Bethel Woods takes off

Bethel Woods for the Performing Arts continues to amaze visitors, many of whom discover the 1969 Woodstock concert actually took place in the Sullivan County town of Bethel, not the better-known Ulster County artists”™ enclave bearing the concert”™s name.

Bethel Woods opened with fanfare in 2006 when the $100 million outdoor amphitheatre hosted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for its first show, drawing a full house. Nine concerts were held its opening year. Eighteen pavilion shows and seven event gallery performances are scheduled  for 2010, with ongoing events now making it the year-round destination founder Alan Gerry envisioned.

When the Museum at Bethel Woods opened in 2008, visitors could re-live their Woodstock moment in a 10,000 square foot permanent exhibition dedicated to three days of peace, music and love. (For those who missed the big event, they have an opportunity to find out what all the fuss is about.)

The museum  has since expanded the venue to nearly 40,000 square feet, leaving  its Woodstock exhibition intact and offering an intimate 300-seat octagonal indoor event gallery, which is open for music and other events such as radio shows.

Downstairs, an additional 7,500 square foot revolving exhibit has been adding to the museum”™s cachet. From a display featuring Yoko Ono and John Lennon to Eddie Adams”™ photo gallery depicting the war in Vietnam, its latest show opened opening July 29 and will run through January, 2011,  focusing on memorabilia from the famous concert.

Concerts have been well-attended and gaining traction.  Even the heavy downpour that accompanied the Moody Blues”™ concert on July 10 didn”™t deter the crowd;  it was filled to capacity for the Dave Matthews Band  sold-out concert on July 13. It sold out again for Santana, tearing up as he returned to the site 40 years after he played the original concert, and for Sting, backed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

A 1,000-seat outdoor, terraced amphitheatre behind the museum  is used for an array of events, ranging from the musical to the educational. Kiosks are open for vendors during concerts and serve a multitude of purposes. The 2010 Harvest Festival, held seven consecutive Sundays Aug. 29 through Oct. 10, will offer a wine festival, an alpaca festival, and an annual chili contest, among others.

Max Yasgur”™s farm, the original concert site  that drew 500,000 revelers to its 36 acres, remains untouched, save for an ornate marker commemorating the site of the original concert. The performing arts center is on land above it, the bowl-shaped topography perfect for accommodating the 4,500-seat amphitheatre with room for 10,000 more concert-goers on the grassy lawns surrounding it.

Today, with  a half-million visitors coming to explore the grounds or see a concert since it opened, Bethel Woods is continuing to expand its offerings, doing what founder Alan Gerry envisioned when he gave the media its first official glimpse of the concert site when under construction: to become a year-round venue for music, art and education. An 80-room boutique hotel planned for Bethel near the performing arts center and now before the town”™s planning board would certainly be a plus for the venue.

While the Catskills region strives to reinvent itself, Bethel Woods may well  become the epicenter of its new era.