Fille Roelants
Woodstock, the mother of all music festivals, still casts a huge - and irksome - shadow over all the fests that came in its wake. To avoid the inevitably punishing comparisons, most such events do everything they can to keep their distance from that '60s milestone.
Not Mysteryland.
The long-running electronic music showcase from Europe will make its American debut this holiday weekend - right on Woodstock's sacred ground. And if you think creative director Jeroen Jansen has any self-consciousness about linking the two events, think again.
'Both have a positive message from the new, upstart generation,' Jansen says. 'Woodstock, obviously, was a bit more politically engaged at that time.'
A bit?
Woodstock came at a time when an entire generation rose up to express its power in opposition to all that came before. In sound, style, and viewpoint, that was unprecedented.
Mysteryland comes at a time when an increasing number of kids like to dance to DJs, while, usually, getting high.
There's little chance of gate-crashing this time. 'All visitors have a wristband with RFID (radio frequency identification) chips in them,' Jansen says. 'We're working with patrolled guards on horses to avoid possible problem-seekers.'
There's nothing rare about music events taking place at the Woodstock site. Now boxed in as a conventional venue called Bethel Woods, the area has hosted scores of bands for the last eight years. The only difference this time is that Mysteryland will be the first event since 1969 where 7,500 of the group's fans can camp out overnight. That's quite a bit down from the 400,000 who crashed there back in the day.
Of course, this time fans who stay over will do so in tightly-controlled areas, with plenty of food, water and electricity at the ready. Spontaneity - a key part of Woodstock's allure - will be consciously kept at bay.
There's little chance of gate-crashing this time. 'All visitors have a wristband with RFID (radio frequency identification) chips in them,' Jansen says. 'We're working with patrolled guards on horses to avoid possible problem-seekers on this matter.'
Imagine the effect of having guards on horses at the original Woodstock. It would have turned everything into another Altamont - the Hell's-Angels-patrolled, Rolling-Stones-headlined festival that ended in a riot.
Mysteryland will also impose a zero tolerance policy on drug use, another move which would have caused a revolt in 1969.
One more difference: When Woodstock happened, psychedelic-rock was genuinely new. The EDM being performed this weekend has been thumping on, in various guises, for decades. Headliners at the show include long running DJs like Moby, as well as newer ones like Kaskade and Steve Aoki.
Mysteryland itself dates back more than 20 years. It began in the Netherlands in 1993, and only branched out to another country in 2011, when it started presenting a corollary in Santiago, Chile.
Jansen says he always wanted to come to the U.S. because electronic music got its start here, more than 30 years ago. The sound debuted in two key scenes: the techno movement of Detroit and the house trend in Chicago. From there, the music leapt over to the U.K. in the 1990s, then to Amsterdam.
It took the U.S. decades to catch up and funnel this music into our own mainstream. But now the New York market alone has a host of electronic fests. There's Electric Zoo, held on Labor Day weekend on Randalls Island, and Electric Daisy, which occurs the very same weekend as Mysteryland, at MetLife Stadium.
That event event has twice the capacity of Mysteryland - between 40,000 and 50,000. Which means the upstate festival needs to go the extra mile to distinguish itself. That's where the Woodstock connection comes in.
When the fest announced its historic location in April, there was a boatload of publicity. But that comes at a considerable cost. It puts a fest that yearns to be seen as revolutionary in the past tense.
Jansen still insists it's 'the festival of the future.' To buttress that, he points to Mysteryland's wide variety of nonmusical distractions. Most sound like Newa Age draws which have been around forever, from yoga classes to Eastern-philosophy workshops.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Then again, Mysteryland can boast at least one clear of-the-moment innovation. The event will be 100% cashless, allowing fans to more easily engage in that ultimate Woodstock activity - shopping.
jfarber@nydailynews.com
Mysteryland
Sat. Sun., 1 p.m.-2 a.m.
Bethel Woods, Bethel, N.Y.
info@bethelwoodscenter.org
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