A Day in the Garden wasn't a sex-and-drugs free-for-all, either. But there was plenty of the old Woodstock's main ingredient -- rock 'n' roll -- at the three-day music festival held over the weekend here at Max Yasgur's farm, the original Woodstock site. And if a couple of expected performers weren't in evidence, the varied genres and cross-generational appeal of the stars who did get here made for a memorable affair.

There was a phone bank and a mobile cash machine and a play area for kids, a field hospital and four satellite first-aid stations -- and a sturdy chain-link fence to keep '69-style gate-crashers from sharing space with those who'd shelled out up to $69 to get in. But there was very little outlandish behavior in evidence the first two days -- all bets were off for Sunday's bill, featuring youth-oriented acts such as Third Eye Blind and Goo Goo Dolls -- and when the music commenced Friday with Brit singer/songwriter Francis Dunnery's late-morning set, the crowd was largely paunchy, graying grown-ups with young kids in traditional tie-dye in tow.

The operative word was "mellow," both for the crowd and for Dunnery: There wasn't even any cheering when he sang the lyric "You make me high," which surely was more about love than about the smoke-induced state of mind prevalent here in 1969. Certainly no herbal help was needed to groove to Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers' ecstatic set, which followed -- albeit minus its big-name front man, son of late reggae hero Bob Marley. Taking over was Ziggy's brother, Stephen, otherwise a member of the Melody Makers' backing group, which includes sisters Cedella and Sharon on backup vocals. Their set was marked by versions of their dad's classic Rastaman Vibration and No Woman No Cry, both chilling in their evocation of the senior Marley's spirit.