The Bethel Woods Art and Architecture Festival returns to the historic site of Woodstock in 2026 to inaugurate a three-year curatorial initiative titled Acts of Construction. The first installment, Act One: Staging, focuses on the construction of large-scale architectural prototypes that prioritize adaptivity: the capacity of architecture to operate as both infrastructure and catalyst for future uses, performances, and occupations. The subsequent editions in 2027 and 2028 will concentrate on the reuse, transformation, and activation of the structures produced in 2026.
Selected proposals include a series of floating sculptural rafts designed by graduate students at University of California, Los Angeles led by Kutan Ayata, a composting porta-john constructed from straw bales by Marta H. Wisniewska of Cornell University, and a biomorphic floral pavilion co-designed by Christina Chi Zhang, Hannibal Newsom, and Lauren Scott representing collaborations between Lehigh University and Syracuse University.
Festival programming will begin on September 9, 2026, from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM EST with a concert featuring Fleur bleu·e and Rachel's Papers, free and open to the public. On September 12, 2026, from 9:00 PM to midnight EST, the festival will host a closing party featuring a DJ set by AFO activating the festival installations, also free and open to the public. On September 13, 2026, from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM EST, the installations will open to the public free of charge. Later that evening, at 6:00 PM EST, a concert will take place by John Fogerty; paid admission is required for this event.
