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40 years on, Woodstock legend lives

William PorterThe Denver Post
**ADVANCE FOR MONDAY AUG. 10** FILE - In this Aug. 1969 file photo, concert-goers sit on the roof of a Volkswagen bus at the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair at Bethel, N.Y. (AP Photo)
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This week has been a hard slog for several generations of Americans, namely the ones flanking the aging cohort known as baby boomers. As is their wont, the latter are again flogging their history, this time with the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival.Maybe you have heard of Woodstock: Aug. 15-18, 1969, and 400,000 young people descend on a 600-acre farm near Bethel, N.Y. There they launch the Aquarian Age, taking in some of history’s finest rock acts amid a chaotic yet communal vibe.And maddeningly, they never stop talking about it.Given how the tale grew in its telling, it is hard to gauge what lasting impact Woodstock had on the culture. Yet there seems to be general agreement that for all the disorganization, the festival was something of a miracle of utopian ideals, however fleeting.”It’s very hard for large groups of people to come together without awful things happening,” says Dennis McNally, 59, an author and longtime historian for the Grateful Dead, which played at the festival. “Woodstock seemed to offer a lot of evidence that our generation was different.”While that proved transitory, it inspired a lot of people, including me, to think we could do better,” McNally says. “And the world needs better.”What gets lost amid the peace- and-love reminiscences was that Woodstock Nation was not exactly all-inclusive. For more of this Denver Post story: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13047708


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