4 * S S Page Six a T- Tuesday, August 11, 1970 T MA THE MICHIGAN DAILY THE MICHIGAN DAILY Tuesday, August 11, 1970 s c 5 0 Electrified barbed wire fences warded off most gate crashers. Ticket holders had to pass through three checkpoints to the park. Some 200,000 fans peer over the ten-foot high wooden and wire fence as they groove to the big, loud, heavy sound. Marijuana was sold on the open market at from $7 I $10 an ounce. Most of it was green and smelled like spinach. IF 1969 WAS THE year of Woodstock, the mother. rock festival, then 1970 has been the year of Woodstock, the $3.50 a head flick, and the Woodstock myth which has sent young people by the hundreds of thousands streaming to a procession of concerts in search of what may never be again. A glut of good dope and a smattering of harder stuff, enduring the elements, nude swim- ming, the big blue-white sky above, that vast field filled with young people smoking and drinking and groovin' to the big, loud, heavy sound-these are the essential elements of the Woodstock myth, components the new wave of rock festivals promoters have labored to pro- duce to draw the big crowds. One element of Woodstock and the attendant myth has been lost in the big time promotional k shuffle, though. Woodstock was, perhaps above all else, a free concert. And for many young festival followers, the concept of the free concert has gravitated to the center of the Woodstock myth, perhaps because it is the only part of the to reality of that big weekend in the Catskills that hasn't been plagiarized by this year's festival promoters. Or perhaps for the more political reasons espoused by many underground and rock papers-that the promoters and bands should serve the people who support them, not rob them blind and beat them over the head. THE GOOSE LAKE International Music Fes- tival, which'drew an estimated 200,000 fans to a 390-acre private park in the farmlands east of Jackson, Mich., last weekend, was the anti- thesis of thewfree concert. While almost all of those inside Goose Lake Park, Inc. seemed to be fairly well-fed, healthy and safe from police interference in the wide- open drug market, hundreds were turned away for aik of money and scores outside the park were arrested by civil authorities on dope charges.. Bordered by water and electrified barbed wire fencing, the park was designed quite explicity to prevent gate crashing. Each of the two main gates had three blockaded checkpoints heavily staffed to make sare no -one who hadn't paid the $15 admission fee got in. The emphasis on keeping non-payers out sometimes took on extreme forms. For example, one group of about six people in a re-converted yellow school bus explained that they had been barred from entry into the park even though they were supposed to be with a band. Another group held up at one of the checkpoints was, one of its members explained, a "family" with special medical training which had come to of- fer its services. Even representatives of the press, who are normally accorded special privilege to induce favorable publicity, had to h av e special car stickers and hospital-style wrist tags and had to pass through check points to get into the press area up front. SECURITY WAS TIGHT all over the park. The management hired 250 professional, uni- formed guards who carried guns and clubs, and a security force of 800 high school and college age kids, who, though perhaps visually more ac- ceptable, w e r e no less actively interested in maintaining order and, even in busting heads. Hundreds of young people who had hoped to get in free massed outside the main gate Fri- day waiting for a chance to break in, and after dark, they assaulted the fence. Some got in, some were repulsed by the Goose Lake forces. The next day, members of what looked like a motorcycle gang were cast in the incongruous role of guarding the gapping holes torn in the fence. A press spokesman for the management later assured me, however, that the arrangement Text by Martin Hirschman Photos by Sara Krulwich with the group had-been worked out well in ad- vance and that they were not, in fact, a motor- cycle gang, but rather, "a special private motor- cycle security force" from Chicago. On Saturday, one member of t h i s rather grubby looking analogue of .the police tactical mobile unit was selling admission through his hole in the fence for $10 per couple-half the cost at the gate that day. A hundred yards down- the fence, another member of the group boast- ed a security police badge and proudly pro- claimed that the security of that entire stretch of fence was under his command. He claimed to know nothing of the deal his subordinate down- the road was offering, but said he had let in one or two people himself - "You know, it's hard'to turn away bikers," he said. One of the ticket sellers who had observed{ the charge Friday night spoke well of the per- formance