Museum exploring Woodstock music festival opens

A museum offering an interactive, in-depth look at 1969's landmark Woodstock music festival officially opened to the public in Bethel, N.Y., on Monday.

Known formally as the Museum at Bethel Woods, the facility explores the era-defining three-day festival as well as the decade that led up to it and the one that came afterwards.

"It's sort of a three-act play," said Michael Egan, the museum's senior director.

"We tell you the story of the '60s, the story of Woodstock and the story of the legacy of Woodstock."

Displays range from a portion of the original chain link fence erected around the main site in a failed attempt to keep gatecrashers out to giant video projections of certain acts, including Jimi Hendrix's legendary performance of The Star-Spangled Banner.

Among the interactive elements is a space where museum visitors who also attended Woodstock can record their own experiences for the museum's archives.

Through his not-for-profit Gerry Foundation, cable TV mogul Alan Gerry established the facility in 2006 in order to boost the rural New York state community, from which he hails.

Because the foundation's goal is for the museum to be family-friendly, the exhibits, films and displays aim to portray Woodstock as wild without going into specific details about the drug use and sex that was prevalent at the festival.

The site also includes a 4,800-seat performance space able to host shows by current artists, with Rascal Flatts and the New York Philharmonic among those who have booked shows at the venue this year.