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Did you know the average age of a Woodstock Festival attendee is over 75 years old? As the generation of peace and love continues to age, the clock is ticking on capturing their stories before they are lost forever.
If you were there, or if you can pass the word along to someone you know who was there, you can help.
Housed at the original site of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair, currently Bethel Wood Center for the Arts, the Museum at Bethel Woods is dedicated to documenting as many first-hand accounts of the festival as possible, and is now embarking on its second cross-country road trip to find attendees, with an upcoming stop in Santa Fe.
The project aims to obtain a deeper understanding of the counterculture of the 1960s by documenting personal experiences. This round of the initiative will focus on stories about peace, resistance and resilience. Bethel Woods is eager to hear from anyone who may have worked at Woodstock, served as a volunteer or had interactions with any of the organizations who came to Woodstock to aid with the festival. The nonprofit organization is also collecting stories about the wider social movements in New York City and the surrounding region. Significant partnerships with the American LBGTQ+ Museum and the Borsch Belt Marker project aim to collect stories from people who were on the front lines of justice and reform.
Attendees can participate by recording their stories with curators in locations across the country including Santa Fe April 11-12.
The museum is committed to gathering at least 4,500 oral histories — roughly 1 percent of the estimated attendees — to collect and commemorate perspectives that round out the picture of the greatest festival of all time. To attend any of the pop-ups, sign up by contacting OralHistory@BethelWoodsCenter.org.
If you cannot attend one of these locations, you can still participate virtually by emailing.
