Woodstock '99: Music fest comes to fiery end
Story Created:
Jul 24, 2009 at 4:21 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Jul 24, 2009 at 8:12 PM EDT
ROME, N.Y. (WKTV) - Ten years ago today, hundreds of thousands of minimally-clad revelers from around the world made the former Griffiss Airforce Base in Rome their home for the weekend. It was Woodstock '99.
Internationally-known rock acts performed on multiple stages for three days.
But in the end, it was what was happening off stage, in the audience, that would define the three-day music festival.
"We had 777 troopers respond within a matter of a couple hours from all surrounding troops," says James Simpson, Public Information Officer for the New York State Police.
It was Sunday night, and concert-goers began starting fires, vandalizing property and rioting. No one can ever know for sure if it was the extreme heat, high vendor prices or lack of law enforcement presence that sparked the riots or helped them grow. But then-State Senator Raymond Meier, who opposed the show at the former base, says it was probably a combination of factors.
"When you put 200 thousand people together and there's open access to illegal drugs, no rules, no law, no law enforcement, 90 degree heat, what do you think's going to happen?" says Meier.
Joseph Griffo, now a State Senator, was Mayor of Rome at the time of Woodstock '99. He supported the event, but agrees that the absence of uniform police officers was a bad call on the part of concert promoters.
"The most obvious lesson is we would have insisted on uniformed security in the venue which may have helped to prevent some of what took place at the end," says Griffo.
State Police Public Information Officer James Simpson has other ideas that might have mitigated the riots.
"In hindsight, looking back, and hindsight is always 20/ 20, if that concert if Woodstock, that event, had ended at 2:00 in the afternoon I think there'd have been a lot less problems."
Woodstock '99's producer, also the man behind the '69 show, says the two were different animals.
"I think it was a bit edgier than we would have liked. I think it was a reflection of the times. It was different from the '69 franchise. The music was more frustrated and angry," says Lang.
Mohawk Valley Edge President Steven DiMeo wasn't impressed by the festival in '99....and he isn't impressed by it today.
"I think it was fine for the moment; I don't think it has any lasting effects, positive or negative, other than the fact that there were some temporary economic benefits."
Still, then-Mayor Griffo doesn't regret the decision that brought worldwide attention, $500,000 in sales tax and internationally-known rock acts to Rome, New York in the summer of '99.
"Looking at the three criteria I use to evaluate at the time I believe that it was something that was worth pursuing at that time for those reasons."
"I think this was a once in a generation type of event of a magnitude that is almost indescribable," says Griffo.
Most Popular