For Love and Money

This weekend is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, that music festival that became more than just a concert but came to symbolize the apex of the peace and love era of the 1960s. And four decades on, its legacy has endured. The music. The mud. And yes, even the money.

Even though the original Woodstock was free, the legendary concert and festival has more recently become an economic boon to the upstate New York area that played host to hundreds of thousands of fans and musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin on that summer weekend in 1969.

Alan Gerry, a billionaire cable television entrepreneur who grew up in the Catskills region where the concert was held, built his empire in his hometown in Sullivan County. As his business grew, he saw his and neighboring towns begin to decline. After he sold his business to Time Warner in 1996, he wanted to do something to help his community. Gerry, now near 80, was too old for Woodstock himself, but he knew that this festival still meant a lot to many people. That same year he bought the farm on which the concert was held, and has since opened a museum there and turned part of it into a concert site. Now, the venue called Bethel Woods Center For The Arts, attracts those hoping to catch acts like The Allman Brothers, B.B. King and even some Woodstock veterans like Crosby Stills Nash & Young, as well as those just hoping to go to the museum to reminisce. The resulting tourist dollars have helped buoy the local economy and has also helped attract more residents to the growing second home industry in the area. Even as memories of the original concert fade, the sense of community remains.

Photo courtesy of DBKing, via Flickr