Woodstock for a New Generation

More than 200,000 music fans streamed into town Friday for Woodstock ‘99, a three-day celebration of love and peace held at a former military base instead of the farm where the original festival took place 30 years ago.

James Brown opened the show, introduced as the “general of soul” as he looked out on giant hangars that used to house B-52 bombers. Also on the weekend bill were Limp Bizkit, the Dave Matthews Band, Korn, Jewel and Sheryl Crow.

While original Woodstock announcer Wavy Gravy returned , he was surrounded by reminders that it was a long way from 1969.

Skateboarders sailed up ramps in an “extreme sports” park, vendors sold hemp tacos and people complained that cell phone transmission lines were jammed.

By midday, the crowd was estimated at 220,000. Promoters planned for 250,000 but said they would keep selling tickets as long as people wanted to get in.

“It’s 1999, the turn of the century, and this is going to be the biggest party of the century,” said Shawn Hagen, who drove 27 hours with four friends from Monticello, Minn., to attend the concert.

Authorities reported few problems, but first aid workers were kept busy treating several hundred people woozy from the 90-degree heat. One woman was in labor in a first aid tent. Concert promoters scrambled to find space with a 245-acre campground overflowing even before the music started.

Brown belted out “Cold Sweat,” but that was wishful thinking for his audience. Fans poured bottled water over each other’s heads and crowded a “rain tent,” where they were drenched with a fine mist, if they could get in.

“We walked by it,” said Heather Garland, 25, of Bloomfield, N.J. “There were too many sweaty bodies in there.”

Few fans were complaining, though. Candace Redden, 28, drove nearly two days from Canada with two friends, leaving their van in Maine when it broke down and renting a car. “We come from Nova Scotia, and not a lot of bands get up there,” Redden said.