About Woodstock
Long before it lent its name to a festival it didn't actually host, Woodstock was an art town — and it never stopped being one.
The colony began in 1902, when Ralph Whitehead founded Byrdcliffe, an arts-and-crafts utopia on the slopes of Overlook Mountain. Painters and potters came first; the Art Students League set up a summer school; and a creative gravity settled over the town that never lifted.
Music arrived in force in the 1960s. Manager Albert Grossman put down roots in nearby Bearsville, and where Grossman went, his artists followed. Bob Dylan moved up, recovered from his motorcycle crash, and holed up with The Band at a pink house in West Saugerties — the basement tapes that became Music from Big Pink.
About that festival: the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair was held on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, NY — some 60 miles southwest. The name stuck anyway. (You can visit the site today; see Road Trips.)
Today the town still runs thick with working musicians, painters, actors and writers, and its little venues keep the live-music tradition humming year round.
Grossman followed Glaser.
Dylan followed Grossman.
Hendrix followed Dylan.
The Band followed Dylan.
They all followed Dylan.
On the map
Woodstock sits in the eastern Catskills, about 10 minutes west of the Thruway at Kingston. Here’s the village green — see the full venue map or the area guide for everything around it.
Handy local links
The stations, chambers and culture orgs worth bookmarking around here.
Local radio
- WDST 100.1 — Radio Woodstock — The iconic independent Woodstock station, on the air since 1980 — indie, rock and Americana with deep local roots.
- Radio Kingston — Community radio out of Kingston, local voices and music across the mid-Hudson.
- WKZE 98.1 — Freeform Americana and indie out of Red Hook, heard across the Hudson Valley.
- WGXC 90.7 — Wave Farm — Hands-on, artist-run community radio from Acra and Hudson.
- WIOX 91.3 — Roxbury community radio, deep in the western Catskills.
Arts & culture
- Woodstock Artists Association & Museum — The town’s historic art museum.
- Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild — The 1902 arts colony, still going.
- Opus 40 — Harvey Fite’s bluestone sculpture park (and a magical concert venue).
- Woodstock Film Festival — “Fiercely independent” every fall.
Chambers & tourism
- Woodstock Chamber of Commerce & Arts — Local businesses & town info.
- Ulster County Chamber of Commerce — Regional chamber.
- Visit Ulster County — Tourism for Woodstock, Saugerties & Kingston.
- Great Northern Catskills (Greene County) — Catskill & Hudson-side tourism.
- Town of Woodstock — Official town government.
Local news
- Hudson Valley One — Woodstock Times & regional news.