Electronic Music Festival To Be Held On Woodstock Site
Bethel Woods, the site of the original 1969 Woodstock festival, will host a fresh throng of music lovers next Memorial Day when Mysteryland, the longest-running electronic music festival, takes over the upstate New York area in 2014.
Mysteryland, which began in 1993, has long held events in the Netherlands and Chile that incorporate music, film, theater, art installations and more. It will make its U.S. debut in Woodstock over Memorial Day weekend, May 23rd through the 26th, 2014.
Bethel Woods, unsurprisingly, has been a long-sought-after locale for festival promoters. Talks between Mysteryland’s organizers, ID&T, and the owners of the grounds reportedly went on for over a year before approval was granted.
“We chose ID&T’s Mysteryland brand as the first modern-era festival on the hallowed grounds for its belief in many of the same principles as our own organization,” said Darlene Fedun, the CEO of Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, in a statement. “Creativity, unity, social responsibility and a focus on the ‘experience’ of the guest. We are delighted to be working with an experienced festival creator and an organization of such high core values.”
Just 20,000 tickets will be made available for next year’s festival. Fans can now sign up for the ticket sale, which begins in about two months. Tickets will be sold in order of registration, with more information about the sale to come.
“We see the similarities between the great demonstration of community and peace that was Woodstock and the current culture of electronic music festivals. Differences between peoples simply disappear at our festivals,” said ID&T CEO, Duncan Stutterheim. “Everyone is equal on the dance floor, and everyone can forget their everyday troubles and come together to enjoy the music and everything else that’s on offer.”
The news comes just a few days before the 20th installment of Mysteryland in the Netherlands, set for this Saturday, August 24th, with performances from Steve Aoki, Steve Angello, Baauer, Porter Robinson, Flosstradamus, Zeds Dead and Joker.