On the bill for Woodstock weekend 2009 at Bethel Woods:
Friday, August 14:
Richie Havens, whose three-hour set captivated the Woodstock audience, opens the anniversary weekend. His return engagement was sold out shortly after it was announced. His position as the opening act of the anniversary weekend mirrors history -- Havens was also the opening act at the 1969 festival.
Saturday, August 15:
The Bethel Woods Music Festival will feature Heroes of Woodstock, so called because most of them were there for the original event: Levon Helm, Ten Years After, Jefferson Starship, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Mountain, Canned Heat, "Country Joe" McDonald and then-Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten. In keeping with the spirit of the original festival, Mountain's Leslie West will not only perform, he'll be married on stage at the conclusion of the band's set.
Largely lost in the history of the event is the fact that Woodstock was a "music and art" event. Accordingly, a major arts and craft show will coincide with the performances.
Sunday, August 16:
Participants in a panel discussion at The Museum at Bethel Woods include Sam Yasgur (son of the late Max Yasgur, the original owner of the farm on which the 1969 festival was staged), Jan Cheripko (now an author, then a lifeguard at a pond on the festival site), photographer Barry Levine, and historian John Conway.
Monday, August 17:
Book signing and readings from Woodstock Revisited: 50 Far-Out, Groovy, Peace-Loving, Flashback-Inducing Stories from Those Who Were There.
Other original Woodstock performers who will be part of the venue's summer concert series are Arlo Guthrie on August 22 and John Sebastian on October 2.
