20 STORIES FOR 20 YEARS

Robyn Gerry - Part 2

"I think it's important to clarify that it's not that the Gerrys had this great idea to develop the property into something. Everybody had an idea. And many people had the same idea. The idea was not novel. It was finding the person with the means and the interest and the desire to do so. 

 

No one wanted to see June Gelish spread more chicken manure over the ground so no one would come, or park town trucks to keep people away. 

 

Everybody wanted a way to mark the site. The energy there is such a magnet that people wanted to be there. There's something that happened in 1969 that makes people want to be on those grounds. 

 

Next, we wanted to get our feet wet with some trial events. If we threw a party, would people come? Because honestly, in the beginning the feeling was, with all the unsanctioned reunions, people are coming. It's not the field of dreams: ‘If you build it, they will come.’ They were coming. And someone needed to build it. Someone needed to harness all the energy that was being brought there, and turn it into something that was beneficial for the county, for the community. It was never about, let’s invest in something and make a ton of money. On the contrary, it's the opposite. This was done for all the right reasons, and I don't think it could have succeeded with someone who wanted to make money on it. 

 

We knew they were going to come. During this period, it was a matter of, was it going to be viable? Could you have a three-day weekend festival? I think we had about 30,000 people each time we did it. But where are we going to park the cars? We opened up a lot of fields. We had all these little pockets of parking lots anywhere where it was level and the water would drain well. How are we going to get them in and out on a two-lane 17B or the back roads? Those were really important lessons that we learned about how to do this: where the challenges were, what was easy, what wasn't. So we did that in August for two years, 1998 and ’99. 

 

In ’98 we had Joni Mitchell, Pete Townsend, Stevie Nicks, Don Henley. The last day, we had the Goo Goo Dolls and Third Eye Blind. Marcy Playground, and Joan Osborne. Here's a bit of fun trivia: We also had a second stage, up on top of the hill, for outstanding local talent, and on Saturday, Gavin DeGraw was on our second stage. 

 

So then there was the whole process of designing and building Bethel Woods, and the majority of that was my dad. We had lots of property to buy, I was part of the initial planning and I took leave after a while. We brought in a lot of consultants to help us formulate what we would do. 

 

I'll never forget the New York Times came out with an article after it was announced properly, saying we were going to build a theme park. It got my stomach churning; I don't know where they heard that, or who they spoke to. But I was mortified. I was like, ‘No.’

 

And then there were the stories of people saying that we were going to build on the field. That's sacred ground. You can't do that. I'm here to say never at any time did we consider building anything on the field. 

We are preserving that. We always understood how important that was. 

 

Now I’m part of the audience at most Bethel Woods shows. When I'm getting ready to go in and watch a show, I can't help but pause and take a moment and really take in 15,000, 16,000 people, all there to have a good time, all there to feel the vibes. It just gets me every time. It never gets old. How exciting is that? This was our goal: to improve the quality of life for the people in Sullivan County, and that's just what's happening. 

 

We are so much more than concerts and events. We continue to give back and improve the lives of the people in Sullivan County. We are a 501(C)(3) charitable organization with educational programs serving people from five years old all the way up until older adults. We run music programs and fine arts programs and healing programs, and many of these are free to the community. If you can't afford to participate in the ones we charge for, we have scholarship programs where you can attend for free. There are children who started with our programming 10 years ago, and they're still part of the program, some of them even work for us. We've really changed lives. 

 

The best feedback is a parent telling us how the educational program has changed their child's life for the better. Watching parents come to one of our free events like our Horizon Happy Hour. And watching them dance with their children on the big lawn. You know, those are the moments that just stop me in my tracks and really make me proud of what we've accomplished. It really makes me grateful to my dad for believing, because he had the reputation and the integrity to make it reality.

 

I love watching people. I love seeing them enjoying themselves. Nothing gives me greater joy than to see them out and being a part of this. They came in ’69. They came back for all the reunions, and they're still coming today.

 

The message of Woodstock, the spirit of Woodstock is alive and well and living at Bethel Woods."