APL to screen ‘Taking Woodstock’ as part of festival’s 50th anniversary

AUBURN — This summer the Auburn Public Library will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Woodstock with a film that tells the event from a lesser known participant. The library will show the film “Taking Woodstock” at noon Wednesday, June 19, showing in the Androscoggin Room.

The film is about Elliot Teichberg, the kid who truly made Woodstock possible. A young interior designer, Teichberg leaves a New York career to return home to upstate New York and help his parents bail out their failing, shabby motel. He’s already held outdoor “music festivals” at the motel, which have involved people sitting on the grass and listening to him play records.

Now he learns a nearby town has refused a permit to the organizers of a proposed August 1969 rock concert. As the head of the tiny Bethel Chamber of Commerce, near Woodstock, he calls them and offers a permit and history is made.

This film is free and open to the public.