Posted by Drew on July 23, 1999 at 15:17:00:
As we drove into this so-called military base yesterday afternoon that for years was meant to keep people out, all you could see was tie-die shirted partiers hanging out car windows and those who were walking were looking for rides in because the gatekeepers would not allow a single soul to walk into this once high security area, now the biggest single party in the world.
As carloads and carloads of people made there way into this place, they made you drive along side of this event for probably a half a mile to get to the parking. Along side of the runway we were driving on was a 12 foot wall, which actually surrounds the entire event. It was absolutely amazing. Visuals from times future, times present, and past.
As we gathered our gear, tent, and supplies we started to make our trek to the woodstock grounds. We came upon the north gate entrance to find a massive line of steal re-enforced baricades and metal fences. It looked more like I was being send to a boot camp. We walked the dirt roads into the tent villages to find a camp area that was more than a few acres, but rather hundreds of acres of land. So how do we find our little tent circle in a place where there are soon to be 10's of thousands of tents. Not an easy task. I was accompanied by Donna carrying all of our gear in when the heat became too much to go on. So we decided to take a small break from the walk to find that we had fallen directly into the location of our little tent circle community. Lucky! A gift from God! Who knows but with all the heat and dirt, those people in that tent circle was like winning a million dollars.
We set up camp, met some new faces including a rainbow haired girl named Sharon who handed out little lizards, little peace decorations, and other woodstock items and we even had the chance to sign her tent.
We have arrived and after hardly any sleep and an exhausting trip in, we were not ready to sit down.
We headed to the stages, one on the west side of the base that looked more like a skyscraper than a stage, one on the east side that looked typical of the woodstock 94 stage (huge and colorful), and a third stage protuding from a massive airplane hanger for emerging artists. I stood there in shock as the sounds rippled from the hundreds of speakers in this mass of people.
We have not eaten since yesterday, so we will be back to update you soon. I got one word to leave you with, and with all the people, music, arts and culture here at woodstock 99 that word could none only be ...... PEACE !