Thankfully, I didn’t go. But I did go to a different sort of Woodstock that summer: A Day in the Garden.

It was held at the original site — Max Yasgur’s farm — and featured a number of artists from the original. I remember these ones: Country Joe McDonald, Richie Havens, Arlo Guthrie, and David Crosby’s CPR.

It was lightly raining as we drove in from CT, and the grass was still wet when we put our blanket down on the hill. Thankfully the clouds parted by the time the show started and we had a glorious summer day of music.

We were surrounded by thousands of old hippies, and though my friends and I were more of alt/punk rock kids, we were all kids of hippies so we felt at home.

It was a really chill afternoon. I smoked my first tobacco that day with some sweet-tasting mini cigars, and at one point we were joined on our blanket by a dude in his 50s who said he hitchhiked and walked all night to get there — wearing the same jeans the whole time, so as he put it, “my ass is chapped”.

Richie Havens absolutely rocked, and Arlo Guthrie’s set really got me into him in a lasting way — many years later, City of New Orleans became my favourite lullaby for my kids.

The show wrapped up and we had a long drive home in the dark — including a legendary toll booth mishap at the Newburgh Bridge. One of my quarters rebounded off of the back of the basket and fell out, leaving me scrambling on the pavement to find it as cars started piling up behind us. Thankfully my best friend found another in his pocket and he threw it from the rear passenger side, across the car, through the window, and in. And we were off into the night.

Being the summer after we had all graduated from high school, taking an out-of-state road trip on our own really felt like a rite of passage. Definitely a core memory.

Faithful return for Woodstock redux - Associated Press - August 16, 1999