Ten years later
This weekend marks the tenth anniversary of Woodstock '99 at the former Griffiss Air Base in Rome. Tens of thousands of people attended the music festival modeled after the original Woodstock in Bethel in 1969. Two giant concert stages sat at each end of the same runway where B-52 bombers used to take off and land. Fans of music and partying from several generations camped out for a three day weekend. It was a successful summer festival until late on Sunday night where the crowd became unruly. Fires were set and the New York State Police donned riot gear to quell the trouble.
Musical acts like James Brown, Sheryl Crow, Buck Cherry, Parliament Funkadelic, Korn, Live and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were among the dozens who performed. Much of the concert was carried on MTV. Rome enjoyed basking in the positive national limelight over most of the weekend. The biggest problem was heat exhaustion. Temperatures on the runway hit 110 degrees at time. Hundreds were treated for dehydration and the heat. Spray tents kept concert goers cool and relatively clean.
A baby was born at the festival, and many of those in attendance received new tattoos and body piercings. During the overnight hours raves were held inside the airplane hangars where thousands of people danced and body surfed through the crowd.
The fires on Sunday took away much of the luster. The New York State Police were criticized for not engaging in the crowd sooner. Superintendent James McMahon said the initial fires did not jeopardize safety, but later that changed and that was when the order was given to take action.
Monday morning's sunrise revealed the tons of trash left behind by the campers and the burned out wreckage of tractor trailers set on fire. The uplifting mood that marked the start of the festival had turned to disappointment.
After the smoke cleared and State Police ushered out the crowd Rome Mayor Joe Griffo was asked whether an event like Woodstock would have an encore, he said, "As far as the event, for three and a half days it want exceptionally well. Today's a difficult day. If we knew the event would possibly have this ending we would say absolutely not we do not want an event like that in our community."
The Griffiss Business Park has not hosted any concerts in the ten years since.
