For years the public had used Max Yasgur's field at the corner of  Hurd and West Shore Drive. It was always lover's lane. It was a favorite spot for the locals because it had a great view, for one.

Then one day Max saw an add in the paper that some promoters were looking for a field to have a concert. Soon after he met with Michael Lang and others and signed a contract to lease his hilltop parcel, which formed a natural amphitheatre. When local politicians and business people found out what was being planned for his property they threatened to put him out of business. He was the biggest dairy farmer in Sullivan County. He said he was going to do it anyway.

On August 15, 16, 17, 1969, that same 37.5 acre field became the stage area of the historic Woodstock Festival. Max also leased abutting property for the festival which amounted to about 200 acres in all.

When it was over everyone went home, except those who had decided to stay in Bethel and raise a family there just to be close to the Woodstock site. Max couldn't sell his milk anywhere in Sullivan County and he was soon bankrupted. Those who had threatened to put Max out of business made good on theit promise and actually did put the biggest dairy producer in Sullivan County out of business. But the kids that were blessed by his love and sacrifice kept coming back and for the next three years, until his death in 1972, they would show up at his doorstep to visit him and his wife, Miriam, to share their hearts and their problems. He was like a grandfather to them. But, still, he died a broken man.

In 1970 the town creates a law called, The Mass Gathering Act, which is designed to prevent anyone from ever having a Woodstock Festival in Bethel again, (unless the town decides to amend the law and allow whoever they want to have a festival, which doesn't happen until 1994).

As the years passed, only the 37 acre field that was used for the stage area remained open, unfenced, undeveloped, unposted and used daily by the public... until this year, 1998. The public, with no permission from the owner, Miriam Yasgur, would walk their dog, ride their horse, drive their car, and/or sit around a campfire and share some herb, pray, sing, dance, drum, and even camp on the weekend. Miriam would catch people on the property from time to time and tell them to leave because it was private property but she never had the heart to arrest anyone for trespassing and, eventually, the property fell into the public domain. And no one ever thought about who "owned" the property because it kind of belonged to everyone already. Or, at least it seemed to.

In 1981 Miriam sold the field to a man called Louis Nicky for about $59,000. His real name was Louis Necketopoulos. He owned businesses in Brooklyn and lived there with a woman by the name of June Gelish. She was his secretary and confidant. He also had a wife, Helen Necketopoulos, who lived in Manhattan in a little apartment. Although he was living with June, he continued to provide for and relate to Helen, affectionately, until his death in 1989. Upon his death, Helen was the only heir to his estate, which was worth millions. They had no children.

For years people had no idea where the Woodstock site was located because the town and others would not allow anyone to put up a marker to show the public its location. It was seen by many as a scene of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll instead of peace, love and music.

However, in 1984, Louis Nicky allowed a local historian, Bert Feldman, to place a large cement marker, designed by Wayne Seward, to be placed on the property with the names of all the bands that played at the historic festival. Instead of using Max's name, however, June arranged to have hers and Louis' names put on it as the owners.( Louis was a very sick man all through the 80's and June handled a lot of his affairs for him.) The New York Times showed up, along with other major press, when the marker was installed in the ground, and called the site "Holy Ground" in their news story.

Before his death in 1989, Louis started organizing a commercial concert on the Woodstock site to be held during the 20th Woodstock anniversary which fell on the dates August 15-17. When word got out about the event hundreds showed up to volunteer to help. Among them was Joe Anderson, who was one of the volunteers who worked on the stage at the 1969 festival. On August 9th Louis suddenly died of a heart attack and there was no one but June Gelish and her two grown sons to take over the organization of the event. But June didn't know anything about staging a music festival and the whole thing was coming apart. So, Joe and other volunteers put up a stage, brought in a sound system, collected garbage bags of full of money from the large crowd that was assembling and gave it to Alan Scott to cover any costs to the town (this money was never accounted for once it was handed to Scott, however) and the event continued. It was such a success that June Gelish and others began to plan for the next year.

However, because of Louis' death, the Woodstock Festival site, which had been used by the public everyday for more than twenty years as though it were their own back yard, suddenly became a "private" property issue and, in 1990, at least two law suits were filed against June Gelish as she and her sons were organizing a commercial event for the 21st anniversary.

