I was there, but only for about 24 hours -- Saturday morning through sunrise Sunday, when Jimi Hendrix closed an 18-hour show with the Star Spangled Banner.

Fortunately, I had a friend whose family had always summered in the area and who knew the back roads. Three of us who were working 9-5 Mon-Fri drove up from New Jersey, circumvented the road closings on the New York Thruway and other main highways, and took all night to get to Bethel. We arrived just after the sun came up, parked, and started walking in the same direction as a large crowd. As it turned out, we had managed to park no more than a quarter-mile from the stage area. The stage was at the bottom of a natural amphitheater, with hillsides sloping down to it on three sides.

There were several hours before music started up. I remember skinny-dipping in a waterfall and being approached by a group of Japanese weilding film cameras. Music started about 2 pm -- Canned Heat opened, I remember, with "Goin' Up The Country."

(Aside: the festival site was many miles away from the well-known artist-colony town of Woodstock. Bob Dylan lived in Woodstock for quite a while years earlier, contributing to its fame, but did not take part in the festival. His buddies The Band, though, both lived in the town of Woodstock and later played the festival named for the town but produced elsewhere.)

My best memories of the music heard that day were Jimi's closing anthem (noted above), Santana's perfomance early in the day when the weather first began to clear -- it seemed as though he were personally causing the clouds to part with his wonderfully intense playing -- and Sly Stone getting everyone on their feet in the wee wee hours (3-4 am or so) to sing along with "I Wanna Take You Higher."

Actaully, the entire after-dark, all-night lineup was pretty good: in addition to Sly and the Family Stone, I remember with ceratinty the Airplane, the Who, and that almost-debut CSN performance. Beyond these few clear memories, it's hard for me to sort out my memories of the actual event from my memories of the film (!)

Let me assure everyone that the Grateful Dead did NOT play at Woodstock -- at least, not a whole set or even a whole song. (As a longtime Deadhead, I know this for sure.) They were scheduled, they showed up and walked on stage while it was raining, sustained an electric shock or two while tuning up or perhaps just starting their first number, and left. This may have occurred on Saturday, the day I was there, because I think I remember hoping to hear their show, and because I know that it did rain on and off during that afternoon (although Saturday, the one day I was there, was the *least* rainy of the three days). In any event, their walkoff is documented in the movie, and it was during daylight hours. And because I've seen in it the movie so many times, I am no longer sure whether it's also part of my "real" memories from being at the event.