Wrong Vibrations

Ten years from now, if someone puts on a “30 Years After Woodstock Festival” and The Times covers it, please don’t send a pop critic again--send a human being.

I perceived the “20 Years After” festival at Cal State Dominguez Hills on Aug. 19 as a birthday party held to celebrate Woodstock, not a concert intended to duplicate it.

In his Aug. 21 article, “ ’20 Years After’: Weak Woodstock Vibes,” reviewer Chris Willman shouldn’t have tried to measure the festival by counting births, rainfall, brown acid tabs or bodies (copulating or not). Those elements made up the superficial reality of the original Woodstock. The deeper reality was profound joy simultaneously experienced by a large population. And at Dominguez Hills, 5,000 people created an exact replica of Woodstock--in their hearts.

GREGORY DAVENPORT

Marina del Rey