Snow Day

Join us for one of our favorite days in Woodstock . . . when the snow is new and everything looks especially beautiful!

2012 EWCs

The 2012 Experience Woodstock Card (EWC) is now available online and at eight locations in the Woodstock area:

• Bearsville Theater, 291 Tinker Street, (845) 679-4406
• The Golden Notebook, 29 Tinker Street, (845) 679-8000
• Lily's Boutique, 24 Tinker Street, (845) 679-6470
• Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, 40 Mill Hill Road, (845) 336-4444
• River Rock Health Spa, 62 Ricks Road, (845) 679-7800
• Rondout Savings Bank, 295-4 Route 375, West Hurley, (845) 679-2600
• TD Bank, 68 Mill Hill Road, (845) 679-3862
• Ulster Savings Bank, 60 Mill Hill Road, (845) 679-8434

Buy yours today for access to more than 100 offers at the Woodstock area's premier restaurants, shops, galleries, museums, spas, performance spaces and more. The card, at just $25, can be used on an unlimited basis now through December 31, 2012. It easily pays for itself within a day or two of use. Offers are updated every Thursday. Aim your smartphone/device at the QR code on the bottom left front of your card for an up-to-date listing of EWC offers. Enjoy the best of the Woodstock region for le$$!

Woodstock Yarnbombing

On Friday, September 30 to Saturday, October 1, Woodstock was yarnbombed by The Knitters of the Round Table. Check out Russell Richardson's video at http://vimeo.com/29981547.

Fall for Woodstock

Fall has begun and there's plenty to do in Woodstock!

The 12th annual, fiercely independent Woodstock Film Festival took place from Wednesday, September 21 through Sunday, September 25. If you missed this year's fest, you can catch up on highlights and order merchandise at www.woodstockfilmfestival.com.

Tomorrow (October 1) is the launch of the 8th annual Lark in the Park—10 days of outdoor activities in the Woodstock and Catskill Park region. According to Steve Berg, president of the Catskill Mountain Club, “We’re excited to offer the [Lark] this year for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the almost insurmountable odds we faced to do anything at all in the wake of tropical storms Irene and Lee.  The Lark has been running since the 100th anniversary of the Catskill Park in 2004.”

Berg continues, “This year, despite the flood damage, we are pleased to present 40+ events throughout the Park and neighboring counties.  These activities appeal to adults and kids and range from fly-fishing instruction to hiking; backpacking advice and a lecture on walking in old Woodstock.  We’re even planning to offer golf lessons! For a complete listing of the Lark’s events, which run through Columbus Day (Monday, October 10), click on www.catskillslark.org.

Mowers Saturday Flea Market

Mowers Saturday Flea market is a place to relax, shop, meet old friends, discover some great bargains and experience the beautiful seasons in upstate New York. For 34 years, this privately owned lot in the center of Woodstock has been transformed each weekend into an outdoor shopping venue. Vendors, who travel from far and wide to set up in Woodstock, offer a wide range of items for sale. Books, vintage jewelry, second hand household items, furniture, records, CD’s DVD’s, gemstones, antiques, glassware, Buddhas, incense, fresh organic produce, honey, maple syrup, tarot card readers, energy balancers . . . it’s all found at Mowers Saturday Flea market. 

You may also find photographers and artists set up with their beautiful creations framed and ready for your home. If you are hungry, you can feast on the best “dirty water” hot dogs on Saturday or the most scrumptious classic hot dogs on Sunday. Wednesday in Woodstock is Farm Fest day and Mower’s field plays host to the food vendors and the music venue for the Woodstock Farm Festival. The fresh organic produce farmers are set up in Houst’s parking lot on Maple Lane. Hundreds of people stop by to support the farmers, enjoy a meal together and listen to music. They also shop at the Mowers vendors that are set up around the periphery of the farm market activities. For further information, check the information line at 845-679-6744.

~Janine Fallon Mower

Fun for the whole family!

