Courier Journal – ‘No idea what to expect.’ Louisville women remember Woodstock 50 years later

As they listened to Ravi Shankar play his sitar on stage, a pair of University of Kentucky co-eds fell asleep in a field under the August night sky. The year was 1969, and it was Friday, Aug. 15, the first of three days of what would become the most iconic music festival of all time — The Woodstock Music and Art Fair.  With the golden anniversary of Woodstock on the horizon, Louisville natives Karen Knight-Wilburn and Nancy Brown — who were 19 years old in the summer of ’69 — recount their experiences during that weekend 50 years ago. ‘We had no idea what to expect’ The friends had spent the summer working at a motel in Cape Cod and had noticed a poster in a store window advertising a three-day music festival with some big-name performers. The cost was $6 per day or a whopping $18 to attend Friday through Sunday. With time to spare before the start of their sophomore year at the University of Kentucky, the young women splurged on the multi-day ticket, then called their parents back in Louisville to let them know they’d be taking a detour.  “We had no idea what to expect,” Knight-Wilburn said. “My dad told me to give him the names and addresses of where we’d be staying.”  Brown’s parents warned her to stay away from “weirdos.” Fifty years later, those requests still make them laugh.  “What could we have told them?” Brown said. “We’re staying by the third tree to the left of the stage?” So they left Cape Cod with nary a plan, a bag of cookies and one Navy-issued blanket they borrowed from a friend.  You may like: Everything you need to know about the 2019 Kentucky State fair Just getting to the festival site was an adventure. In their little red Volkswagen Beatle, it took the friends seven hours to drive 10 miles on the two-lane road leading to the event entrance. But it didn’t matter. “We loved it,” Brown said. “Sitting in the traffic was just part of the fun. It was really relaxed, we talked to everyone else who were in their cars. Karen blew bubbles and had a lot of other toys. “We took turns behind the wheel or sitting on the hood, so even the traffic was a good time,” she said.  Concert-goers stuck in the gridlock eventually abandoned their rides. Cars were left for miles on both sides of the road. Brown and Knight-Wilburnjoined suit and ditched their VW and walked the final...