One suit was filed by Helen Necketopoulos in the Brooklyn Surrogate Court challenging June's claim to the Woodstock site, who, upon Louis' death, had presented a deed, dated 1983, allegedly signed by Louis Nicky, which transferred the title of the Woodstock site from Louis to June Gelish and Louis Nicky, as joint tenants. Helen presented evidence to the Brooklyn Surrogate Court, in the form of  a sworn statement by a New York State Examiner of Records, that the deed was a forgery and got a restraining order against June Gelish to prevent her from engaging in any further wealing and dealing over the Woodstock site until the true owner was established and until further order of the court. That court order was renewed two times and stood until October 1, 1997.

In August of 1990 June was in the middle of staging a commercial concert for the 21st anniversary at the site. Thousands of celebrants had already assembled on the site when June was served papers by the town to stop the event. Allan Scott, the town supervisor, then threatened her with further action if she didn't get everyone off the site. Thousands were camping on the property and no one would leave.

Therefore, the second suit was filed against June Gelish by Alan Scott. He was suing her for staging a commercial concert in an agricultural and residential zone without proper permits. These permits wouldn't have been necessary if she had just allowed people to freely assemble. But she wanted to make money off the popularity of the site.

June, in order to protect herself from Scott's assertion that she was unlawfully staging an event, said everyone was trespassing. Therefore, trespass tickets were issued by the local Bethel constable, Ray Neuhenhoff. It was a quite a comic scene. People lined up to get a ticket as a souvenir. Even the constable thought it was kind of ridiculous. In fact, only 25 tickets were handed out. Scott then visited the property telling everyone they would be arrested if they didn't leave. Of course no one did. Will Callaghan of the Save the Earth Society, Daniel Eggink and his wife, Abigail Storm pleaded not guilty and won the case in the Bethel town court.

After the 21st anniversary, in an attempt to protect and preserve the free assembly and true spirit of Woodstock at the original site, which is caring and sharing,  an appointment was made by Abigail Storm to visit John Roberts, one of the original "money men" behind the 1969 festival. Roberts is also a partner with Michael Lang and Joel Rosenman in "Woodstock Ventures". Present at that meeting was Abigail and her husband, Daniel Eggink, Day Yusko, and Bill Lubinski, all from Woodstock, New York, where the 1969 Woodstock Festival was originally scheduled to happen before it changed to Bethel, New York. Their goal was to either get permission to use the Woodstock logo of the dove on the guitar as a way to raise funds to secure the Woodstock site for the people or to work in conjunction with Woodstock Ventures to do the same. They brought with them a portfolio of news articles which had been written about their efforts to preserve the lifestyle of caring and sharing in order to convince Roberts that the press and the public were supportive of their efforts along this line and that if they all worked together they could preserve the Woodstock site for future generations. Roberts said he still had a headache from the first one, which was very discouraging to the group. After much urging Roberts mentioned that they might do something for the 25th anniversary. They left very disappointed because that was four years away and something needed to be done now. Besides, Roberts didn't seem to think the field was that important, only the name Woodstock was.

In 1992 Alan Scott used town vehicles to dump dirt at the "entrances" to the site in an attempt to prevent people from freely assembling on the site for the 22nd anniversary. June Gelish was nowhere to be found. The people drove their vehicles around the piles of dirt and removed the dirt with shovels and buckets to clear the entrance. The public's contention was that an easement had been created by the public's use of the property for more than twenty years and that neither the town nor June Gelish could legally prevent the public's access to the site. But, Alan Scott refused to recognize any easement and told people to leave or they would be facing charges of trespass. However, he was not the owner and, therefore, had no authority to make anyone leave. The public held an impromptu gathering and set up a stage. Many local people helped. Farmers brought food for free kitchens, firewood for the cooking fires, and a collection was taken up for a water truck and porta-johns.. Everyone volunteered to help. It was a great success. But, Allan Scott didn't like it because no one asked his permission. He didn't realize that no one needs permission for a free event.

In 1992 the town moved into action again to prevent the people from gathering on the site and continued to threaten June Gelish with civil action. (Helen Necketopoulos' case in the Surrogate court was still pending in the surrogate court and so was the court order.) This time Alan Scott unlawfully used the town's snow plows to block all the public roads leading to the site and stationed the town constables at the road blocks to enforce the will of the town board. So, people formed a march on foot to the site and were allowed to visit for a few minutes to quietly reflect.  June Gelish was also present this time, again under threat by Alan Scott, who was also present, and told people to leave or they would be charged with trespass. State police were also on hand with tear gas in their trunks, which they threatened to use on people if they tried to freely assemble.

