Woodstock Revisited: From Straw to Glamp

Two friends who attended Woodstock in 1969 returned 55 years later to revisit the site. This time, they enjoyed luxurious glamping amenities and reflected on their memories from the iconic music festival. Their return highlighted the enduring spirit and historical significance of Woodstock.

Beverly "Cookie" Grant hitchhiked to the Woodstock music festival in 1969 without a ticket and slept on straw. Ellen Shelburne arrived in a VW microbus and pitched a pup tent.

Fifty-five years later, the two longtime friends returned to the garden, but this time in high style.

The women, now 76, were treated to a two-bedroom glamping tent at the upstate New York site. Equipped with comfy beds, a shower, a coffee maker, and Wi-Fi, there was no mud from drenching rains this time. They sat in pavilion seats to watch shows by Woodstock veterans John Fogerty and Roger Daltrey.

"We're like hippie queens!" Grant joked over breakfast.

The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts rolled out the tie-dyed carpet for Grant and Shelburne to promote its new glamping facilities. The once-trampled hillside by the main stage is now a manicured green space near a Woodstock-and-'60s-themed museum. But the return visit still brought back a flood of memories. Shelburne retraced her steps as a 21-year-old college student through photos taken by her then-boyfriend and future husband, David Shelburne.

"I'm looking at this person in the photograph, who is me, but a person just starting out in life at that age. And now I'm looking back at sort of bookends of my life,'' Ellen Shelburne said. "All these decades later, I'm back at Woodstock and it just brings it all up in such a positive way."

Grant and Shelburne did not know each other in August 1969. Shelburne came from Columbus, Ohio, with David Shelburne and slept in a pup tent. Grant hitchhiked with a surfer and arrived barefoot.

Both were wowed by Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and other acts. They found camaraderie among the 400,000 attendees. They met months later in Columbus and married their concert companions. David and Ellen Shelburne ran a film and video production company before David's death four years ago. Grant moved to Florida and became a chef on mega-yachts, later providing crews for those boats.

Shelburne said she's "stuck in the '60s and proud of it." The women got the bug to return to the festival site last year after providing oral histories for the Museum at Bethel Woods.

At the festival site, they explored spots where David shot his festival photos. His images, in sequence, tell a story. Shelburne stood by a tree line holding a photo of a field full of campers, taken by her late husband. She felt his presence as she looked at the same field, now empty. Despite the changes — luxury tents, fences, and a museum, the same friendly vibes from 1969 were felt again. "It's very wonderful to see that it's in history forever," Grant said, "and we're a part of that."

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