This isn't a music festival - it's a drug convention."

Billed as the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, an Aquarian Exposition, by the promoters, the entertianment is at a rented 600-acre farm - a stage is at the foot of an alfalfa field.

No one, least of all the promoters, was fully prepared for handling the turnout.

"We've had floods and disasters but nothing like this," said A.S. Cacchillo, administrator of Community General Hospitals in nearby Liberty and Monticello.

Some residents in the area turned a profit from the chaos, however. One man grilled hamburgers in his front yard and sold them. Others sold water for 25 cents a glass and cigarets for 65 cents a pack.

Sanitary facilities were sparse and water was worth its weight in marijuana. Six wells were dug to accommodate the crowd, but the weed was in better supply than water. Heavy rain Friday night turned the performance area into a sea of mud. Those who could get to a nearby lake got clean.

Festival officials said the fans were cleaning up the area and they hoped roads would be cleared to get rid of the garbage that had accumulated.

Copyright � 1999 The Beacon Journal Publishing Company Primary content and graphics � 1999 Knight Ridder New Media, Inc. Technology and portions of the content and graphics � 1999 Zip2 Corp. Information deemed reliable but is not guaranteed. Just Go is a registered trademark of Knight-Ridder New Media Inc.