PEACE, LOVE, MUSIC & MUD

WOODSTOCK '94 WAS MUSICALLY MORE ELECTRIC, ECLECTIC THAN THE FIRST. BUT PRACTICALLY ALL ELSE LOOKED LIKE 1969

DATE: Monday, August 15, 1994

SOURCE: By KEVIN C. JOHNSON, Beacon Journal pop music writer

Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and rain -- what would Woodstock '94 have been without them? That's a question that doesn't need answering. The weekend-long musicfest had them all. Woodstock organizers knew what they were doing when they made special Woodstock condoms available. The free love of '69 is history, replaced by today's safe sex, likely practiced -- or not practiced -- in many of the thousands of colored tents spread across this 840-acre site. Though one of the rules most repeatedly stated was no drugs or alcohol, you would have never known it from the presence of both all weekend. Marijuana, acid and XTC (also known as Ecstasy) were the norm, and openly used. The music presented was rich and varied, though more electric and eclectic than the more folksy original. There was the speed metal of Metallica, the angry noise of Nine Inch Nails,

the feel-good rock of the Spin Doctors, and the classic rock of The Band and Traffic. Folk rockers such as Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bob Dylan and Melissa Etheridge were thrown in for good measure but were outnumbered. It wasn't all rock, however. Hippie met hip-hop as well with rap acts such as Salt-N-Pepa and Arrested Development. And just ask the Rollins Band about the rain. They saw the skies open up at the beginning of its set, creating the added attraction of a muddy pool in which many found a new place to thrash about. It was a mushy time all around, as rain would be intermittent for the rest of the weekend. A young man identified only as Willie from Ithaca, N.Y., spent much of the weekend mud-moshing -- that is, dancing, spinning around, and flipping in the huge mud pool on the field. He was caked in layers of dried mud from head to toe, and looked forward to jumping back in and moistening up his second skin. "This is the best. The best, man," he said. "I had a good time. It was worth it. I might be sick for the next few days from all the rain but at least I was here," said Fred Edwards, 20, of nearby

Albany, N.Y. He stayed away from the mud pool. Over 300,000 persons, mostly young and white and from all over the country including Akron, came out for Woodstock '94, though only about 200,000 tickets were sold, meaning gate crashers had a field day. As many filed out Saturday night after much of the grass was turned to mud, an equal number of newcomers filed in to catch late-night headliners Metallica and Aerosmith, which ended its set around 3 a.m. yesterday. There was another mass exodus yesterday morning, while more arrived to see a full lineup that included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Spin Doctors, Dylan and Arrested Development. There was some criticism prior to Thursday night when things unofficially got underway with Todd Rundgren over the artist lineup. Some saw a lack of big-name artists. There was no Stones, Pearl Jam, U2 or the Grateful Dead, though there was Aerosmith, Metallica, Peter Gabriel with his WOMAD show, and lots of other crowd-drawers. But was Woodstock '94 really Woodstock? It depends on whom you asked.

"I don't know how anyone could call this Woodstock," said Brian Kerber, 46, of Baltimore, Md. He wore the same bandanna to Woodstock '94 that he wore to the first, 25 years ago. "Some of the same figureheads are in place, but they didn't even see fit to have it at the same site." At the Bethel location where the original Woodstock was held, a free and second concert took place with a smaller lineup but larger selection of original artists than at Saugerties. Kerber would have attended that one, but said after it was canceled due to poor ticket sales, he went on and bought a $135 ticket for the Saugerties event and wasn't going to throw his money away when the Bethel show was rescheduled for free. "If there was a Woodstock this year, it was at Bethel," said Kerber. His companion, Marie Haskell, 45, and also a Woodstock veteran, concurred. "I like the name Woodschlock better. It fits." Other names bandied about: Mudstock and Greed$tock.

"This is our Woodstock. They had theirs 25 years ago and now we have ours," said Curtis O'Neal, 22, of Kalamazoo, Mich. "It's two different things. I don't think it was ever anybody's idea to recreate what happened before," said Lynn King, 31, of Troy, N.Y. "This was OK for what is was, a great concert with a lot of great acts." The two Woodstocks saw some marked similarities -- the shedding of clothing, a noticeable lack of violence, the mud, the sea of people, the near nonstop music, foul sanitation facilities, the drugs, no showers (there were misting machines to cool off, though the heat was never unbearable), etc. But the '60s peace sign is now a '90s dollar sign. Tickets were $135. Automatic tellers were placed throughout the site. Corporate names were the rule, especially at the interactive surreal field where the booths and exhibits clearly displayed big-time sponsorship. The eco-village, where vendors set up shop, was more friendly, however. The one Ohio vendor present was Ohio Hempery of Athens, which sold hemp apparel. There was a less spontaneous feel as well. The event seemed overplanned

from the start, with a laundry list of rules and regulations that made the concert feel more like a rock 'n' roll prison camp -- at least until attendance reached staggering numbers. Then rules quickly started falling by the wayside, which was inevitable considering much of the Peace Patrol security force quit. Concertgoers' reasons for being here had little to do with why half a million turned out 25 years ago, when young people were looking for some sort of togetherness while the country was in the throes of the Vietnam War, an anti-war movement, news that seemed full of nothing good. There was a sense of community here, but it seemed based on something far less political and perhaps more social. Michael Fischer, 27, of Marietta, Ga., said he and several of his friends from various parts of the country used Woodstock '94 as an excuse to get together. "That's all I cared about really, hanging out with them. It didn't really matter who was on stage," said Fischer.

Meanwhile, the town of Saugerties, much of it now littered with debris, will have a huge cleanup chore on its hands once this is all over. The last performance was expected to be Peter Gabriel late last night, followed by another all-night rave this morning. Then the many thousands who survived this long will have to be shuttled out on school buses to their assigned parking lots. "The town will be cleaning up for weeks," said a townsman yesterday, who was selling ice water roadside about two miles from the site. A small -- or maybe not-so-small -- way the organizers are making it up to Saugerties: the town receives $4 for each of the 200,000 tickets sold. One straggler on her way out of the site yesterday afternoon, 16-year-old Melissa Tulloch of Brooklyn, N.Y., said Woodstock '94 was the best time she ever had. "Do you know if they're gonna do this every 25 years?"

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