Wallkill’s new permit law applied to gatherings of more than 5,000 people. The town adopted the measure in July 1969 as Woodstock organizers were preparing to use the Mills Industrial Park site there.
The ordinance required a written permit from the Town Board for an assembly exceeding 5,000 people. That threshold was far below the crowd Woodstock was expected to attract, creating major practical and legal obstacles for the promoters. Local opposition also focused on sanitation, traffic, security, and the impact of a huge gathering on the community.
The Wallkill site was ultimately rejected, and the organizers urgently searched for another venue. Max Yasgur offered his farm in Bethel, where the festival was held instead. The relocation happened only about a month before the event began.
The law is sometimes misremembered as applying to 50,000 people, because early estimates for Woodstock’s attendance were around that figure. The actual legal threshold was 5,000—one-tenth of that estimate.