Indradyumna Swami writes, “Woodstock festival organiser Jurek Owsiak (left) puts on the event yearly in appreciation of the many young people who help him raise money for Poland's under-privileged, poor and sick children. By means of a telethon each January, he raises more than 7 million dollars a year. Apart from a small salary he receives for his family the entire amount is spent on disabled children, and as result the people of Poland love and respect him. . . . Jurek has told me on numerous occasions that he wants us at Woodstock to share our philosophy and way of life with the kids. He also wants us to keep the kids engaged and peaceful.”

About the man wearing the garland below, Gaurangi Dasi of the Polish Festival Tour writes, “He is the mayor of Zary, the town where the Woodstock was held. He is our friend for many years and helped us a lot in organizing Woodstock for the last few years and also helped us with the tour as well. A really nice man.” Mother Cintamani (right) has also greatly assisted Indradyumna Swami (center) for many years in Poland.

It is estimated that over 300,000 people attended the Polish Woodstock event. They lived in acres of colorful tents of every description. The photo below shows only a few.

Here Indradyumna Swami speaks from the Woodstock main stage to an incredible crowd, “Hare Krishna! Woodstock is a great opportunity for all of us to come together and have a good time. But let us do so to the theme this great festival represents, ‘No Violence and No Drugs’. In ‘Krishna’s Village of Peace,’ just to the left of this stage, there will be no violence, because as devotees of Krishna we’re taught to respect each and every person as part and parcel of God. Therefore we love you all.” At that a huge roar of approval went up from the audience. “And we don’t use drugs in Krishna’s village because we’re happy chanting Hare Krishna and eating delicious vegetarian food offered to the Lord. And when you have something nice and you have a lot of it, you naturally want to share it with others. Please visit us often during the next two days. We have enough food to feed 80,000 people in the next 48 hours.” Again the crowd applauded as many of them chanted in unison, “Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!”

The entire Woodstock stage is quite large. In the picture below you can see its size in comparison to the people standing at its base. The peace and love symbols remind one of the 1960s. Some people wore masks over their faces like the man in the red (below) because it was very dusty there.

Indradyumna Swami’s main tent, said to be the largest in Poland, took several days to put up. It was about the size of a football field and situated near both the Woodstock main stage (above) and the many tents shown previously. The sign on the tent says “Pokojowa Wioska Kryszny” which is Polish for “Krishna’s Village of Peace.” Many thousands of people received shelter here, both spiritually and materially, for the three days of the festival. On the other side of the tent are many smaller tents arranged in a semicircle.

The smaller tents are different booths such as a gift shop, temple, question and answer booth, Vedic science exhibit, vegetarianism exhibit, reincarnation exhibit, two book shops, an information booth, a bhajan (devotional songs) booth, a face-painting booth, a Vedic astrology booth, and a prasadam (spiritual food) distribution booth. Some of these can be seen in this view from the stage inside the big tent.