In June of 1993 a small group of people started camping on the site. Through the month of July different attempts were made to evict them, but June Gelish was not around to tell them to leave. June had secretly contracted with Robert Gersch, executive Director of the Multiple Schlorosis Society, to lease the property for the 25th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival, supposedly to raise money for MSS. Gersch tried to personally evict the campers, but could not legally do it. So, June hired a private detective, Leslie Sharoff, to spy on the campers and take pictures of them. Eventually, on August 8th, he came, as an employee of June's,  to arrest anyone who wouldn't leave. Three people volunteered to be arrested in order to defend the public's easement. The rest left willingly. Those arrested were Vasilios Katzenovacas (Bill K), James (?), and Abigail Storm. They were found guilty by Justice Albert Fimognari and threatened with jail time if they did not sign an order to stay off the property, forever. (Which is not legal. A court order has to be renewed every year and, besides, the property was used by the public all year round. It was only in August that the public was being hassled.) However, they signed the order just to get out of the court which was obviously not going to listen to their legal arguments.

Within 24 hours of their conviction, 106 tons of wet chicken manure was brought to the site in semi sized dump trucks and unloaded in huge piles throughout the site to prevent the public from assembling for the 24th anniversary. Although the local papers reported that June Gelish was merely "fertilizing her farmland", evidence was discovered in the form of checks made out to the local farmers that the manure had been paid for with MSS funds, not from June Gelish. Robert Gersch had actually used funds from MSS to pay for the manure. It was quite a scandal, locally, and when MSS found out that funds which were supposed to be used to help people with MSS were used for the manure they pulled out of the contract, leaving Gersch out in the cold. Thank God for small miracles. What goes around comes around.

However, the Woodstock field was now a health hazard and the smell was unbearable. So, a local landowner, Charlie Maynard, when approached by Ben Magic, Joe Anderson and others, offered the use of his land for the celebrants to gather in peace and love. It was like Max Yasgur had been reborn. Thousands freely assembled in Bethel once again in the true spirit of caring and sharing, put up a stage, and had a successful event.

In 1994, (even though there was still a court order against June Gelish by Helen Necketopoulos preventing her from even making deals about the site) the town of Bethel and June herself held meetings concerning who would be allowed to stage a 25th anniversary celebration at the Woodstock site, which the town said it would support if the right people were involved. Because Alan Scott had already worked out a deal with Robert Gersch which he was happy with he again tried to present him as the person who he would support, even though Gersch said he would be doing it independent of MSS. But, the townspeople were so outraged by the abominable act of his purchase of the manure the previous year that they would not hear of it and Gersch lost out as a potential promoter for the event. Again, thank God!

Even Woodstock Ventures, who finally decided to stage a 25th anniversary after all,  had entertained the idea of staging their event at the Woodstock site but John Roberts told Abigail Storm that June Gelish was too greedy and they ended up over in Saugerties on a piece of property, which, coincidentally enough, was the same piece of property they had originally chosen in 1969, before negotiations fell apart and they ended up in Max's field. Amazing. Their 25th was definitely a flop. No spirit. Oh well.

Anyway, back in Bethel, in steps Sid Bernstein, who was known as the first man to bring the Beatles to America. A very nice man, but not ruthless enough. He had been negotiating with June Gelish and reportedly paid her about $250,000 to lease the property for the anniversary. But, Allen Scott didn't want Sid to do the event so he had him jumping through hoops trying to comply with the Mass Gathering Act, which is impossible, until just weeks before the anniversary, successfully preventing him from getting the financing and commitments he would need to pull off the event.

Meanwhile, a number of people are trying to protect the rights of the public to continue to freely assemble on the site. An effort which seems to be getting ignored by the town and, of course, June Gelish. And Helen Necketopoulos? Well. she's kind of being ignored, too. After all, she should of  died of stomach cancer back in 1990 and if June stalls long enough she might die off any day.

In the middle of all this hoopla enters a possible savior, (for Scott and June anyway), a local millionaire by the name of Harry Rhulens, who doesn't need to be ruthless because he has money. Scott likes money. So, Scott and the town board decide to create the BLDC (Bethel Local Development Corporation) and then pass a law exempting the BLDC and Rhulens from having to comply with the Mass Gathering Act. What an act! Sid gets bumped to the back of the bus and Rhulens takes over the preparation for the event.