Chamber Info Booth Now Open

Rowan Smith-Spanier of the
Chamber Information Booth

The Woodstock Chamber information booth (10 Rock City Road, Woodstock, NY 12498) opened today for the summer season. Hours of operation, now through Columbus Day, will be Fridays, 12 noon through 6 p.m., and Saturdays/Sundays, 11 a.m. through 5 p.m.

Please drop by to meet the new manager of the booth, Ms. Rowan Smith-Spanier. Rowan is a Woodstock resident and May 13 graduate of Pratt Institute's upstate campus at Utica, where she studied painting. She is pleased to be the new face of Woodstock. "I feel it's very appropriate that an art student will be representing the Colony of the Arts to visitors this summer."

The booth is a wonderful resource for visitors and newcomers to the Woodstock area. Stop by for help with lodging, dining, shopping and activities for the whole family. The booth is one of a dozen places where visitors and residents can purchase the Experience Woodstock Card, which is a passport to 100 or so special offers at select Woodstock-area restaurants, spas, performance spaces, galleries, lodging, professional services and more.

Woodstock Branch Voted TD Bank’s Friendliest

Nick Altomare, Woodstock Manager

TD Bank/Woodstock is located in a converted house at 68 Mill Hill Road. The store manager is Nick Altomare, a friendly and outgoing native of nearby Kingston. A graduate of SUNY Albany, he has been in banking for over ten years. About three years ago a friend suggested that he join TD Bank. He did so, and within six months he arrived here to manage the Woodstock branch.

This bank is the tenth largest financial services company in the nation, and has a triple “A” credit rating from Moody's. The local branch strives to position itself as a community-based bank. Nick is the president of the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce and Arts, and the bank sponsors a slew of local initiatives including the Little League, the Woodstock Farm Festival, the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild’s Annual  5 x 7 show, the Woodstock Chamber’s Open House and the Experience Woodstock Card.

"Here Comes Summer," sculpture
by artist Ze'ev Willy Neumann

TD Bank styles itself as America’s Most Convenient Bank. It happens that the Woodstock branch is also one of the friendliest. In April their customers voted Woodstock the Number One branch in the company (of 1,250 stores from Maine to Florida), based on service provided by its employees.

One need not be a bank customer to obtain mortgages, home equity, car or personal loans.  TD Bank tries to be sensitive to their customers’ needs in the Hudson Valley, so many of the lending decisions are made locally.

A fun fact: Woodstock is the only TD Bank branch that has a sculpture on its front lawn.

~ Weston Blelock

Woodstock's Sidewalk Sale

Saturday and Sunday, May 14 and 15, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Woodstock's fabulous shops and boutiques are celebrating the arrival of spring with the twice-annual Sidewalk Sale. Select stores throughout the hamlet are placing racks of clothes on the street with markdowns of 30 to 75 percent. Don't miss out!

Woodstock Getaway

Is it time to take a break from the winter blues? How about pampering yourself and that special someone? The Woodstock Chamber’s Experience Woodstock Card (EWC) may be your answer.

Woodstock, NY is two hours driving time from New York City. Just off Exit 20 at Saugerties, make a right onto Route 212. About seven miles due west you will arrive at the luxurious Harmony House Bed & Breakfast (pictured here in spring—it's just around the corner!). Hosts Jacquie Wolf and Eva Plumb are offering cardholders 10% off on a two-night minimum. Accommodations range from $165 to 195 per night. Included in the package are a four-course breakfast, wifi, free local calls and a fireplace in the guest parlor.

There are many special offers associated with the EWC. For Valentine's weekend you might want to consider a trip to River Rock Health Spa. Over the past four years this venue has been voted by readers of Hudson Valley Magazine to be one of the area's best day spas. It features a menu of different therapeutic modalities, ranging from Swedish massage to Raindrop Aromatherapy sessions to side-by-side massage.

Woodstock is known up and down the Hudson Valley for its fine galleries and shops. Many of them have placed special offers on the EWC, including Jarita's Florist, Life is Good, SweetHeart Gallery, Lotus Fine Art & Design and Fletcher Gallery. And there are wonderful offers from restaurants, entertainment venues and service providers that will further enhance your stay. Click here to see the complete listing of current offers. You can download/print a list for use before and during your visit. See you soon!

