Def Leppard, Cyndi Lauper coming to Bethel Woods

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts will be offering a trip back in time this month as two 1980’s musical heavyweights make a journey to the original Woodstock site for performances.

Def Leppard will hit the stage at the Sullivan County historical site on Sunday, July 20, while Cyndi Lauper will bring her farewell show on Friday, July 25.

Def Leppard, known for their hard rock megahits like “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” “Love Bites” and “Photograph,” will make a first trip back to the Hudson Valley since a memorable performance 10 years ago. Despite being one of the biggest rock bands of the 1980’s, they performed at the Orange County Fairgrounds near the height of their fame in 1988 and were among the star-studded groups to play Music Mountain at the Avon Lodge in South Fallsburg in 1981 early in their career. They also played at Dutchess Stadium in 2005.

Def Leppard has continued to record studio albums including “Diamond Star Halos” in 2022 most recently. They have produced four studio albums over the last two decades including new, original material and a covers album of their influences from T. Rex to Thin Lizzy and Faces. In recent years, they have dropped several live albums archiving their classic performances from the 1980’s, as well as a boxed set and early BBC recordings that captured their explosive early 80’s sound before they become superstars.

Cyndi Lauper will be making her first appearance at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts as part of her national farewell tour in the same year she has finally been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The 1980’s superstar and New York City native embodied the New Wave spirit of the era with multi-colored hair and outlandish costumes taking on a feisty, independent punk attitude though the catchiness of her pop songs would be the key ingredient to the mass appeal of young music fans everywhere on her climactic hit single “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” which became a chorus for a generation. The rebellious song was as famous for its music and lyrics as it was for its memorable video that shook up the burgeoning MTV channel. Her album “She’s So Unusual” proved how versatile, crafty and serious Lauper was about her music through multi-layered, synthesizer-driven songs like “All Through the Night,” “Money Changes Everything” and the Prince cover “When You Were Mine.” Her ballad “Time After Time” became a No. 1 hit and was nominated for a Grammy.

She won a Tony Award for her musical “Kinky Boots” and earned more accolades for her humanitarian work as she showed a seemingly uncapped, unsaturated desire to continue produce artistic material now into her seventh decade.

Those who make a trip to Woodstock over the next week to see Lauper and Def Leppard will get a full refresher on the 80’s and for the uninitiated, a musical awakening.

For ticket information, log onto www.bethelwoodscenter.org.