When word gets out about Rhulens and that there will be a gate charge to enter the property of $69.94 some of us meet with Rhulens to plead the cause of the public's easement and the fact that the site is considered sacred. He says he attended the original festival and he's sympathetic with our concerns. He mentions the fact that a fence will be erected for the event for insurance reasons and we remind him that the property has never been fenced. He agrees to put up a fence that can be easily pushed over if the public wants to reenact the original bringing down of the fence. This doesn't sound like a good plan but it's the most we can get out of him. When he tells us that he plans to spend about $5 million preparing the site for the event, and intends to make it back in ticket sales, we warn him that he won't be able to sell tickets because it's like trying to sell tickets at the door of a church, i.e, it's totally uncool and he will lose his shirt. This he doesn't believe.

We are on the phone, as usual, urging the town, the county, and the state, not to interfere with the free assembly that we know is inevitably going to happen when his money thing falls apart.

Rhulens spends about $3 million dollars preparing the site and neighboring properties for parking, etc., for the event, including the fence. We cry when we see the fence. It was like our baby was in prison. Tickets are on sale but not moving. A week before the event Rhulens announces that no tickets are selling and he pulls out of the deal. He loses on his $3 million investment. The fence comes down. We move on. The town has an emergency meeting. All the planners are there. Allen Scott wants to block the roads. He's told by everyone to shut up and sit down and no official decision is made one way or another. Everyone pitches in and makes it happen. The medics move on, the phones go in, the stage goes up, the acts go on, the police help with traffic and that's it for another victory for peace and love, caring and sharing. More than a hundred thousand people show up and it's a great success!

The 25th Anniversary in Saugerties is extremely disorganized and about 350 thousand people reportedly show up. It rains and rains on Saturday and the place becomes a mud bath. Everything falls apart and many leave to go to Bethel because it doesn't have the spirit. What a miracle!

In 1995 people show up in large numbers and freely assemble for another year. Another miracle!
The Woodstock Nation Foundation is formed in September to attempt to organize a grassroots effort to secure the Woodstock site for free assembly. June Gelish says she will sell the property for $2.5 million.

In May of 1996 Abigail Storm incorporates the foundation in order to be able to hold title to the Woodstock property to hold in trust for the people. She forms a board of seven people and designs a laminated card to give to donors who give $5 or more. Also the donors will have their names placed at the Woodstock site. The idea is that the 500,000+ people who attended the original festival will donate at least $5 to secure the site for free assembly and that will add up to $2.5,000,000. Seems simple enough. So, local people begin to donate the $5 and about a thousand dollars is collected over the first year. Not a lot, but a start.

As early as April of 1996 the foundation finds out that State Police are threatening people with arrest for just slowing down or parking near the site. Abigail calls Captain Alan Martin of the and asks him why they are bothering people. He says, "Abigail, every year you keep us off the site. Well, this year we're on and you're off." Abigail was shocked. It sounded like a personal vendetta. It's true that Abigail kept the police from patrolling the site when the public was assembled there, but it was with their agreement and only when they were on duty carrying guns. First of all, one should not carry guns on sacred land, which is like a church, and, secondly, it's a piece of private property, which shouldn't be patrolled by police. It was agreed that the state police and sheriff's department would patrol the roads and the local constabulary could patrol along the bordering property lines, as requested by neighbors.

The foundation then decided that they needed more exposure if they were going to inform the public in a short amount of time about these sudden changes in policy regarding their right to continue to freely assemble on the Woodstock site.

One way was to get on the internet. So, a member of the foundation board decided to buy a computer, fax machine and rent an office with a phone to help organize their effort.

The foundation also began a fundraising campaign to buy out  June Gelish's interest in the site and in June of 1996, Abigail contacted Arlo Guthrie and asked if he would do a concert for the foundation to help raise funds and awareness about the threat to the public's easement and the natural beauty and sacredness of the site which the foundation knew would be surrendered for the opportunity to make money. He agrees. In July he comes to Woodstock, the town, in Ulster County, where the foundation is located, and gives a wonderful concert, raising enough money to buy a computer, a fax machine, phones, and pay a month's rent to open an office.

By August of 1996, the 27th anniversary, the foundation was still struggling to get funding and to get on the internet, which was new and still confusing. Meanwhile, state police had continued to show force and prevent the public from coming together at the site. The foundationa had succeeded, however, in stopping them from interfering with visitation at the site, pointing out to the Sullivan County District Attorney's office that the Woodstock site was advertised in the Sullivan County Travel Guide as a historic place to visit and even gave directions to the site. It also published a photo of the "unofficial" 25th anniversary with people camping on the property.

Several locations were opening up in Bethel where people were beginning to assemble as a result of the police presence around the Woodstock site. Allen Scott threatened these landowners with violations if they didn't shut down their property to camping, even there was no law against camping in Bethel.

