BETHEL WOODS – Routes 17 and I-84 through Orange and Sullivan counties are dotted with portable traffic signs warning of possible delays due to heavy traffic because of the expected attendance at the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock music festival at Bethel. That has not occurred. So far, traffic has been light to moderate on a typical Thursday and Friday. Westbound traffic may pick up later today.
Attendance at the Bethel Woods site during the day on Thursday was not spectacular. Arlo Guthrie provided a free concert during the day with only about 5,000 there.
The concerts Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights are expected to be sold out.
Sullivan County native Steve Gold, owner of Peace of Stage, acquired the wooded boards that made up the stage at Woodstock 1969. Six are on loan to Bethel Woods for the anniversary. Another one is at the Catskill Distilling Company a mile up the road from Bethel Woods where people are coming to sign their names in support of gun control reform.
Gold plans to deliver that board to Senator Mitch McConnell in Washington, DC to let them know how people feel in light of the three recent violent attacks – in El Paso, Dayton and Philadelphia. He expects to collect several hundred signatures by the end of this weekend.