Experience Woodstock Corridor

The Experience Woodstock Corridor, stretching from Woodstock's Village Green to Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, is now open for business. Visitors to the Woodstock area are invited to sample the many restaurants, shops, galleries, spas and performance venues that Woodstock has to offer.

To complete their Woodstock experience, visitors are encouraged to enjoy The Museum at Bethel Woods, the performance stages, and the festivals of Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Additional places of interest in Woodstock, Bethel, and points in between are being added to the program.

Powering the Corridor is the Experience Woodstock Card, now in its second year. The 2011 card, priced at $25, is good for unlimited usage throughout the calendar year. It can be purchased online or a nine locations in Woodstock (see listing at upper right).

2011 Experience Woodstock Card

The Woodstock Chamber is committed to a leadership role in working with Woodstock-area businesses, arts organizations, and local/county/state government to foster cultural tourism to the area. Through comprehensive planning and development it is working to support the local economy and arts.

On January 1st the Chamber launched the 2011 Experience Woodstock Card (EWC). Close to 80 Woodstock-area businesses have made offers on the card so far. These special offers include 10% off luncheon entrees at Joshua's Cafe and the Country Kitchen of Woodstock, 15% off tickets at Woodstock Fringe and 10% off all Woodstock Apothecary brand supplements. For a complete listing, click here.

According to studies generated by Civic Economics, an economic-development consultancy with offices in Austin and Chicago, locally-spent dollars stay local and are recycled. Further, $68 out of $100 spent with local merchants stays within the community—as opposed to $43 of every $100 spent at chains or franchises. Another striking finding of their research: Independent businesses produce an average of 70% more local economic activity than chains on comparable revenue.

Visitors and residents are invited to purchase the Experience Woodstock Card for $25. It is good for unlimited usage throughout the 2011 calendar year. Here's your opportunity to truly experience Woodstock!

Santa's Arrival in Woodstock

A little before 6 p.m. on Chrismas Eve, a wagon of musical elves drew up at Woodstock's Village Green, pulled by a bright red tractor.

Next to arrive was a sleigh drawn by several energetic reindeer, one of whom had a twinkling red nose. But Santa was not in the sleigh. Where could he be?

After an anxious wait on the part of the large crowd gathered at the Green, Santa finally appeared on the rooftop above One Tinker Street in Woodstock. Welcoming cheers burst forth to greet him.

We hope that you're enjoying the holidays, whereever you are. Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year. Like Santa, come visit us soon in Woodstock!

Experience Woodstock Hospitality

On Friday, December 3, from 5 to 9 p.m., Woodstock celebrated the beginning of its fabulous winter “season of light” with the 29^th annual Open House. Festivities included a bonfire, hot cider, wine and cheese tastings, free treats, caroling, free concerts, Frosty the Snowman, face painting by Mrs. Claus, a free mini-shuttle from one end of town to the other, and much, much more. Woodstock’s many shops and galleries decorated their windows and opened their doors to welcome visitors from near and far. Happy holidays!

Experience Woodstock Hiking



Courtesy of Phoenicia Times

There are plenty of wonderful hikes in and around Woodstock. A terrific new one is located just to the west of Woodstock Township in Phoenicia. Known as The Tanbark Trail, it references an era when many of the hemlocks in the Woodstock area were felled for their bark, which was the prime ingredient used in the process of tanning leather. Newly completed by the Tremper Mountain Firetower Committee, the trail begins on the east side of Phoenicia Park, just off St. Ursula Place in Phoenicia, NY, 12464.

The hike is just over two miles. It includes marvelous outlooks, rock formations, and numerous placards providing the history of the area (bluestone quarrying along with tanning) and identifying the surrounding Catskill Mountains.

