Woodstock Organizers Cancel 50th Anniversary Festival

Billboard ^ | April 29, 2019 | Dave Brooks

[McGruff]

Woodstock 50 has been cancelled. Earlier today officials with Dentsu Aegis Network, which is funding the festival, released the following statement to Billboard:

“It’s a dream for agencies to work with iconic brands and to be associated with meaningful movements. We have a strong history of producing experiences that bring people together around common interests and causes which is why we chose to be a part of the Woodstock 50th Anniversary Festival. But despite our tremendous investment of time, effort and commitment, we don’t believe the production of the festival can be executed as an event worthy of the Woodstock Brand name while also ensuring the health and safety of the artists, partners and attendees."

The statement goes on, "As a result and after careful consideration, Dentsu Aegis Network’s Amplifi Live, a partner of Woodstock 50, has decided to cancel the festival. As difficult as it is, we believe this is the most prudent decision for all parties involved.”

Headliners at the three-day event included The Killers, Dead and Co, Imagine Dragons and Jay-Z. Other artists on the bill included Miley Cyrus, The Lumineers, Chance the Rapper, Sturgill Simpson, Halsey and Cage the Elephant, among many others. Organizers also enticed several veteran musicians from the original 1969 Woodstock to perform, including John Fogerty, John Sebastian, David Crosby, Canned Heat and Country Joe McDonald.

[McGruff]

Woodstock 50 was a planned music festival, scheduled to be held in Watkins Glen, New York during August 16–18, 2019. Artists scheduled to perform included Jay-Z, Common, Pussy Riot, The Killers, Chance the Rapper, Robert Plant, Halsey, and Miley Cyrus, as well as John Fogerty (from Creedence Clearwater Revival), Carlos Santana (as Santana), Melanie, David Crosby, John Sebastian, Country Joe McDonald, three Grateful Dead members (as Dead & Company), Canned Heat, and Hot Tuna, who performed at the original Woodstock festival in 1969.[1]

"Tickets for the festival were originally supposed to go on sale on April 22, [2019] but that date was pushed back because organizers didn't secure a mass gathering permit from the New York State Department of Health for the Watkins Glen International Speedway, the site of the festival. At the time of the postponed ticket sales, Woodstock co-founder/Woodstock 50 organizer Michael Lang called early buzz of the festival's cancelation "just more rumors."[2]

[Dansong]

Rock is dead...
The Who

[cuban leaf]

Four words:

You can’t go back.

[OttawaFreeper]

Didn’t they try some anti gun type of demonstration at the 30th anniversary show and it got out of hand (fire broke out) with drunken and stoned kids misbehaving?

[montag813]

Pussy Riot? that FEMEN-involved anti-Putin punk “band”? what a joke

[Dilbert San Diego]

They weren’t going to have it at the same farm where it happened originally???

[SamAdams76]

I never went to any of my high school reunions. A few years back, my wife dragged me to her high school's 25th reunion and it was predictable. A bunch of former yuppies posturing and bragging on their mutual funds, their 401(ks), their high profile jobs, their vacation homes in Aspen, etc., etc.

Most of them went home to their run down apartments and condos, told their adult children to go to bed and turned in their BMW and suit rentals the next day.

I figure a Woodstock reunion would have been the same kind of thing. 70-year-old women wearing love beads and flashing peace signs pretending for a day that they are still hippies and "down with the struggle" while trying not to let on they don't actually live in large suburban neighborhoods down in Westchester County. They might even have voted for Trump (not that there's anything wrong with that).

[lee martell]

It’s for the best. I think Woodstock as an event and as a concept has been mined as much as is possible.
When I heard people like Jayz, Miley Cyrus and Halsey were performing, I figured it would be Woodstock in name only.
Besides, most Millenials don’t want to listen to Santana’s 20 minute long guitar solos, or the like.

[sevlex]

Looking at that lineup reveals why it would have never succeeded.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Typical NY state bureaucrats. But remember folks, conservatives are the bad guys and hate music. I’m still angry over AOC’s dancing video from college. Man, am I boiling mad.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Don’t remember too much about Woodstock. I was too busy in SE Asia. Not all of us could get “deferments”.

[Paladin2]

Miley Cyrus —> Hanna Montana?

[redshawk]

Three letters: J O B S. =:O

[BitWielder1]

Even people who remember it don't remember much of it.

They won't be able to reproduce the hype, much of which grew in the telling afterwards.

You can do things for the first time only once.

[Tx Angel]

Woodstock ‘99 was a disaster.
It was held at an old AF base, all concrete. Extreme heat and water was contaminated on day 1.
RHCP started a riot and it ruined the Hendrix tribute. We couldn’t leave until Nat Guard searched and cleared everyone on Mon morning.

[Java4Jay]

Health and safety concerns... (Bombings)

Who/what changed that? I’ll give you a clue...

[ThomasThomas]

Could it be that there wasn’t enough room for the 40 million people who claim to have gone to the first one?

[Dilbert San Diego]

And not all of us were into all that hippie and psychedelic music of that era.

[outpostinmass2]

Didn’t they try some anti gun type of demonstration at the 30th anniversary show and it got out of hand (fire broke out) with drunken and stoned kids misbehaving?

---

I also remember reading about 100 degree heat and $4 bottled water. Also “Mini-me” Vern Troyer was the emcee.

[Alberta's Child]

It sounds like they were so adamant about getting every moron in the music industry signed up to perform that they ended up with a lineup that nobody would want to see.

I mean -- donthey really think there's anyone out there who wants to see both David Crosby and Chance the Candy Wrapper? LOL.