Photo Courtesty of 99 FM
This past Memorial Day weekend marked the first Mysteryland Concert Series to be held in the United States. To stage such a landmark set of performances the venue was perhaps the most cherished rock venue of all time: Woodstock. The festival was marred by many technical snafus and consistent rainfall that caused problems for the performances. Still, the festival was proclaimed “an undeniable success not only for Bethel Woods but also our local community,” by Darlene Fedun, Chief Executive Officer of the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. “We are proud to have had the opportunity to share the beauty of our site and its surroundings with a new generation of music and arts enthusiasts.
Mysteryland is a festival that welcomes Electronic Rock Artists from all over the world. While the festival originated as a Dutch Dance Music festival in 1993, it recently started being held outside of its home country when Chile hosted it in 2011. This year featured peformances from Steve Aoki, Nicky Romero, Nervo, Amtrac, Dyro, and many many more.
Although the festival was quite the event, the future looks ready for a 50th anniversary of the festival to be held on the very same grounds. Original organizer Michael Lang told Rolling Stone this morning that plans for the 2019 50th anniversary concert were underway. While the date may seem a way’s off, reunions and reattempts have been done before with mixed success. The most notoriously awful occurred in 1999 which was plagued with riots, violence, and instances of rape. Five years is a comfortable time cushion, but much has to be done before concrete plans can be made. It will be interesting to see which classic and new artists come out to make it a memorable experience.
Woodstock took place in what was then a parcel of Max Yasgur’s Dairy Farm and what later became the current Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. The performances of Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, and The Grateful Dead have since become part of Rock & Roll History. The Concert was documented many times, most notably in the extensive 1970 documentary Woodstock and the 2009 Ang Lee film of Taking Woodstock.