Dylan says no to Woodstock, yes to Firefly

Sunburn – lots of it. The smell of pot and porta-johns. Lots of great music. Girls with flowers in their hair. Spontaneous dancing.

I could be describing Woodstock, an epic event in pop culture that occurred nearly 50 years ago on a cow farm near Bethel, N.Y., but it's those same things that stimulated the senses this past week during four days of the sixth annual Firefly Music Festival in the Dover Woodlands.

I can't help it. Every time I attend Firefly, I think about Woodstock. I was 14 years old at the time and definitely remember the images on TV showing the massive traffic backups and the mass of humanity attending the event. Heavy rain did not seem to bother anyone.

The “Woodstock” documentary – which I've seen about a dozen times – is a slice of history of my generation, frozen in time.

Of course, there are a lot of differences between the two events. More than 125 acts performed at Firefly this year; 32 acts performed at Woodstock, including the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Who, Credence Clearwater Revival and Jimi Hendrix. Many who declined to play eventually regretted not being part of a pivotal part of rock-and-roll history.

One rock legend who did not appear was Bob Dylan, who performed at this year's Firefly. Dylan, who lived near the Woodstock Festival grounds in upstate New York, instead signed on to play at the Isle of Wight Festival of Music in Great Britain. There are conflicting reasons why he didn't attend Woodstock ranging from an ill child to disgust with the “hippies” and “druggies” who would have attended the festival.

About 10 times as many people attended Woodstock – close to “half a million strong” as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young put it. Plus, the event got out of hand quickly because of the overwhelming numbers. The organizers eventually gave up trying to sell tickets and manage the crowd coming to “Three Days of Peace and Music,” which stretched into four days.

Firefly is organized in every aspect right down to the scanning devices used to verify what kind of ticket you purchased.

And by the way, when I left the Firefly grounds on Friday night, the song “Woodstock” was playing on the radio. Now that's really cool.