Farm of Woodstock fame can be yours for $8 million

BETHEL, N.Y. – The famous farm near the alfalfa field that drew 400,000 people to Woodstock for three days of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll is up for sale.

The asking price: $8 million.

Roy Howard, the current owner, is packing it in after years of tangling with local officials over permits for reunion gatherings to mark the 1969, three-day Woodstock music festival that helped ignite a generation.

Up for sale is the 2,000-square-foot house that belonged to dairy farmer Max Yasgur, along with a larger farmhouse, a barn and 103 bucolic acres about 80 miles north of New York City.

The nearby alfalfa field where the concert was held isn’t included in the sale. It’s owned by cable magnate Alan Gerry, who turned it into the 4,800-seat Bethel Woods Center last summer.

Yasgur lent out the alfalfa field for the concert after promoters were rejected by officials in the nearby town of Woodstock. About 400,000 people packed the field Aug. 15-17 for the festival that drew the biggest names in music – Jimi Hendrix and The Who among them.

Yasgur and his farm were celebrated in Joni Mitchell’s song “Woodstock,” popularized by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young with the line: “I’m going on down to Yasgur’s farm. I’m going to join in a rock ‘n’ roll band.”

Sullivan County Treasurer Ira Cohen, who was at Woodstock, helped organize reunions during the 1990s and said the sale will end an era.

“The reunions were a way to keep the music going,” he said.