How Woodstock Changed The Little Town Of Bethel, N.Y.
"Fifty years ago, the tiny town of Bethel, N.Y., was transformed into a teeming city of
more than 400,000 people brought together by peace, love and music. Today, the site of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, as it was officially called, is on the National Register of Historic Places. For some who were there, it's a place of pilgrimage, memories and the site of a museum full of memorabilia."
"'I remember that sign. A farmer put it out on the side of the road,' Carl Porter says as he tours the Woodstock exhibition in the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts Museum, which sits on the actual site of the festival. Porter was 21 years old in 1969 and his leave from the service coincided with Woodstock. But as thrilled as Porter was to be there, lots of other locals weren't."
"'It's actually an old porcelain tabletop that he scribbled that sign on to chase away the hippies,' Porter continues. 'It says, 'Local people speak out. Stop Max's hippie music festival. No 150,000 hippies here.' "