ROME, N.Y. -- At the original Woodstock, there were warnings about bad acid. At Woodstock '99, the admonishments are about water -- drink lots of it.
Organizers on Saturday tried to push H2O on more than 225,000 people sweltering in 90-degree-plus temperatures during the second day of the three-day megaconcert."There's lots of free water here. There's water all over the site. We just have to get people to use it," promoter John Scher said. "Without being preachy or lecturing them, we are telling concertgoers to drink lots of water, wear hats and use sunscreen."
Since the concert began on Friday, Scher said emergency medical crews had treated nearly 1,000 people for heat exhaustion and dehydration, and that continued to be the top concern.
Not crime. Not traffic. Not gatecrashers. Not the growing piles of garbage and overflowing portable toilets.
Other than the heat, the 30th anniversary festival at an abandoned military base in upstate New York was running fairly smoothly.
There was one death: a 44-year-old Massachusetts man suffered a heart attack overnight at his campsite. The man had been in the hospital two weeks ago for heart surgery and state police believed his death was unrelated to the heat.
A concertgoer also gave birth. The delivery came at a local hospital, not the festival site, officials said.
Water fountains and "rain rooms" -- tents with sprinklers -- are set up throughout the site. Concert workers sprayed those in front with hoses and passed jugs of water back into the crowd.
Even as the second day began, people continued streaming into the concert grounds. About 25,000 people arrived overnight Friday and Scher said organizers would continue to sell discounted tickets -- now priced at $120 apiece -- as long as people wanted to buy them.