The Woodstock experience is a museum peice now. The Museum at Bethel Woods opens today (June 2,2008) on the site of the old diary farm north - west of New York City that was trampled uder by some 400,000 people on the wet week-end of Aug. 15-17, 1969.
A $100 million music and arts center, it tells the story of Woodstock.
Mocked recently by conservative politicians as a hippie museum. Sen. McCain said in an ad "A few days ago, Senator Clinton tried to spend $1 million on the Woodstock concert museum,Now my friends, I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event, I was tied up at the time he says amid grainy black-and-white shots of a younger McCain strapped to a bed. A Navy pilot, McCain was shot down in 1967 and spent 5 1/2 years in a North Vietnamese prison. During the debate, McCain's line earned him a standing ovation. Republican presidential rival Rudy Giuliani, his head thrown back, is shown laughing at the joke during the debate.
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REDNECKS !
The exhibits actually give a thorough look at the generation - defining
concert and the noisy decade that led up to it.Michael Egan, who is in charge of developing the museum for the Not - for - profit "Gerry Foundation"said "We tell you the story of the 60's, the story of
Woodstock and the story of the legacy of Woodstock."
After efforts to hold the concert in the artsy town of Woodstock fell through, Max Yasgur's farm was chosen as the site for the event.
Visitors to the museum are led on a walk through the decade of the 60's cultural trends.First they see exhibits featuring the likes of Dr. Spock and JFK. After a few turns the museum psychedelicizes bit-by-bit with go - go boots and love beads before Woodstock takes center stage.
Included in the Woodstock displays are a section of the chain link fence that was placed around the site in a futile bid to keep gate crashers out.Another is a plaque telling the story of Leni Binder, a local woman who made peanut butter sandwiches for the kids at the concert.
UPDATE -- Oct. 30th 2008
Politicians kill funding for
The Woodstock Museum
Lawrenceville, NJ – U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer’s “Waste of the Week” campaign this week highlights how Senator Frank Lautenberg chose to spend $1,000,000 on a hippie museum rather than support a prenatal and child healthcare program.The Museum at Bethel Woods is commonly referred to as the Woodstock hippie museum since it examines the experience of the Woodstock festival and the legacy of the Sixties.
Senator Lautenberg voted against a specific amendment that would have shifted $1,000,000 in federal funds from the Woodstock hippie museum to the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Program which provides prenatal and children’s healthcare. (Senate vote 377, October 18, 2007, S. Amdt. 3321 to HR 3043, FL voted yes on motion to kill amendment)
During yesterday’s U.S. Senate radio debate on New Jersey 101.5 FM, Senator Lautenberg said that he voted for the hippie museum because “it looked like something that was vital in terms of American history and the movement of our society.” However, the museum was considered absurd even by Democrats who crossed party lines to kill it.
Zimmer issued the following statement: “Apparently, Senator Lautenberg feels that preserving go-go boots and tie-dyed t-shirts is more ‘vital’ to society than the health of our nation’s children. “Wasteful spending must be stopped so our economy can get back on track. As Senator, I will eliminate wasteful spending and make the interests of the taxpayers my top priority.”
Zimmer’s “Waste of the Week” campaign is designed to highlight Senator Frank Lautenberg’s record of supporting wasteful spending and pork-barrel politics at the expense of New Jersey taxpayers. Previous Wastes of the Week were the $300 billion Farm Bill, the $389 million Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska, a $225,000 pamphlet on beaver damage, various Monuments to Me spending projects, the Teapot Museum in North Carolina, the Joplin, Missouri interchange, Amtrak’s Sunset Limited, renovations for the Scottish Rite Theatre in Collingswood, New Jersey, the EarthPark indoor rainforest in Iowa, the Frank R. Lautenberg Train Station, the Camden-Philadelphia aerial tram, the wood uses research and the Hippie museum.Oct 30 2008