Trail placard with a view of Phoenicia village above it

Woodstock’s Jack-o’-Lanterns



One of Woodstock’s great traditions occurs each October at Sunfrost Farms. Always a source for magnificent pumpkins, Sunfrost sells as many as its grateful customers can use. The leftovers are carved into fabulous jack-o’-lanterns, lit up, and displayed for everyone to enjoy on Halloween.

Located at 217 Tinker Street (Route 212) and owned by the Ballister family, Sunfrost has been a purveyor of beautiful fruits and vegetables since it opened in 1969. The thing with the pumpkins has been going nearly that long—for about 39 years. Interviewed recently, Matthew Ballister says “it’s a great honor to be the keeper of the tradition.” Over the years so many things are lost, but he finds this “exciting, and it gives life meaning to keep this alive—because it is Woodstock.”

Experience Peace

Roughly two years ago, on the United Nations' International Peace Day, Woodstock residents welcomed a small beacon of hope into the center of town in the form of a peace pole. The well-recognized symbol, an eight-foot structure on the Woodstock Village Green in our case, features the saying, "May Peace Prevail on Earth," in over 100 languages on each of the four sides. Many people turned up for the unveiling, proving how important the monument is to keeping the message of peace alive everywhere. Sometimes, just having a place to pray or to share a moment of silence to consider the goings-on of the world is a helpful way to relieve stress and get away from the tension present in the world. Woodstock is not the first—or the last—place to have a peace pole.

Tens of thousands of peace poles can be found across the entire world, including very well-known places like the North Pole and Hiroshima, Japan. The main message that the peace pole conveys is simple: world peace. With each of us doing our part to honor the peace we do have, we are heading in the right direction. These poles are a small but significant part of the overall effort for a more peaceful planet.

~Danielle Barthel

Experience Woodstock Through Clothing

If you come to Woodstock wanting to shop for women's clothing, then Woodstock Design should certainly entice you as it's one of the most stylish places to shop. The store has been open since 1981, and was founded by Robin Kramer. It boasts a wonderful selection of simple yet gorgeous clothing and shoes. Woodstock Design has up-to-the-minute fashions available; for example, Eileen Fisher's clothing line is currently featured for the fall season. There is also a summer sale going on right now, so stop by and see if you can find the perfect shirt, shoes, or skirt for any occasion.

Now if you're interested in the more authentic Woodstock attire, perhaps you should visit Woodstock Legends, a shop packed with tie-dyed, colorful clothing, photographs, and records from Woodstock itself. The store is vibrant with the feel of the sixties; when you walk through the door, you wend your way through a self-proclaimed "labyrinth" of memorabilia hanging from every nook and cranny. You could walk in every day and find something new and exciting, which is part of what makes the store so fascinating. Make sure to take a trip to this uniquely Woodstock store to find anything (and everything) related to the festival.

 
~Danielle Barthel

My Woodstock . . . and the Woodstock Nation

I was born in Brooklyn in the last half of the 1950’s, too late to understand the 1969 Woodstock concert at the time. A few years later, when it began to make sense, I became a regular visitor, and now I bring my wife and 8 year old son along. I’ve been back to Brooklyn, but it isn’t there anymore (at least, not the way I remember it); on the other hand, Woodstock is as sweet today as it is in my memory.

This place has a special vibe that resonates in me. The smell of scented candles in the stores, the taste of stone ground pancakes eaten on a patio beside a brook that glitters between the leaf shade, the artistic and organic sensibility you find here, and the ubiquitous magical touches define cool in my book. Today, the town is more upscale—and less funky—but it’s still a sacred place to me, and it’s not like anywhere else, either. The historic concert took place somewhere else, but this is the center.

As a younger man, I ambled along Tinker Street on a crisp autumn day in the morning sun with the whole day ahead of me and my whole life, too. The chill was backing off and a few early risers like me were opening their shops, buying fresh bread, and sipping herbal teas with honey. I chatted with the woman who owns the candle shop while she lit the one that has burned every day since that August weekend. Like a candelabra cactus from a dream, it stands taller than me and drips fragrant colors, encasing the mementoes, trinkets, and shrines that have been added along the way to commemorate events and celebrate the lives of people who have passed. It is a time capsule, or a core sample, back into near history—my history.

