WHITE PLAINS -- A federal judge has scheduled a hearing for Friday at which he could decide whether there will be one, two or no Woodstock festivals this summer.

The hearing comes at the request of Roy Howard, who owns about 100 acres that was used for part of the original 1969 Woodstock festival. He is suing the town of Bethel, Sullivan County, and, as an individual, Bethel Supervisor Allan Scott.

In his complaint, Howard alleges Scott, the town and county have allowed Allen Gerry, described by Scott as as ``a billionaire developer,'' to stage Woodstock '98 by changing local laws to favor Gerry and his companies.

Howard had proposed staging a Woodstock revival festival himself but was stopped by the town, which enforced its mass gatherings law, under which promoters are required to give 210 days' notice and post bonds and pay for studies before staging an event.

As the town was enforcing that law this spring, it also was changing it to exempt ``the town of Bethel, the Town Board of the town of Bethel, or any not-for-profit corporation whose governing board is wholly comprised of or wholly appointed by the Town Board of the town of Bethel'' from adhering to the law.

In the complaint, Howard alleges that the town, working with Gerry and his agents, reformed the town of Bethel Local Development Corporation, which is playing host to GF Entertainment, a subsidiary of Gerry Foundation Inc. The foundation owns the parcel of land where the Aug. 14-15 festival is to be held.

Organizers are bringing in some of the original acts from the 1969 festival and limiting attendance to 30,000.

Jerry DiTullo, vice president of the Gerry Foundation, could not be reached late Friday. The Friday hearing will be before Federal District Court Judge Richard C. Casey.


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