Woodstock

Woodstock Businesses

Its very name evokes 60s counterculture—hippies, hair, flower children, psychedelic drugs, make-love-not-war, Country Joe and the Fish—though the music festival of the same name actually took place in Sullivan County. The festival did, however, deliberately style itself after a village that had been groovy long before ’69. The Byrdcliffe Colony, an arts and crafts utopia, opened here in 1901, but the hamlet was a haven for painters for at least half a century before that. Now home to the Maverick Concert Series, the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, the Bearsville Theatre, and more musicians, writers, and artists than you can shake a stick at, there are probably more celebrities per capita here than any in other small town in the world. The key word here is small. The main drag of restaurants, art galleries, New Age emporia, high-end clothing stores, and gift shops, charming though it is, can be navigated on foot in a matter of minutes; there aren’t even many traffic lights in the commercial district. It’s been a long time since Bob Dylan wrecked his motorcycle here. But it’s a safe bet that the allure of Woodstock, like that of the 60s, will not fade away.