On This Day - Woodstock Ends- Nearly 40 Years Ago

Tired Rock Fans Begin Exodus

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By BARNARD L.COLLIER

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES

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Bethel, N.Y., Monday, Aug. 18 -- Waves of weary youngsters streamed away from the Woodstock Music and Art Fair last night and early today as security officials reported at least two deaths and 4,000 people treated for injuries, illness and adverse drug reactions over the festival's three-day period.

However festival officials said the folk and rock music could go on until dawn, and most of the crowd was determined to stay on.

Campfires Burn

As the music wailed on into the early morning hours, more than 100 campfires - fed by fence-posts and any other wood the young people could lay their hands on- flickered around the hillside that formed a natural amphitheater for the festival.

By midnight nearly half of the 300,000 fans who had camped here for the weekend had left. A thunderstorm late yesterday afternoon provided the first big impetus to depart, and a steady stream continued to leave through the night.

Drugs and auto traffic continued to be the main headaches.

But the crowd itself was extremely well-behaved. As Dr. William Abruzzi, the festival's chief medical officer, put it: "There has been no violence whatsoever, which is remarkable for a crowd of this size. These people are really beautiful."

Month's of Planning

Local merchants and residents eased the food shortage. Youths who endured drenching rain to hear such pop performers as Sly and the Family Stone and the Creedence Clearwater Revival overcame the water shortage by gulping down soft drinks and beer. And as the close of the festival approached, the spirits of the audience- mostly youths of 17 to 20- were high.

For many, the weekend had been the fulfillment of months of planning and hoping, not only to see and hear the biggest group of pop performers ever assembled, but also to capture the excitement of camping out with strangers, experimenting with drugs and sharing- as one youth put it- "an incredible unification."

Some Fans Reach Here

Young people straggling into the Port of New York Authority bus terminal at 41st Street and Eighth Avenue last night were damp, disheveled and given to such wild eccentricities of dress as the wearing of a battered top hat with grimy jersey, blue jeans and sandals.

They were, according to a driver, Richard Biccum, "good kids in disguise." Mr. Biccum, who is 26 years old, said: "I'll haul kids any day rather than commuters," because they were exceptionally polite and orderly.

Reginald Dorsey, a Short Line Bus System dispatcher, agreed that the youths were "beautiful people" who had caused no trouble