Jerusalem's Woodstock revival: not about peace, just fun http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100893.html
By Raphael Ahren July 24, 2009 A group of Anglo entrepreneurs have taken on the task of wielding together Woodstock and Jerusalem in a music revival honoring the 40th anniversary of the legendary festival. While many people who were or claim to have been at the original Woodstock - billed as "three days of peace and music" at the time - remember it as three days of uninhibited sex and drugs, organizers insist the "Jerusalem Woodstock Revival" will put its emphasis on five hours of fun. "We're not trying to reproduce the three-day festival at upstate New York. We're just trying to have a fun night of music," said Carmi Wurtman, a Philadelphia-born event promoter who last year brought Woodstock legend Joe Cocker to Israel. "As far as sex, drugs and rock and roll goes - everyone is on their own for that. If someone wants to do it they're invited to. I'm not the law, but there will be police and security, of course. Obviously we're not promoting drug [abuse] and there's also no political message. It's definitely about people having a good time enjoying good music." Wurtman stressed the concert, for which fans are encouraged to dress up in retro-looking hippie clothes, will have a "Woodstock feel" to it. "We're going to have plenty of beer," he said. Concert organizer Danny Gewirtz was even more careful. "We're certainly not trying to recreate the atmosphere of free love, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll," the native New Yorker told Anglo File. "The rock and roll part - yes. But not the other stuff. It's really all about the music. But because it's 40 years since Woodstock we wanted to have a setting that is sort of similar to Woodstock, like bringing blankets out in on open field. We're a bunch of religious people and the show is catering mostly to the Anglo population here, and that's certainly not something that they're into." Five mostly Anglo bands will play songs by some of the most popular artists of that era. Organizers say they expect to sell more than 1,000 tickets for the five-hour rock show, which will take place on the grass inside the Kraft Stadium. The Web site of the "Jerusalem Woodstock Revival" features the slogan "Spread the Love" and points out that the scheduled date for the event, August 5, falls on Tu B'Av, "the traditional Jewish day of love." Yet organizers take pains to explain that the word "revival" must not be taken literally. Free love as understood by the Woodstock generation unquestionably meant promiscuity, Gewirtz explained, but the Jerusalem event will be "harmless," he asserted. "Free love could be understood as the love of rock and roll, or the love you have for your wife and your kids - that would certainly represent a modern day Jerusalem Woodstock. It could even be the love of Torah." Also Eliyahu Sidikman, who will perform with two bands at the concert, said the Jerusalem event would have little in common with the atmosphere at the real Woodstock. "Let's face it: we're all nice Jewish boys," the Long Island, New York native said, adding that all performers have solid day jobs and lead rather un-Bohemian lives. "It's going to be lot more innocent that the whole culture of drop-outs and drug addicts." Gewirtz conceived the idea to stage a Woodstock revival together with Steve Leibowitz, with whom he operates Kraft Stadium, after they saw a local Anglo band covering songs sang at Woodstock during a recent show in Tel Aviv. "I missed the original Woodstock Festival, and have regretted it ever since," Leibowitz said. Leibowitz was 18 years old in 1969 and could have theoretically attended the festival, but Gewirtz said he was nine at the time. "I remember I was in camp in upstate New York, not far from where the concert took place. I just remember a parade of cars coming through the small roads near my camp. That's as close as I got to it." The music itself will have somewhat of but not a complete Woodstock feel to it. Three of the five acts will play songs by Woodstock performers: Long Time Gone (covering Crosby, Stills and Nash), Geva Alon (covering Neil Young) and Lazer Lloyd, of the popular Anglo rock band Yood (covering Jimi Hendrix). Ronnie Peterson, who grew up in the U.S. and later played with Israeli rock legend Shalom Hanoch, will be singing Bob Dylan songs while Crystal Ship will interpret The Doors. Mark Rashkow, a Blues guitarist who opened for Michael Jackson and other international stars before moving from Chicago to Israel in 2003, is the only person involved with the concert who attended the 1969 festival. He is expected to jam with the musicians during a guest appearance. One connection between the revival and the original has a beneficial side effect: every concertgoer who comes to the stadium with a ticket or other evidence that he or she was at Woodstock has free entrance. . --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sixties-L" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
