BETHEL - By the time you get to Yasgur's farm, you could be $8 million light.
The 2,000-square-foot house that once belonged to Max Yasgur, who owned the nearby alfalfa field where the 1969 Woodstock concert helped define the counterculture movement, is for sale. It sits on 103 bucolic acres in Sullivan County, about 80 miles northwest of New York City. Asking price: $8 million.
Roy Howard, the current owner who has tangled with the town for hosting Woodstock reunions for years in his field, has decided to move on.
The property also includes a 5,000-square-foot farmhouse and 7,000-square-foot barn, on which is painted “Yasgur.” There's also an 18-foot-tall Paul Bunyan statue at the edge of the field.
On Aug. 15-17, 1969, 400,000 people packed the field to hear headliners that included Jimi Hendrix and the Who. The field was a hastily chosen backup after promoters were rejected by officials in Woodstock, the Catskill Mountains arts colony that gave the festival its name.
Cable magnate Alan Gerry now owns the concert site and built the 4,800-seat Bethel Woods Center that opened last summer.
Last summer, Bethel took Howard and his partner, Jeryl Abramson, to court and threatened criminal prosecution if the couple continued to hold parties. They canceled a scheduled reunion.
Sullivan County Treasurer Ira Cohen, who was at Woodstock, helped organize reunions during the 90s and said the sale will end an era.
“Before Alan Gerry started buying up the Woodstock property, the local authorities used to turn a blind eye to Roy and Jeryl,” he told the Times Herald-Record of Middletown. “The reunions were a way to keep the music going.”
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Information from: The Times Herald-Record, http://www.th-record.com
AP-ES-08-08-07 1050EDT
Roy Howard, the current owner who has tangled with the town for hosting Woodstock reunions for years in his field, has decided to move on.
The property also includes a 5,000-square-foot farmhouse and 7,000-square-foot barn, on which is painted “Yasgur.” There's also an 18-foot-tall Paul Bunyan statue at the edge of the field.
On Aug. 15-17, 1969, 400,000 people packed the field to hear headliners that included Jimi Hendrix and the Who. The field was a hastily chosen backup after promoters were rejected by officials in Woodstock, the Catskill Mountains arts colony that gave the festival its name.
Cable magnate Alan Gerry now owns the concert site and built the 4,800-seat Bethel Woods Center that opened last summer.
Last summer, Bethel took Howard and his partner, Jeryl Abramson, to court and threatened criminal prosecution if the couple continued to hold parties. They canceled a scheduled reunion.
Sullivan County Treasurer Ira Cohen, who was at Woodstock, helped organize reunions during the 90s and said the sale will end an era.
“Before Alan Gerry started buying up the Woodstock property, the local authorities used to turn a blind eye to Roy and Jeryl,” he told the Times Herald-Record of Middletown. “The reunions were a way to keep the music going.”
---
Information from: The Times Herald-Record, http://www.th-record.com
AP-ES-08-08-07 1050EDT
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