Woodstock, that cultural touchstone of all things hippie rock, is deserving of a museum on the original site of the rock festival, some classic rock devotees say. The request was made for $1 million from the federal government to fund the museum. To the surprise of many, the Senate recently killed the grant request.

But, if the feds thought they had squashed the Woodstock Museum, they underestimated the hippie set. The museum has acquired enough state funds, about $15 million, to build the museum honoring the three-day festival. The museum will be officially be called the Museum at Bethel Woods.

The museum will be located on the site of Max Yasgur’s farm, where the festival was held. For years tourists have visited the site, and only a small stone monument has marked the historic site. The new monument will be the brand-new museum, placed in precisely the spot where the original Woodstock stage stood. The
The site of the original three-day concert is no longer a farm, however. Billionaire Alan Gerry purchased the site about 10 years ago with an eye toward developing it as a site for tourism. He has already put $85 million into the site to build the recently-opened performing arts venue, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, which sits on part of the original farm’s land.

The museum will be a two-story building full of Woodstock memorabilia. It will also house interviews as part of an oral history of the music festival. Profiles of the musicians and multi-media displays will attempt to give a complete picture of what the festival was and how it effected the culture of time. Some of the exhibits within the Woodstock museum will chronicle other events during the decade to put the history-making festival into perspective.

The Woodstock museum is already under construction and is slated to open in 2008. It is currently accepting donated Woodstock artifacts. If you have any artifacts that might fit into the collection, you can contact the museum directly through https://www.bethelwoodslive.org.


To get a better perspective on the festival, see Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music . This four-hour look at Woodstock includes some of the best footage ever shot of the festival.

The Woodstock Boox Set is a four-disc set of live recordings, including stage rantings.