The life of Richie Havens, the folk musician who opened the Woodstock festival in 1969, will be honored on Aug. 18 with a free concert at that famous site and his ashes will be scattered by plane, the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts announced. According to Mr. Havens’s family, he had requested that his ashes be spread over the original site where he performed, which is now known as Bethel Woods, before he died of a heart attack in April at his home in Jersey City. He was 72.
The concert, “Back to the Garden: A Day of Song and Remembrance Honoring Richie Havens,†will be open to the public and will feature musical performances by José Feliciano, John Hammond and John Sebastian, among others. The actors Danny Glover and Louis Gossett Jr., are scheduled to speak.
The scattering of the ashes by air is fitting, as Mr. Havens, along with his guitarist and drummer, were flown in via helicopter to perform at the last minute at Woodstock while the scheduled opening act, the folk-rock band Sweetwater was stuck in traffic.
