Bethel, New York (USA) (AFP)

It was exactly 50 years ago: Les Poinelli hitch-hiked to the Woodstock festival he had heard on the radio, where he was going to meet the woman of his life.

This weekend, he returned to the small, rural town of Bethel, in northwestern New York, which has so marked its existence, like hundreds of aging hippies wearing faded t-shirts, flower crowns and suede fringed jackets. , emblematic of the era of "Peace and Love".

"You could not help feeling overwhelmed by the crowds, overwhelmed by the generosity of people," recalls Poinelli, 19 years old at the time, from where the legendary scene where legends of rock like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Santana in front of nearly half a million people.

He remembers that after spending the weekend with his new sweetheart Gail, they went behind the stage, where Joe Cocker had just started playing, to say goodbye.

"I gave him a kiss on the cheek, and it was our only sexual adventures of the weekend," he says, smiling, with the tickets of the time, which he had framed .

Two years after dancing together to the sounds of classic bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival and Canned Heat, Gail and Les were getting married. They were going to have five children and 12 grandchildren together.

- Kissing Janis Joplin -

A cult festival for an entire generation, from August 15 to 18, 1969, Woodstock saw close to 500,000 people in the alfalfa fields of the picturesque Catskills region. Despite torrential rain, they partied and often used drugs or made love in a rare atmosphere of freedom and carelessness.

Despite the mud, the lack of food, and the risk of overdose, the festival remained a symbol of hope sharp with a decade rich in assassinations and riots, against the backdrop of the Vietnam War.

The site is now run by the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, which regularly hosts concerts and runs a museum in memory of the festival.

Celebrations for the 50th anniversary kicked off Thursday night: the folk musician Arlo Guthrie, son of Woody Guthrie, who had performed in 1969 when he was just 22, was to open the ball, followed by Ringo Starr over the weekend. , Santana, John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Biker, RJ Pinto goes on pilgrimage almost every year to Bethel, to find the atmosphere of 50 years ago.

"Peace, music and love are really there," he says emphatically. "It was a global phenomenon."

Pinto claims to have seen everything in 1969, despite the widespread chaos that was the festival. But he mostly remembers a kiss to Janis Joplin.

"She touched me deeply," he says, sitting on his bike. "Janis was an amazing girl ... we stayed around her until I could take her hand and kiss her on the cheek."

- "Woodstock for eternity" -

Some came from far away to find the legendary spirit of Woodstock, like Patrick Depauw, who came specially from Belgium.

He was only 10 years old in 1969, but saw the Oscar winning film of 1970 that was to mark the festival as the high point of the hippie era.

"All my life has been impregnated by this event," said the 60-year-old man in a washed out t-shirt. "I had only one idea in my head, it was to realize my dream and to come for the 50th anniversary of Woodstock on the original site of the festival".

The spirit of Woodstock returns today, according to him, because "the events, whether on the American continent or in Europe, are disturbing (...) The world lacks more and more solidarity and this type of movement (promotes) solidarity. "

Before returning to Woodstock on Thursday, Les Poinelli went, as he does almost daily, to the grave of his wife, who died in 2016.

"From Woodstock to eternity," he says he has engraved on his tombstone.

Looking down on the hills surrounding Bethel, he adds, "This is where life began."

© 2019 AFP