cannabisnews.com: No Peace? Psychiatric Workers On Call At Concert!





No Peace? Psychiatric Workers On Call At Concert!
Posted by FoM on July 25, 1999 at 14:32:41 PT
By Michael Hill, Associated Press
Source: Boston.com
ROME, N.Y. (AP) For many at Woodstock '99, the problem was not the heat, it was the anxiety. Amid crushing crowds and drugs at the mega-concert, some revelers were bound to suffer from bad vibes. 
For the worst of these cases, a crew of volunteer psychiatric workers was on hand around the clock. And with more than 225,000 people gathered at the sprawling 3,000-acre former Air Force base, business was brisk. ''We're hopping. We're running to full capacity,'' psychologist Bruce Wilson said Saturday afternoon as a few concert-goers slept off bad drug trips in a makeshift psychiatric care center. About 10 people had been referred to the center overnight,and more anxiety cases were dealt with in the field. Some young patients had been disoriented by drugs. Others became lost or overwhelmed by the mass of people wandering through the sprawling base, workers said. ''Just the size of this place,'' Wilson said. ''There's a lot of disorientation.'' Wilson, in private practice in Pleasantville, N.Y., was among 27 psychiatrists, psychologists, nurse practitioners and social workers volunteering at Woodstock '99. The project was the brainchild of Paul Michael Ramirez, a neuropsychologist teaching at Long Island University who first created a team for Woodstock '94 in Saugerties, N.Y. Like doctors in an army M.A.S.H. unit, the psychiatric workers dealt with waves of patients at any hour. The big difference is that these patients often suffered from the unintended effects of drugs: ecstasy, mushrooms, LSD, and manufactured ''designer drugs.'' Ramirez tried to present a calm front to anxious drug users who need to be talked down. He admitted it wasn't always easy. ''They're freaking out, and their friends are freaking out,'' he said. ''And it kind of escalates the problem, I think.'' Then there's the opposite type of case he dealt with in '94. A young drug user was not only unable to give his name or home state, he couldn't say what planet he was on. Ramirez put him on 24-hour observation. Ramirez' crew usually saw more severe cases. Many more anxious concert-goers were dealt with in the field or in the emergency room. Mac McGlaughlin of the Family of Woodstoock crisis team said that often involved letting drug users sleep off their problems. McGlaughlin identified another big anxiety problem at Woodstock '99 being ''the lost people'' those upset over getting separated from friends or children. He said one mother was so upset about losing her daughter she came in with heart palpitations after searching the site all night. ''She wore her feet down,'' he said. ''They needed to be bandaged.'' Pubdate: July 25, 1999© Copyright 1999 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing, Inc.http://www.boston.com/news/daily/25/woodstock_psych.htm The World Remembers Three Days of Peace, Love & Music-7/24http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2196.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 26, 1999 at 04:35:48 PT:
Fans Rampage in Last Hours of Festival!
http://www.nytimes.com/July 26, 1999By PAUL ZIELBAUEROME, N.Y. -- Before the music ended, Woodstock '99 started going up in violent flames on Sunday night as marauding bands of shirtless, bellowing men set fire to 12 trucks, looted T-shirts from concession stands and tore open cash machines in search of money. The riot began around 10:30 p.m. after the Red Hot Chili Peppers finished their set, the final act of the three-day show. As a film tribute to Jimi Hendrix played on a giant screen, dozens of people in the crowd, carrying "peace candles" that had been passed out beforehand, used them to set fire to an overturned car. From there, Woodstock descended into an unsupervised, sometimes frightening chaos, as bands of young men, inspired by the car fire, used cigarette lighters to start a dozen bonfires in the grassy field away from the stage. For almost an hour, Woodstock revelers, the music long over and the floodlights turned out, rampaged. As bottles of water flew overhead, they ripped open boxes of pretzels and soda looted from the trucks and started a vociferous food fight. Other rioters beat on metal trash drums with two-by-fours while still others fed the bonfire flames with tables, tent fabric, boxes, bottles -- anything that could burn and many other objects, like metal wash basins, that could not. "They were just going mad," said Daniel Bar, 22, of Toronto, watching 100-foot billows of luminous ash lick the starless sky. "I think it's pathetic." After nearly an hour of flames and smoke, smashed bottles and looted tents, squads of New York State Police troopers arrived, clad in riot helmets and wielding 3-foot wooden batons. The police, shouting and sometimes cursing at disobedient revelers, cleared a 100-yard perimeter around the blazing semi-trailers. Minutes later, explosions ripped open one trailer, than another, each boom evoking a cheering roar from the thousands of onlookers peacefully standing off with the police. As the authorities sought to rein in the chaos, there was no immediate word on injuries. "When it comes down to what Woodstock '99 was, this is what people will remember," Renee Lemieux said as