Posted by Drew on July 27, 1999 at 21:50:23:
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers were on the stage doing an absolutely powerful and awesome show to get the crowd extremely pumped up. As Donna said in her last post there were about 11 or 12 bonfires lit through out the concert area while the Chilli Peppers were playing. It looked like the norm, seeing that woodstock ventures passed out approximately 200,000 candles.
The Chilli Peppers were pulled off stage and the host of Woodstock came on the massive sound system to make the announcement. They said that the fires had begun to catch one of the towers on fire. "This is not part of the show" said the voice. "We are going to need to bring in a fire truck to put out the fire" and asked everyone to cooperate. Soon after, the Chilli Peppers came back on stage and finished there set. The Jimi Hendrix Tribute was cut extremely short due to the fact that the fires were getting extremely out of control. One of the fires seemed to reach 50 feet into the night sky.
As we walked through what looked like a war zone. Literally it looked like a war had just hit with an over turned car in the middle of the concert field, the sounds of hundreds of people banging on trash cans to make like a tribal chant, festival buildings had fallen in due to people standing on the roof, and ATMs were smashed and broken into not to mention the other mayhem that was going on through out the rest of the area. Ace Hardware was being broken into and people were setting the camping area on fire.
As Chris stated in one of his posts, There was a strange feeling in the air. If you can picture a night sky as the end of woodstock hits, looking on to a field of a dozen of big bon fires, tribal beats from hundreds of drummers in the distance and clouds of smoke in the sky with trash, mud and remains of the weekend scattered everywhere. It was almost like the world had stopped for a moment and I was in a dream. This was no longer a concert of Peace and Love. This concert that seemed to relatively go extremely smooth in a second turned into mass chaos. They say that riots went down and looting was happening in the shops, but I did not witness a bit of it. That's what we witnessed there that night and it makes you really think when you get back to your normal life of how lucky you are to have what you have. This world has a lot of emotion in it from the positive side of love to the negative side of violence. As the millenium approaches we all need to come together and make this world a better place. It is becoming more and more difficult, as you can see, to bring a quarter of a million people together for a weekend of peace and love.
Overall, this has been a positive experience for me. I had a chance of a lifetime to make an adventure to woodstock with Donna, Chris and Jason. I met a lot of good people and made friends that may last a lifetime. Even though we walked among the poorest conditions I have ever been exposed to with outrages prices, mud, no water, and bad smells all around, as I heard Donna say as we dropped her off at her home, "I have no regrets". I must agree, of the million and a half other things that I could have been doing this past weekend, there is nothing that I would rather have done than spend it with those 3 other individuals at Woodstock '99: Donna, Chris and Jason. I can't wait til the next Woodstock and you better believe that we will be back here again, giving you the best coverage around. Next time we are getting those backstage passes. Keep a watch on this web site as more photos, commentary and stories get posted. We still have a lot in store for you.
Peace to the Lizard Kingdom and my friends who made the trek along with me from my home town of Manchester.
Peace
Drew
PS Keep Peace, Love and Happiness in your life and your heart. Take Little and Give A lot. Remember the people who are important in your life and appreciate that they are there. Friends are priceless.