WOODSTOCK MAY GET REVIVAL : BUSINESSMAN PLANS TO TURN FESTIVAL SITE INTO '60S THEME PARK.Byline: Joseph Berger Joseph Berger is an American theoretical sociologist and a Professor Emeritus. After earning his doctoral degree in sociology at Harvard University in the 1950s, he established a theoretical and experimental research program at Stanford University. The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times A wealthy businessman has bought the site of the fabled 1969 Woodstock festival and plans to turn it into a theme park - a major tourist attraction Noun 1. tourist attraction - a characteristic that attracts tourists attractive feature, magnet, attractor, attracter, attraction - a characteristic that provides pleasure and attracts; "flowers are an attractor for bees" and shrine to the 1960s counterculture coun·ter·cul·ture n. A culture, especially of young people, with values or lifestyles in opposition to those of the established culture. coun on the scale of Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg is the historic district of the independent city of Williamsburg, Virginia. Colonial Williamsburg consists of many of the buildings that formed the original colonial capital of Williamsburg in James City County from 1699 to 1780, with all traces of later , Va., though something short of Disneyland. The businessman, Alan Gerry, who built a local television antenna business into what he said was the eighth largest cable television operation in America, undertook the project at the suggestion of his younger daughter, Robyn, who makes a pilgrimage to the one-time cow pasture in Bethel every summer. Her older sister, Annelise, like thousands of other teen-agers, stole away to the 1969 concert against the express wishes of her father and spent four days there camping out in mud and rain. ``They didn't create the milking machine milking machine a machine for the milking of cows, occasionally sheep and rarely goats. It includes a vacuum pump, a pulsation system, clusters of teat cups, a rigid milk line, some flexible rubber tubes which connect the clusters to the milk line and a number of other components. or invent the automobile on that site, but it was a defining moment in the music world,'' the 68-year-old Gerry said of the Woodstock site. ``Some people say they were a bunch of pot smokers and wore bandannas and bell-bottoms, but it's part of American culture, whether we like it or not.'' The entry of Gerry, listed by Fortune magazine as one of the 250 richest people in America, heartened local officials eager for development to revive Sullivan County Sullivan County is the name of six counties in the United States of America:
Gerry, who sold his cable company to Time Warner last year for $2.7 billion, has never developed real estate for housing, offices or stores. But working furtively fur·tive adj. 1. Characterized by stealth; surreptitious. 2. Expressive of hidden motives or purposes; shifty. See Synonyms at secret. through an intermediary real estate company, he bought 37 acres of the original site for roughly $1 million and bought or in some cases leased the surrounding 1,000 acres for a sum he would not reveal. The land is primarily zoned for agricultural and residential uses, but local officials indicated that zoning matters would not be an obstacle. They said they were eager to work with Gerry in creating a project that would stimulate the sagging economy. A major concern is what kind of development would be acceptable to Woodstock purists, who revere Revere, city (1990 pop. 42,786), Suffolk co., E Mass., a residential suburb of Boston, on Massachusetts Bay; settled c.1630, set off from Chelsea and named for Paul Revere 1871, inc. as a city 1914. the site as hallowed ground, particularly some of the 400,000 people who camped in muck so they could hear virtually every legendary rock band of the 1960s. Gerry (pronounced with a hard G like Gary) insisted Wednesday that he wanted no Ferris wheels or any other disruptive ``honky-tonk.'' He said he would decide whether the development would include museums, train rides, concert amphitheaters, multiple movie screens, and re-enactments of the Woodstock event after consulting with architects and entertainment experts. ``I want the site to exist in perpetuity Of endless duration; not subject to termination. The phrase in perpetuity is often used in the grant of an Easement to a utility company. in perpetuity adj. forever, as in one's right to keep the profits from the land in perpetuity. so generations will be able to come there and stand and experience what earlier generations experienced without having to go into a honky-tonk situation,'' Gerry said in an interview in his elegant ballroom-size office in a modern office building on a rustic hillside. ``I want something that will appeal to everybody, not just the yuppies who were there when they were kids.'' He added that he had not yet decided whether to bring entertainment professionals like Disney or Time Warner into the venture. ``It's our hope to put enough events in this footprint of land that everyone in America will want to come see it at least once,'' he said. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Alan Gerry, who bought the Woodstock festival site, sits on a marker commemorating the '69 event. The New York Times |
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