The Road to Woodstock 1969... April-June

The Wallkill Site for Woodstock 1969

With an April 18 Deadline to appear before the Town of Wallkill's Planning Board, the Team was riding high in the Saddle... with high confidence, they started moving the ball to make it happen.

Downplaying the fact that it was a Rock Concert first, they appeared before the Board and told them they were having an "Arts fair" at the Mills Industrial Park with a possible 40 to 50 thousand People attending.... they promised to take out Liability Insurance for the Event. Initially, the Board seemed somewhat dubious but told them they had no objections to the Plans.

Lang's reaction to pursuing the Site was that of horror... it was not the open Pasture of comfort he had assumed and found an ugly mess of crude construction as if the Land had been Raped and the debris was abandoned... to Michael lang "It had no Soul." After discussions, they felt it was recoverable and could be transformed into an acceptable Landscape... maybe! The only real plus was that it had easy access to Roads... the Electric, Water, and Sewer were in place and there was a Telephone Line along the Road.

The assumption was made that approval was evident, although they never got an official, signed Permit, they started putting the effort into recruiting the Staff to make it all happen... the Bill Graham Filmore Organization, the King of Concert Lighting from Filmore East, heard about their Plans and wanted in. The speculation of just how many would attend was all over the Board, but what did it matter how many came, it just had to be done right!

Lang was quick to hire one Bill Hanley, considered the "Father of Festival Sound" after successfully engineering Bob Dylan's controversial "Electric Set" at Newport Folk in 1966... and had installed the Sound System at Bill Graham's Filmore East. Lang knew the magnitude of what was needed for the size of Crowd they expected and felt strongly there was only one who could pull it off... after discussing it at length, Bill committed to doing it.

The rest of April into May was spent setting up Accounts as if it was all sure to happen... the Electric and Telephone Communication contracts were negotiated and the word had gotten out and there was no problem lining Groups for the heavy work. But, there was one problem not anticipated... once the word hit the local Newspapers, the "Anti-Woodstock" Coalition began to emerge in force against the "Aquarian Exposition."

To get the word out to the Youth masses, they turned to the Alternative Press... the Berkely Barb, the NYC Rat, the Village Voice, and through Leaflets distributed everywhere within a major University.

Lang and his Staff began mapping out the placement of the Stage, Camping areas, Toilets, Kitchens, Telephone Booths, and Concessions... their Goal was to make all Attendees feel comfortable, safe, and close to Nature.

Note: On the 9th of June, I got a call from my Bass Player best Friend (Butch) who was working on the Team for the Woodstock Site saying it all had been moved to a Town called Wallkill... as I was still working in Brooklyn on dealing with Daddy Trump's great Vision to own it all and make it a Poster Child for the "NYC Rejuvenation Plan", I jumped in my Porsche 911 and drove the 90 miles in a heartbeat to see the Site.

Quite frankly, my opinion was that this was never going to happen and I advised Butch not to do anything until one could see that it was for real... and glad we were that they did not lay the massive amount of cables in the ground as they were not recoverable.

When I finished my visit, I noticed a Group of Old Farts staring at what was going on and asked Butch about the reception the Town was giving Lang and Company... he replied most curtly, "They are going to fight this very hard and I give it little chance to succeed. I won't bury any cables until I see the actual placement of Structures being constructed."

By the time of the Board Meeting, most of the Contracts were signed... Tim Harden ($2,000), The Incredible String Band ($4,500), Ravi Shanker ($4,500), Ritchie Haven ($6,000), Arlo Guthrie ($5,000), and Joan Baez ($10,000), The Grateful Dead ($7,500), Janis Joplin ($15,000), and The Band ($15,000). Lang had to have Jimi Hendricks who had just pulled $150G at the Garden and his Manager was rigid for $50G... the final settlement was for Jimi to Open and Close for $30G pls $2G expenses (did not happen as planned). The last to sign was the relatively new Band on the East Coast, and after listening to their Tapes, Lang agreed to get them for $1,500.

A confident Lang, he hired the Filmore Box office manager, Keith O'Connor to manage Ticket sales and Placed the first lot for $6 in Boutiques and Head Shops and sold out immediately... next, they were repriced for $7 and sold out... next $13 for 2 Days and $18 for all 3 days... in the first 2 weeks of June, they had sold over $169G of Tickets.

By this time, Woodstock 69 had become an Event to demonstrate to the Old Guard that the "Counterculture Style' was for real and everyone who had a Pen was writing Blurbs in the Rags through the Country... basically, Young People were saying to each other, "What the Fuck, it looks like a great time... let's GO!"

Lang was momentarily on "Cloud 9" as the 2 meetings with the Board seemed to go well despite the growing Resistance by the Locals... another was Abbie Hoffman who wanted to make it more Political Statement but Lang withstood his BS and things would move on... but... what was in the Air? The Wallkill Ordinance!

Construction of the Stage began with 200 Local kids who gladly were getting $5/hour to help create the Event of the Century... there were over 30 days to complete the construction and things seemed to be going smoothly when on July 15, 1969, the Wallkill Zoning Board of Appeals officially banned the Concert on the basis that the planned portable toilets would not meet town code and no Concert for more than 5,000 Attendees would be allowed.

Holy Fukin' Shite... what to do... find out in the next Issue... Willie