{"id":20941,"date":"2012-08-07T03:34:38","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T10:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=20941"},"modified":"2012-08-11T00:01:03","modified_gmt":"2012-08-11T07:01:03","slug":"blast-from-the-past-and-shoot-for-the-future-woodstock-revival-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=20941","title":{"rendered":"Blast From The Past And Shoot For The Future: Woodstock Revival IV"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Woodstock Revival IV\/Photo: Yishay Sklare<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s very rare these days for a parent and child to even enjoy the same music, let alone groove to the same music at a concert in public.\u00a0 Add grandma and grandpa into the picture, and you\u2019ve got a glimpse into last Thursday\u2019s Woodstock Revival IV festival at Jerusalem\u2019s Kraft Stadium. Authentic hippies from the 60\u2019s retrieved their vintage Woodstock gear and braided their long, grey hair, while the next generation interpreted their own hippie style with flowing skirts and borrowed tie-dye t-shirts, while the third generation, tagging along with mom and dad, hoola-hooped around the field, wearing flower stickers and colorful beads.\u00a0 How endearing to watch the grey-haired man in front of me, sporting his original woodstock t-shirt and a rainbow kippah, bop to his favorite Grateful Dead song alongside his 8 year old grandson, the two holding hands in true Woodstock bliss, whirling and boogying to some of America\u2019s best rock – timeless music indeed.<\/p>\n

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Woodstock Revival IV\/Photo: Yishay Sklare<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lawn was covered with towels and lawn chairs, families, couples, and friends – old, older, young, and younger, secular, religious, and everything in between – relaxing under the cool summer evening, enjoying the best of Woodstock, the staples of peace and love.\u00a0\u00a0 Many left the comfort of the lawn to dance close to the stage, where the most serious Woodstock fans could be found rocking out.\u00a0 It was a most fitting event for Tu Ba\u2019av, the Jewish Day of Love, as many of the bands reiterated the holiday spirit in their performances.\u00a0 For example, at the end of The Elevator\u2019s Grateful Dead set, the lead singer shouted to the audience: \u201cAll you young couples out there – get married!\u00a0 We\u2019ll play at your wedding!\u201d\u00a0 He paused for a second before adding, \u201cfor cheap!\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides psychedelic music and committed dancing, there were many other Woodstock activities to enjoy.\u00a0 At one corner of the field a pale green van covered in flowers and peace signs was stationed and inside, a photo-booth, where one could dress up in crazy wigs, afros, bright boas, and other retro costumes for the picture.\u00a0 On the other side of the field were stands selling records, colorful beads, and hippie clothes.\u00a0 For the children, there were activities such as spray-on tattoos, face painting, light-up hoola-hooping, and \u201cJuggling Super Charlie.\u201d\u00a0 In between Crystal Ship\u2019s performing the Doors and Libi and the Flashback singing Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, a \u201cBest Dressed Hippie\u201d contest brought the most outlandish and genuinely dressed hippies to the stage decked out in beads, braids, feathers, tie-dye, bell-bottoms, and belly-shirts.\u00a0 During the same break, Abigail Yasgur inspired the crowd by reading from her children\u2019s book \u201cMax Said Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Abigail Yasgur, the cousin of the famed American Jewish farmer, Max Yasgur, who allowed the 1969 Woodstock Festival to be held on part of his 600 acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York, decided about 20 years ago to write a children\u2019s book honoring her cousin.\u00a0 The book came out in 2009 commemorating Woodstock\u2019s 40th anniversary, and now Abigail travels to Jerusalem\u2019s Woodstock Revival almost every year to sell her book at the festival.\u00a0 The book, \u201cMax Said Yes,\u201d\u00a0 is written in verse, \u201cso kids can rap it like any Dr. Seuss book,\u201d remarked Abigail.\u00a0 She is thrilled and proud that the book has won the Mom\u2019s Choice Award for its values, and Abigail says that her overall message is \u201cto value kids and their big ideas, as my cousin did.\u201d\u00a0 Indeed, Max believed strongly that people had the right to express their opinions, so even though he supported the war in Vietnam, he permitted the hippies to hold their concert on his farm, which turned the kids\u2019 dream of a peace and love concert with a few thousand attendees into a half-a-million strong legendary 3-day extravaganza that radically transformed popular music and culture and will forever be remembered all over the world.\u00a0 As so many others have commented as well, Abigail mentioned how amazing it is for kids and adults alike to enjoy Woodstock, evident at Jerusalem\u2019s Woodstock Revival and other similar festivals around the world that cater to children.\u00a0 Part of the idea behind Abigail\u2019s book is to pass the Woodstock message of peace and love to our children and allow those ideals of the 60\u2019s to live on and inspire the future generations.<\/p>\n

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Libi and the Flashback\/Photo: Nadav Sultanik<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like Abigail, when Libi from Libi and the Flashback (see this article for more on Libi<\/a>) took the stage, she began by commenting that, \u201cthis really is a continuation of the Woodstock Nation.\u00a0 Look at the three generations here!\u201d\u00a0 Libi went all out in authentic hippie attire, earning herself a spot as one of the contestants for Best Dressed Hippie.\u00a0 She wore jeans, black fringed boots, a crazy fringed vest that flew wildly when she spun in performance, beads in her long black hair, and, of course, a splash of tie-dye.\u00a0 In the middle of her set, she excused herself from the stage and came back as Janis herself, complete with red velvet pants, round sunglasses, a fur hat, and \u201cMercedes Benz,\u201d entrancing the audience, who avidly sang along.\u00a0 Throughout her passionate, crowd-riveting performance, Libi shouted to the audience wonderfully concise statements such as \u201cthis is fun\u201d and \u201clife is groovy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Amit Sagie – Woodstock Revival IV\/Photo: Yishay Sklare<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The night was indeed fun and groovy.\u00a0 The spirit of the event every year is inspiring and uplifting in its dedication to ageless music and fostering of timeless messages.\u00a0 If you missed this years\u2019 Woodstock, that\u2019s too bad – just make sure to leave your calendar free next summer for a night of peace, love, and rock & roll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s very rare these days for a parent and child to even enjoy the same music, let alone groove to the same music at a concert in public.\u00a0 Add grandma and grandpa into the picture, and you\u2019ve got a glimpse into last Thursday\u2019s Woodstock Revival IV festival at Jerusalem\u2019s Kraft Stadium. Authentic hippies from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}