Woodstock Organizers Cancel 50th Anniversary Festival

Billboard ^ | April 29, 2019 | Dave Brooks

[Buckeye McFrog]

Not enough motorized scooter parking for the original attendees.

[colorado tanker]

The thought of people in their 60’s and 70’s running around naked was not appealing.

[llevrok]

If they were really in the spirit of Woodstock, they wouldn’t need a stinking permit. It would just happen.

Pffft! Millenials!

[Alberta's Child]

You just reminded me of one of the great music lines from the 1980s. I made it my new tagline. :-)

[a fool in paradise]

Woodstock is dead. But the mega industry it spawned keeps churning on

[a fool in paradise]

It’s Coachella East without the scenery or hipster vibe.

[dfwgator]

It’s Coachella East without the scenery or hipster vibe.

But with all the STDs.

[equaviator]

I wish there never was a Woodstock. I was 10, going on 11 years old when it happened. The images and sounds and the stories all made me wish I was ten years older but not any more! It was bad enough to have come of age during the Disco days of the late ‘70’s and had we been ten years older, I and a lot of my friends might not be alive today.

[dfwgator]

“Woodstock was a nightmare, I was there. Rain, mud, b.o., and acid. You didn’t miss anything.” - Billy Joel

[RedMonqey]

"Woodstock ‘99 was a disaster.”

To paraphrase C. Heston:

Damned Dirty Hippies

The original was a disaster, as well. Nothing worked as planned. Too many people without the facilities they needed. Short of water, food and toilets. Add rain and it resulted in a big of muddy, crowd, dangerously contaminated shithole that only hippies would look back to(or more likely pretend) to look fondly upon.

The backers would have lost money had they not sold the film rights to it so generations later most could claim "they were there"

Damned Dirty Hippies, I say again.

[Captain Peter Blood]

It was nothing but a Nostalgic Wet Dream to try this. The original was a utter mess of rain, mud, and disorganization from the git go. Not enough or maybe no porta potties, a huge number of people who crashed the concert, just plain chaos.

Now people forget that down in the Atlanta area they had at least two maybe three big pop concerts called the Atlanta International Pop Festivals. These were well thought out and went off very well with few problems.

1970 concert drew over 600,000 people, more than Woodstock and none of the problems. The Allman Brothers opened and closed, with acts like Jimmy Hendrix and so many others. If I could have gone to one concert in that era that would ahve been the one I would have chosen.

[a fool in paradise]

The riot began brewing day one when the crowd broke the plumbing lines so they could pretend to be mud men. Prohibiting outside food and drink (including water) at a 3 day event put the attendees at the mercy of the foid vendor who were getting $8 for a hot dog. After 3 days the smell of feces and waste got to people. All of the aggressive screamo bands didn’t help.

And there was a riot at the original 1969 festival too. They burned down the burger guy’s stand. They tore down the fencing, some big name leftists tried to take the camera crew’s rented gear and trailer by force. All of this after Abbie Hoffman and theBlack Panthers extorted $25,000 in protection money not to interrupt their event (and were even given a booth and a publishing press on site). Yet there was Abbie onstage breaking into the Who’s performance. Thwack!

[dfwgator]

Yet there was Abbie onstage breaking into the Who’s performance. Thwack!

The best thing that happened the entire three days, you don't mess around when Pete's onstage.

[Robert DeLong]

With that line up it hardly befits the Woodstock moniker anyway. Hold it someplace else and call it something else.

[Hatteras]

Have a wedding to attend that same weekend about 20 miles away. God works in mysterious ways...

[Magnatron]

Fyre must have freaked them out...

[pepsi_junkie]

Just as well. The original features CSN, The Who, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, the Grateful Dead, etc etc.

The biggest acts at Woodstock '94 were CSN (again), Santana (again), Aerosmith, Peter Gabriel, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Allman Brothers, a few other "big" names.

There was no way it could live up to the original, and it absolutely didn't. Repsecable bands, not many with quite the same legendary status as the original lineup though.

Then can Woodstock '99 featuring Limp Bizkit, Korn, Bush, Insane Clown Posse. Notice a trend: the more Woodstocks there are, the crappier the bands get?

A fourth pass wouldn't be better.

[dfwgator]

Just as well. The original features CSN, The Who, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, the Grateful Dead, etc etc.

I still say of all the bands, Sly and the Family Stone had the best set.

[Bullish]

...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.

Or their mummified remains.

[gathersnomoss]

Regulations killed the event. Don’t you just love gubment?