It wouldn't be Woodstock without a little chaos.
Nearly everything ran behind schedule on the eve of Woodstock '94, from getting vending stands up and running to shuttling fans to the Hudson River Valley farm in time for opening acts Friday morning.In 1969, it was an obscure folksinger named Richie Havens who opened Woodstock. This time, an unknown local heavy metal band, Roguish Armament with Rekk, played the first guitar licks.
"This is Woodstock '94 - Peace. Music. Love," said one of the stage announcers, Reggie Gaines. "That's what we're all here for."
The music started at about 11:15 a.m., 15 minutes behind schedule.
"It's pretty disorganized when you think they've been planning this for how many months?" said Lisa Britt of Pinehurst, N.C., who waited in Coxsackie for a shuttle bus to take her to the concert in Saugerties, 20 miles south.
Joe Palmasani of Endicott, N.Y., had been camped out in Coxsackie since Tuesday to be on one of the first buses.
"You got one guy here saying, `I'm in charge of the bus.' Another guy saying, `I'm in charge of the keys to the bus.' Another guy over here whose whole job is to guard the orange traffic cones," he said. "But nobody seems to be in charge of the whole thing."
In spite of everything, the Woodstock Nation was taking shape Friday. Thousands of tents had gone up, and the grounds resembled a village of colorful igloos.
"We're here. We're psyched. We're ready," said Helen Tedford of Worcester, Mass., who arrived with three friends shortly before midnight and pitched their tent in the dark.
Promoters boasted they would have a quarter-million hot dogs, 4.5 miles of submarine sandwiches and mounds of other food available by noon Thursday, but food stalls remained closed until special Woodstock scrip arrived Thursday evening. The token coins must be used for all purchases.
Fans are prohibited from bringing food, alcohol, bottles, metal tent stakes or anything else that could be used as a weapon.
"There's a lot of rules. Too many rules," said Eric Stephani of New York City.
For all the disorder, other fans said it would be worthwhile once the music started. Headliners like Joe Cocker, Melissa Etheridge, Aerosmith, Bob Dylan and Peter Gabriel were to perform Saturday or Sunday.