Nearly 60 years after hundreds of thousands of people descended on Yasgur’s dairy farm in Sullivan County, the history of Woodstock is entering a new phase.
It’s no longer just about preserving memories of the legendary music festival. It’s about preserving the people who remember it.
As Bethel Woods Center for the Arts celebrates its 20th anniversary this week, museum staff are accelerating an effort to collect photographs, artifacts and oral histories before firsthand accounts become harder to find. A major donation from photographer Lisa Law is helping anchor that work.
Law has donated rare artifacts from the Hog Farm Free Kitchen, along with rights allowing the museum to use her Woodstock photographs for generations to come. The gift also launches a new exhibit opening July 23, as Bethel Woods looks ahead to the festival’s 60th anniversary in 2029.
“It’s crazy to think about that we are approaching the 60th anniversary of Woodstock,” said Dr. Neil Hitch, senior curator at the Museum at Bethel Woods.
For Hitch, the donation isn’t simply about adding objects to a collection. It’s about making sure one of the defining cultural events of the 20th century remains accessible as technology—and audiences—continue to change.
“I can’t even tell you what an exhibit is going to look like in 10 years,” he said. “I can guarantee you it’s not going to be a poster on a wall.”
Law’s photographs have long been recognized for documenting life behind the scenes at Woodstock, particularly the Hog Farm Free Kitchen, the volunteer operation that fed festivalgoers after attendance far exceeded expectations.
By Thursday, Aug. 14, 1969, organizers realized the Hog Farm had already served the 4,000 meals it had planned for the entire weekend. Law traveled to New York City to purchase vegetables, oats and other supplies before returning to help establish the Free Kitchen, which ultimately served more than 200,000 meals during the festival.
Her donation includes not only photographs but also the tools used to prepare those meals, including oversized stock pots and cleavers that appear in many of her images.
For Hitch, that pairing transforms the collection.
“The photographs show the artifact, and the artifact tells the story,” he said.
One of the collection’s most unusual pieces is a giant stock pot Law acquired just months after Woodstock. Hitch said she found it at a Hog Farm sale in Santa Fe in late 1969 and traded five chickens for it. The pot has since traveled with Law’s own Museum of the ’60s exhibitions before finding a permanent home at Bethel Woods.
The donation arrives as the museum expands its broader effort to preserve Woodstock’s history while many attendees are still able to tell their own stories.
With Law’s help, Bethel Woods has already recorded about 75 oral histories from people connected to the festival. Hitch said museum staff are now conducting interviews almost daily as visitors return to the historic site with children and grandchildren.
“It really is … one last pilgrimage for many of them,” he said.
The museum is also continuing to build its collection of clothing worn at Woodstock, which now includes about 205 pieces. New inquiries arrive regularly from people who have held onto festival keepsakes for decades.
For Hitch, the biggest surprise is not what has been collected—but that anything survived at all.
“I’m amazed that anything survived,” he said. “Almost daily we will get a call or an email or somebody will stop in with something that you just think, ‘How in the world did you save that thing?'”
The new exhibition featuring Law’s donation opens Thursday, July 23. Law will participate in historic site tours and museum programs throughout the weekend, coinciding with Bethel Woods’ 20th anniversary celebration on Friday, July 24.
Museum officials are encouraging anyone with Woodstock-related photographs, letters, tickets, clothing or other artifacts to contact the museum’s curatorial staff at museum@bethelwoodscenter.org to discuss preserving those pieces of history.
As the anniversary of Woodstock approaches, Hitch said the urgency is becoming more apparent. The festival lasted just three days, but preserving its legacy will take far longer.
“We’re making sure,” he said, “that the story is available for the next 60 years.”
Image: Lisa Law captured the preparation of a meal at the festival’s free kitchen. The Hog Farm, a long-standing commune, volunteered to construct the kitchen for use by the festivalgoers. (Lisa Law).