of the special motorcycle group. "They a..grooVin did a real fine job last night," she said. "They didn't let anybody. in." ANO'THER POINT of friction Friday n i g h t was at the ten-foot high solid wooden fence, that surrounded the press area and the stage. Latecomers to the park that day apparently had to choose between a spot in the mammoth Goose Nest ("where the music is at . . . no camping please") way in the back, or right up front where the fence allowed no view of the stage. Inevitably, several hundred fans up front de- cided to topple the fence. Planks in the fence were ripped away and the security force of mostly young people in Goose Lake T-shirts had their hands full keep- ing the fans out of the press area, bolstering the fence and dodging projectiles. Cast in the roll of law 'enforcers, the atti- tude of the young guards quickly changed to suit their job (or perhaps ,Goose L a k e hired kids who "always wanted to be a policeman"). Yelled one angry marshall: "I'm gonna shoot one of those motherfuckers. He had no gun, but many of the young guards at the stage carried impromptu billy clubs and used them to prod the fans away from the fence. At one point, a fan charged through a hole in the wooden fence brandishing a flashlight in one hand and a bottle in the other. He was surrounded by the T-shirted guards, brought to the ground and then slugged in the head sev- eral times with the flashlights. Meanwhile, though, about 100 fans had surged through un- guarded holes in the--fence. The next day, strips of cyclone fencing were inserted to patch up the fence and afford a view of the stage as-well. A Goose Lake spokes- man admitted-that the high opaque fence had been a mistake. "We're learning," he said. - DESPITE THE PROBLEMS over security, the biggest rip-off at Goose Lake was strictly financial. If the crowd estimates of 200,000 are about right, the festival grossed about $3 mil- lion - and that doesn't include revenue from food concessions. Yet according to a press spokesman, only $150,000 of that money w a s spent on fees for the bands. Even the 800 secur- ity kids were a bargairn for the Goose Lake man- agement. They worked twelve hours every otlier twelve hours for $15 a day and, presumably for the pleasure of listening to the relatively cheap,- mostly mediocre entertainment.' To be sure, Goose Lake's 35-year-old owner behind Richard Songer has a problem of overhead to look after. The park, which he purchased last December, and renovations were costly. B u t Goose Lake has now made a name for itself and is sure to be remunerative as a perpetual camp site and amusement park. In addition, "Songer is planning another major rock festival for La- bor Day weekend, and a country and western concert later in September. At least three big rock festivals are planned for 1971. (In fairness it should be noted that the admission fee will be lowered to $10 for the Labor Day weekend.) Ironically, but not surprisingly, the biggest outcry over Goose Lake will have little to do with the rigid security or the high price. What made Goose Lake a sure-fire financial success were the legal problems that beset the weekend's two other scheduled rock festivals. The Harmonyville festival in New Jersey (which, incidentally, boasted a much better selection of bands) was blocked early last week by a court order. A n d the Strawberry Fields festival in Mosport, Ontario, was plagued by aninjunction that was lifted only at the last minute and sur- prisingly heavy amount. of interference put up by Canadian border guards to the invasion of long-hairs at the Detroit and Buffalo crossing points. AND NOW, IT SEEMS, Goose Lake may suf- fer similar problems. Set on making political capital out of an.attack on the youth culture, Jackson County and state politicians (notably Gov. William Milliken) are making the famil- iar noises about drugs, long hair, nudity and free love, with the possibility that future fes- tivals will be enjoined on the grounds that a public nusiance will be created in the area. (The only nuisance this time was the inefficient traf- fic directing performed by local and state -po- lice.) All Goose Lake was, of course, was an over- priced chance for young people to live their cul- ture together and out in the open, a right they would freely enjoy in a more just society. It was exploitation of the societal .outcast just as own- ers of gay bars exploit the homosexual with ex- pensive drinks and ghetto merchants m i l k black people in general. - Perhaps if Jackson's community understood that the festival was o n 1 y a microcosom of America, they'd be less upset about the invid- ious things those kids were doing inside the elec- tric barbed wire fence at Goose Lake Park, In- corporated. hrbec Members of a specially-h group" - Goose Lake's ver mobile unit, guard a h "Litter," a little known Chicago group, plays to the house. The bigges