Why these hippies are shunning Woodstock's 50th anniversary event

The Woodstock name has become more brand than spirit for many hippies, but people spanning the generations continue to seek its aura, looking for more "authentic" ways to pay homage to the spot where it all began.

People like visual artist and activist Christopher Peter Vanderessen shun "commercial" events like those held at Bethel Woods Centre for the Arts, where the grounds that hosted the 1969 Woodstock stage are located and a handful of veteran acts like Santana are playing for the 50th anniversary weekend.

The 45-year-old is among those in a generation too young to reminisce about that 1969's weekend of peace, love and music, but who value the ideals that Woodstock came to symbolise enough to carry them on.

Wielding a walking staff etched with beaver teeth marks and wearing a long black cloak emblazoned with neon paint, he journeys each year to the forest behind the old Yasgur farmstead – also part of the sprawling original grounds that were lent to Woodstock organisers by a benevolent farmer in 1969.

Scores of people camp out annually there to honour what they consider to be the original festival's spirit.

Children run wild as people of all ages dance, paint and relax in hammocks among the tall pine trees, and a number of local bands play for the crowd.

There are dozens of makeshift stands proffering crystals, pipes, tapestries and tie-dye T-shirts with slogans like "Make America Grateful Again" – a reference to the quintessential 1960s rockers The Grateful Dead mashed with US President Donald Trump's slogan.

"This is a little different than all the other Woodstock things," the 45-year-old told AFP as the sun crept through the clouds, casting glimmers of light on the colourful yarn he threaded among trees at his campsite to create an intricate web.

"This is more of a family reunion. It's not the commercial stuff.

“What they don't get about Woodstock, was that it was meant to be this big commercial."

But facing a crush of people and lack of barriers the original Woodstock became free, Mr Vanderessen said.

"So for most of us it's a pilgrimage to come here. It's not about, 'Who is on the lineup’,” he said.

"It's just that we need to be here."

Living the Woodstock story

Those gathered in the woods behind Yasgur's farm are decidedly younger than the crowd convened at the Bethel centre, where the beer comes from a sponsored tent rather than a new friend's cooler.

Mick and Amanda Jenkins, who are 37 and 34 respectively, subscribe to the hippie lifestyle – what they call "ideas of non-showy simplicity" – they say their parents imparted on them.

For Ms Jenkins, it's important to thread hippie principles of peace through the generations as part of preserving "a legacy and a story that needs to be told”.

"If somebody is not there to tell this story, then the story dies," she said, flower crown like a halo atop her wavy blonde locks and crystals including an amethyst, a healing stone, in hand.

Perched against a tree nearby Michael Mahana, a three-year-old with a blonde bob, plays in the mud with sticks, far from the tech-rich environments of his peers.

His mother, Californian Shronnie Jean Miller, 42, said she grew up living on the road as a "deadhead" – a groupie of the Grateful Dead who follows the band's tours – and that camping out in the woods is "like my Ritz”.

A local who goes by the name "Teach" came over to give her son a child's size poncho in case the rains sweep in.

"It's all peace and love and a good vibe," she said.

"We're all just at home in the woods."

For a New York state resident, who in addition to web building specialises in painting people's clothes while they're still wearing them, being a hippie is simply "being aware of social change, and being a part of the change rather than complaining about what other people are doing”.

As he's done for three decades he'll be back next year to this hippie enclave, not for nostalgia for what was but rather what he believes could be – a more relaxed, more inclusive society.

"It's about respecting what was there but also showing how we're evolving and changing," he said.

"That's what Woodstock is about.

"It shouldn't be a concert, it should be a worldwide holiday."

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