Over Memorial Day weekend, ID&T presented the debut stateside edition of Mysteryland USA at the beautiful grounds of the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, site of the legendary 1969 Woodstock Festival With a clear focus on culture, art, talent, creativity and sustainability, the festival took visitors to an inspiring and mysterious world where anything is possible.
“We at Mysteryland and ID&T / SFX were honored to be the first multi-day camping festival in 45 years to share the beauty and musical legacy of Bethel Woods with our fans. We learned a lot from this first year’s organization and together with the incredible team at Bethel Woods, including local law enforcement and contractors, we were able to accomplish a very successful event. We plan on conducting a comprehensive review of all operations and logistics with all of the stakeholders in the upcoming weeks to better, improve all processes. It’s needless to say that our aim is to return to Bethel Woods, and it would be our privilege and honor to be able to present Mysteryland USA each year at this amazing site. Many thanks to all the fans, artists and crew that helped create such an amazing debut in the USA,” says Jeroen Jansen, Creative Director at ID&T and Mysteryland.
The festival offered its guests a creative journey, combining music with theatre, movies, interactive installation art, street performers and spectacular shows at bizarre decorated stages throughout the grounds. To create this amazing spectacle, the festival organizers collaborated with a wide range of people from all over the world including the Sin Salida creative collective from Amsterdam, Lucent Dossier from Los Angeles, The Wishing Trea sculpture (which will travel to Holland and Chile) by Kate Raudenbusch from New York and Dadara from Amsterdam. From the warm, analog sounds of Sunday School’s Vinyl-Only stage to the harder sounds of Q-Dance, Mysteryland USA brought a diverse palette of sound to its attendees providing an array of niche styles and sub-genres. Keeping true to its roots of being a truly sustainable festival, Mysteryland USA sourced local participation and interaction, with attention on the surroundings and community – as well as sustainable projects – during and after.
“Mysteryland USA was an undeniable success not only for Bethel Woods but also our local community,” says Darlene Fedun, Chief Executive Officer, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. “We are proud to have had the opportunity to share the beauty of our site and its surroundings with a new generation of music and arts enthusiasts who, in turn, shared with us their positive energy, contagious enthusiasm, and true respect for the Woodstock spirit.”
Dating back to 1993, Mysteryland is now the world’s longest-running dance festival with the first international edition of Mysteryland held in Chile in 2011. Mysteryland Holland will return for its 21st year in Haarlemmermeer on August 24th, 2014 with 18 stages and more than 350 musical and creative acts. Tickets available via
Mysteryland.nl. Mysteryland Chile will celebrate its 4
th anniversary set in the beautiful Chilean backdrop of the Andes on December 19, 20 and 21, 2014 with pre-sales beginning on June 2 at 11AM CLT via
Mysteryland.cl.
Yesterday is history. Today is a gift. Tomorrow is a mystery.
(Holy Ground Campsite | Photo Credit: Andrew Rauner)