Then, on the 27th anniversary weekend, the state police (not the sheriff or local police) started blocking the roads leading to the site and Roy Howard, who owns the late Max Yasgur's homestead up the road from the site, decided to allow the people to gather on his property. He has 100 acres of fields and woods, which he bought from Miriam Yasgur in 1984. Thousands of people showed up and camped, put up a stage, and had three days of peace, love and music. Another miracle! Max would have been thrilled. But, again, Allen Scott was angry and when everyone left, Scott filed charges against Howard for having an event without the proper permits. The charges against him for hosting the people were dismissed because he didn't need permits to host people for a free assembly.

The foundation made many attempts to find an attorney and members of the public who would be willing to stand up in court and defend their right to the site, but all were afraid or intimidated by the case and its opposition (which was always more a political opposition than that of the people)

In September of 1997, as the forces of the state became apparent and inevitable in the control and shutdown of the Woodstock site, Roy Howard, and others, contacted Abigail Storm and urged her to move the foundation office from the town of Woodstock (which is 60 miles from the Woodstock site) to Monticello, the county seat,  just ten miles from the site. The foundation found out that the county offices where decisions are constantly being made concerning the public's free access to the Woodstock site were only a few blocks away from where they would be situated.

So, the foundation office was moved on September 15th, 1996, to Monticello in order to further the foundation's efforts to secure the Woodstock site for free assembly and to assist Roy Howard, or anyone else, in temporarily, or permanently, hosting those who have been unlawfully removed from the Woodstock site, until, or long after, the property rights are disputed and settled in court.

The foundation's position is that the public has been unlawfully removed from the Woodstock site by police force and threat, against their will, and have, therefore, been coerced  into surrendering their lawful right to freely assemble on the Woodstock site. And that they were lawfully and peacefully assembling on this property for more than twenty years until,  in 1990, Allen Scott, along with others, for the first time since 1969, conspired to force the "owner of record" of the Woodstock site, to file charges of trespass against those freely assembling on the site which is sacred to them.

June stated in court during the trespass trial of 1993 that she didn't mind people being on the property. She said she had to do it or she would get into trouble with the town. She was right.

Whether she was the true owner or not, June was being coerced through threat and intimidation by Allen Scott and others, into surrendering her right to allow people to assemble on the Woodstock site.

The foundation, once settled in their new location, began fundraising on a local level again until the web site was up. Jewel Eggink, an artist and volunteer for the foundation, painted Woodstock performers on windows for local Monticello businesses who wanted to show support for Woodstock. The store, in turn, donated what they could afford, ranging from $25 to $100. Fifty stores participated and $1,200.00 was raised. (Thank you to everybody who donated and to Jewel for the beautiful art. Several of the window paintings can still be seen on Broadway in Monticello. And, if you're ever in town, drop by our office and see the Jewel Box Theatre. Wall to wall, ceiling to floor paintings.)

With the money raised locally, and some of the volunteer's income thrown in, the foundation rode through their first winter in Monticello, attending county meetings and public hearings as witnesses for the public's property right on the site. The foundation also continued to seek legal counsel and research the legal case to protect the public's easement if it had to be defended in court because the foundation, as well as anyone else who publicly defended the site's sacredness or the public's domain, was being pretty much ignored by everyone but the press. It was fear, mostly. Which became understandable as the press would arbitrarily either bash or praise the foundation and its volunteers. Local people were easily intimidated by such tactics. 

In the Spring of 1997 the press called our office and announced the death of June Gelish. What a surprise! Now, who owned the site? We had only one question, "Is the public's right to freely assemble on the site going to be protected or lost under whoever was going to claim "ownership". No one knew for sure. The press got a comment from us concerning June's death and printed their story with the question still lingering of who now owned the Woodstock site. We had been tipped off that a lot of properties were being purchased in Bethel near the Woodstock site so we suggested to the press that it could be connected to the site in some way.  The next day a story comes out that a lot of property was being purchased, (about a thousand acres), by different corporations with the same law firm at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.

Within a few days the press calls us again and tells us that an announcement was made to them at a press conference that the property was purchased from June Gelish by Alan Gerry, a local billionaire from Liberty, New York, for one million dollars.

 In the deeds office was a deed under the name Gelish Realty, LLC, which was filed by June Gelish July 24, 1996. Who is Gelish Realty? According to the Sullivan County Clerk's office June came in on July 24, 1996, and filed papers that she was transferring the property from herself to Gelish Realty, LLC, at her address in Brooklyn for no money.

To be continued...

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