By David Dearing
Correspondent
It’s been 15 years since the first Laguna Woods Baby Boomers’ Laguna Woodstock. We’re all still boomers, just a bit older and perhaps a bit creakier.
But let it be known that we can still rock.
As we have evolved over those 15 years, so has Laguna Woodstock. What makes people want to don their hippie attire and show up at Clubhouse 2 every year?
“It’s not only the music, but the whole ambience,” says Susie Swain, 65, co-chair of Laguna Woodstock 2023, who has been to seven of the Village music fests. “It is so much fun spending the day eating, drinking and dancing with old friends and meeting new friends.”
Co-chair Darlene Marvin, 68, whose first Laguna Woodstock was in 2019, is “impressed with the atmosphere and camaraderie of so many residents.”
“The bands that year were amazing,” she adds. “I danced day and night.”
Former Baby Boomers president and Woodstock organizer Kathy Gaskins has been to eight Laguna Woodstocks.
“It is a very fun happening, laid-back, fun to dress up, good memories each year build on the popularity,” she says.
Let’s take a look at how Laguna Woodstock has found its way to 2023, beginning with its inception in 2009 by Baby Boomers board members Barbara Harris, 74, and Allan Gorsky, 78.
Gorsky, who was at the original Woodstock in 1969, thought the weather was better here in 2009: “No rain, no mud, and CH 2 has toilet paper.”
That year there was only one band, mostly members of Close Enough.
The following year, Laguna Woodstock was billed as “a celebration of an event that defined a generation and the music that changed the world.” Music was provided by My Generation, again made up of musicians from Close Enough plus special guests. Tickets were $5, and festivalgoers got three hours of music.
In 2011, the fest grew slightly, adding the newly formed rock band The Village Midiots, made up entirely of Village residents. Music was provided for four hours, with…
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