The countryside is lush in summer. Just up from town on MacDaniel Road is the Magic Meadow, filled with flowers and light. From a trailhead that is at the base of Overlook Mountain and across from the Tibetan Buddhist temple, I’ve hiked up to the ruins of a mountain house that burned down first in 1875 and then again in 1923. The walk to the top is steep, but the view of the Hudson Valley is sublime. Back in town, the farmers’ market, tea shop, cafes, galleries, bookstores, and boutiques provide everything one might need, or wish for.

The cottage we always rent is on the millstream, and it’s an easy stroll into town. The stream has shallow pools populated with tiny fish you can pet if you are gentle and move slowly. Early each morning, a young couple bakes fresh pastries for the people who are staying in the cottages. Time slows down for me there.

Years ago, I was walking through the countryside as the trees’ long shadows became overwhelmed by dusk. I spied a young couple and their friend leaving an old country house and they were carrying chairs. Then, they brought out a card table, a pitcher of lemonade, and their instruments: two guitars and a flute. She wore a long summer dress that caught the breeze. The friends chatted in low tones, chuckling after a bird called out to them. I watched as they set up in the front yard with only yellow lamplight from the house to see by. I edged closer and listened to them play their music, wishing I lived there too. I stayed there a long time, listening. I am still wistful about that.

Woodstock is one of the things I miss about New York because it is a milestone on the one true path. I have veered, somewhat, from my own path as I acquired other commitments, and it is sometimes difficult to reconcile such things, but it is not so difficult to explain how the heart knows when it is home.

The ideals responsible for the 1969 concert’s success as a peaceful statement and joyful expression have their roots in the shadow of Overlook, a mountain sacred to the Iroquois, just west of the Hudson River in upstate New York. The spirit that transcends place but is present there in abundance is a touchstone for many of us and we know who we are—we are the Woodstock Nation.

~Danny Ramirez

Experience Woodstock Parking

Parking in our little town can be a bit complicated if you've never visited before, so let me help by suggesting a few different places that you can look out for. The first parking lot that you will come to if you take the exit off Interstate 87 is in front of the H. Houst & Son garage. It is on the left-hand side of the street, right past the Bread Alone bakery, and parking is free. There are also handicapped spaces available.

Across from this parking lot, there is a larger lot where you can park for five dollars a day. If you take the right immediately after the Landau Grill, you will enter this municipal lot. If by chance you miss that right, continue straight until you see the intersection for Rock City Road, also on the right. There is a sign on the right to enter the lot. 

Further along Rock City Road on the left, there is a large municipal lot where the parking is free. This is opposite the Colony Cafe (at 22 Rock City Road).

One last helpful parking lot is towards the west end of the main part of Woodstock, directly across from Woodstock Hardware, on Comeau Drive. There you will find parking along one side of the street, as well as a lot a little further along that lane. Parking there is also free. And there is parking along one side of Route 212, also known as Mill Hill Road and Tinker Street, which is free, though sometimes restrictions apply.

~Danielle Barthel

Photos by Christine Kelly

Peace, Love and Misunderstanding

In the week of July 19, 2010, Woodstock became the location for the upcoming movie, Peace, Love and Misunderstanding, featuring Jane Fonda, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Catherine Keener, and Chase Crawford. According to IMDB, the Internet Movie Database, the plot of this movie centers on an upstanding lawyer, Keener, who takes her two children to Woodstock to meet their hippie grandmother, who is played by Fonda. It is directed by Bruce Beresford, who directed the well known Driving Miss Daisy back in 1989.

For the two days that the movie was filmed here, the whole town was abuzz. Locations such as Town Hall, the Village Green, and a house on Neher Street were used, and quite a few residents came out to watch the production. There was a casting call a few weeks ago, and many locals were used as extras. The production has moved elsewhere in the state for now, but it will be interesting to see how our little town is portrayed when the movie comes out in 2011.

~ Danielle Barthel