she ducked a flying bottle and was struck by a pretzel. "It's actually scary." But many of the people in the crowd clearly reveled in the scene of chaos and disruption. "I think they were asking for it," Randy Voytas, 26, a warehouse worker from Connecticut, said of the concert's organizers. "They were charging people so much money for everything. The pizza was $12." Few of the concertgoers seemed troubled by the chaos, and many seemed proud of it. They jammed the pay phones to call their parents and tell them to turn on the news. "I'm going to look back at this and never forget it," said Kristen Mediros, 24, a hospital administrator from Massachusetts. "We didn't tear half as much stuff down as the last Woodstock." Jason Hamet, an 18-year-old college student from Massachusetts, wondered only why the madness took so long to get started. "I tried to start a riot twice today because I was bored," he said, then excused himself. "I'm going to steal some more stuff." Earlier in the day, the 240-acre Woodstock campground resembled a dusty United Nations refugee city, but one where packs of young men exchanged crumpled dollar bills for clumps of marijuana or hallucinogenic mushrooms. Portable toilets ran over into some tents. Exiting fans ripped down pieces of plywood from the Woodstock "Peace Wall" for souvenirs, and tiptoed through stagnating ponds in which condoms and bottles floated past sodden shoes. For many, the 72-hour Woodstock concert climaxed, musically and emotionally, on Saturday night when bands like Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine and Metallica played before what seemed like most of the 200,000 or so people here. Officials estimated that Sunday's crowd had thinned to 150,000. Along with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sunday's lineup included Willie Nelson, Elvis Costello and the Brian Setzer Orchestra, none of whom seemed to inspire many young fans exhausted after two nights of rave parties in an airplane hangar here at the former Griffiss Air Force Base, which has been transformed into a theme park devoted to the lost notion of the original Woodstock. Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company 
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on July 25, 1999 at 17:33:03 PT:
Woodstock '99 Winding Down!
July 25, 1999http://www.nytimes.com/Filed at 7:37 p.m. EDTBy The Associated PressROME, N.Y. (AP) -- Hot, sunburned and exhausted, Woodstock '99 concertgoers faced the ultimate rock 'n' roll letdown Sunday -- the end of the three-day festival and the long ride home. ``We all have got to work in the morning,'' said Mara Kugler of Baldwin, N.Y., a sleeping bag tucked under her arm. ``It's been a long week, but worth it.'' Many campers were already pulling up stakes and stashing gear in their cars Sunday morning in hopes of making a quick getaway once their favorite band finished up, but it didn't look promising. State police said that by late afternoon more than 70,000 people had departed with few delays. The exodus was expected to take up to a day since more than 225,000 packed the site. ``It's like, you know, what your image of hell would be,'' said Diana Perchekly, who faced a five-hour drive back to her Long Island home. ``This is it.'' If the site indeed was hell for some -- the 3,000-acre former Air Force base was littered with flattened fast-food containers, beer cans, paper and plastic cups and myriad pizza boxes -- it remained heaven for others. Slightly over 100 people decided early Sunday that stripping was better than grabbing an extra hour or two of sleep and turned out for a massive nude photo shoot as a brilliant orange sun began to light up the sky. Flyers announcing the escapade were circulated over the weekend by photographer Spencer Tunick, who is well known for his photos of nudes in public places. ``I just want to see the expressions that the photos could bring for decades to come,'' said Sarah Warner of Allston, Mass. ``Picture your kid going, 'Grandma, was that you? You were hot!''' King Rex and Queen Cassie, two nudists from Massachusetts, arrived at the site ready for the job. King Rex, 45, wore a Panama hat, sneakers and Mardi Gras beads. Queen Cassie had a lei around her neck and sandals on her feet, and that was it. ``We've been nude all weekend. We drove here nude, most of the way,'' Rex said. ``This is a natural state for us. I'm glad to see that people aren't so hung up that they can't join us.'' ``The first day, as we were putting up our tents, we could hear the giggles,'' said Queen Cassie, 50. ``People were peeking out from behind their tents to take pictures. They seemed shocked. After three days, they don't even give us a second look. In fact, half of them are naked now.'' The festival wasn't all peace and love. Things turned somewhat ugly in the mosh pit Saturday night while Limp Bizkit was playing. A mob of more than 200 threw bottles, smashed a barricade and nearly trampled sound system components. One woman suffered a serious head cut from a thrown bottle. Away from the two mammoth stages, a man carrying $16,000 in cash was arrested Saturday in the campground for selling mushrooms, state trooper Jim Simpson said. The arrest was one of 31 made at the festival, troopers said. Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company 
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