It’s hard to believe that almost 25 years have passed since Woodstock 99. As some of you may know, I got to “work” as a t-shirt vendor there. I put “work” in quotation marks because it wasn’t really work.

In recent years there have been a few documentaries come out about Woodstock 99, and just like that I’ve gone down this Woodstock 99 rabbit hole which has led me to various Youtube videos and ultimately listening to survivor stories on Podcast 99.

So many things have happened these past 25 years. I have always been a person to stay in the moment and focus on the now and move forward especially all the way back then when I was 19 years old. I usually don’t like being nostalgic and looking back on past times, but this time I’m making a small exception.

It’s hard to believe that I was once this long haired college dude with ear piercings and a goatee. I just wanted to meet new and interesting people and gather new life experiences since I was no longer bound to the small southeast Georgia town I grew up in.

Woodstock 99 was one of those experiences to say the least. This was billed as the biggest concert event to end the century/millennium/whatever.

Being a t-shirt vendor at Woodstock 99 was a really cool way to experience the festival. I got to see a band each night I worked. To this day Red Hot Chili Peppers is the only band I have seen in four different decades, and who knew my first Chili Peppers show would feature a blue haired fully nude Flea. lol

Since I worked the night shift as a t-shirt vendor, I was oblivious to the horrible conditions the concert goers were subjected to. Even during the sunlight I didn’t really notice much in the change in tone of the event. It’s still hard to believe that I was feeling comfortable and having a fun time while people were suffering in the heat and getting pissed off.

It’s amazing to think about all the things I have done and seen since that summer of 1999. That was the final summer I was monolingual since I started learning German during the fall semester of 1999 at the University of Georgia.

I would later go on to study and live in Germany and then work in the Czech Republic and travel to over 30 countries on five different continents. And I went on to become a physician. And then I became an avid skier and rock climber.

It is so strange to look back on 19 year old me and look through all these pics and newspaper clippings I haven’t even looked at in well over 20 years.

I know that Woodstock 99 ended very terribly, and this should certainly be documented, and we all need to learn from this. It really is too bad that something with so much promise and hope turned out to be a miserable experience for countless others.

With that said, I think I ‘ve reflected on this enough for one blog post. Cherish the moment you have now and look forward to new things. That’s what 19 year old me would tell the 44 year old dude typing all this out now.