Woodstock Redo At Yasgur's Farm

NEW YORK - All those old hippies who think Woodstock should mean rain, not fire, get their turn this weekend. Thinner, grayer hair won't keep at least eight artists from the original 1969 Woodstock, plus thousands of their fans, from returning to Yasgur's Farm for a show called "A Day in the Garden."

Yasgur's is the dairy farm in upstate Bethel where a gathering of 400,000 fans on Aug. 15-17, 1969, spawned the original Woodstock myth.

This year's returnees will include David Crosby, then of Crosby Stills Nash and Young and now with a new band called CPR; Richie Havens; Arlo Guthrie; Johnny Winter; Melanie; Country Joe McDonald; Leslie West of Mountain; and Rick Danko and Garth Hudson of The Band.

They will play Sunday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. For those who want to make a weekend of it, there will also be a country festival tomorrow, with evening performances by Reba McEntire and Randy Travis.

This event is unrelated to the official Woodstock '99 held last month in upstate Rome. That three-day event drew 220,000 fans and featured current rock bands like Limp Bizkit and Rage Against the Machine. Michael Lang, one of the producers of both this year's official Woodstock and the 1969 original, says there is room for both shows.

"Our Woodstock is for today's fan, like the 1969 festival was for fans then," Lang says. "But I'm glad there's something in Bethel, too. There should be a musical presence there."

Yasgur's Farm remained in private hands for many years after the 1969 festival, with few official events held there. But each year thousands of fans would still flock to the site on the anniversary weekend, and many years various artists would perform free.