12 Woodstock Survival Tips
Dateline: 07/20/99
Five years ago, my
brother, Michael Snyder, attended the 25th anniversary Woodstock '94 festival in
Saugerties, New York. Now, with the wisdom of another five years under his belt but
with the memories of mud people and tipped port-o-potties still vivid, he's heading back
this weekend to Woodstock '99, the 30th
anniversary concert in Rome, New York, which starts this Friday, July 23 and runs through
Sunday, July 25.
If your weekend plans include being among the rumored throng of 300,000 people that will descend on Rome, here are a dozen suggestions, straight from a Woodstock '94 survivor, to help you minimize hassles and discomforts. Though the forecast for this weekend in Rome is still calling for warm temperatures and cloudy sunshine with no rain, these tips will help to make your trip fun and memorable--even if tradition holds and it rains on Woodstock this weekend.
Bring a tent and a sleeping bag.
"Last time, I didn't even bring a tent. I used newspapers as a pillow and slept in
the Grand Union [grocery store] parking lot. Sleeping under the stars seems like a great
idea--until it storms in the middle of the night. Bring a hammer, too, because we've had
such little rain that the ground is going to be hard and it'll be tough to drive tent
stakes."
Bring your own toilet paper... and
nose plugs.
"The port-o-johns don't always have toilet paper, and they wound up being knocked
over, so there was a stench everywhere around there."
Don't bring a mirror.
"You won't want to see what you look like on Sunday afternoon. With a crowd of
300,000, even if there are shower facilities, you'll never see them."
You may or may not be able to bring in
your own alcoholic beverages.
"The official word is that there will be a beer garden inside and that you won't be
allowed to bring in any alcoholic beverages. Last time, in '94, they said that they were
going to search bags, so we were nervous. We wound up walking right in through the main
gate with our tickets in our pockets and nobody said a word. You're not going to wheel in
three cases of beer, but you probably won't have trouble taking in something compact that
fits in a bag."
Bring your patience.
"You're going to have to deal with throngs of people, all trying to get to the same
place or to get food."
Start your diet this weekend.
"The food was lousy last time anyway, and you'll have to wait in long lines for
it."
Leave early or stay late.
"We left early in 1994 and we missed a lot of the traffic. We missed a couple of good
shows by doing that, too, though. Leave early Sunday or take Monday off and plan to leave
at a leisurely pace to avoid the traffic nightmare. The parking lots will all be open
until Monday."
Bring a disposable camera, or one you
won't mind losing.
"There are obviously going to be sights to see... people walking around naked."
Don't Miss the Up-and-Coming Bands on
Friday night.
"Very few big performers from '94 will be present... and Metallica was lousy last
time because their sound was off. I really enjoyed the music Friday last time. The
up-and-coming bands really played their hearts out--they'd never played in front of an
audience that big before."
Don't miss the band "Tragically
Hip"
"Tragically Hip is the band that's getting a lot of pre-Woodstock buzz. They're a big
sensation in Canada, in the same genre as Live, one of the few bands back this year after
performing in 1994. They're not well known here in the U.S. yet."
Bring your cell phone to order pizza.
"Just tell them to deliver it to the guy in the yellow shirt. Seriously, my sister's
got a list of Rome pizza places that deliver...
take it with you."
If you meet somebody cool, don't count
on ever seeing him or her again.
"You can try asking for a phone number or an email address, and if you want to
remember it badly enough--you'll remember. But moving from place to place is very hard and
it's nearly impossible to be at the place you said you'd be if you're trying to meet up
with people. There were a quarter million people there last time. The estimates are for
300,000 this year. It's just wall-to-wall people; it's like nothing I'd ever seen."
Have your own Woodstock survival tips? or a question for Michael? Post them on the New England for Visitors Forum.
Want the official scoop on the dos and don'ts for Woodstock '99? The Rome Daily Sentinel has the official list of what's allowed (near the bottom of the page).
For more Woodstock '99 travel and festival information, check Woodstock '99 Cyber-HQ here at About.com.
Portrait photo provided by Michael Snyder.
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