Free Republic

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...

Soon it will be 50 years since Woodstock. Not sure what surprises more: the fact that seminal cultural event is coming up on a half-century or that some of its featured acts are still touring. Wasn’t rock ‘n’ roll a youth movement? Didn’t The Who’s Pete Townshend write the immortal line “Hope I die before I get old?” and sing it at Woodstock? Answers: Yes but not anymore. And yes Pete did, indeed, sing that line from “My Generation” on the third and last day of Woodstock on Aug. 17, 1969. This week, The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts...

It’s official: A Woodstock 50th anniversary concert is coming to the original site of the 1969 music festival in Upstate New York next year. The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts confirmed Thursday that it will host a three-day event on August 16-18, 2019, titled “Bethel Woods Music and Culture Festival.” The “pan-generational music, culture, and community event” will celebrate the golden anniversary of the original Woodstock concert with a series of concerts, “TED-style talks,” and a “We Are Golden” history exhibit at the Museum at Bethel Woods. "Fifty years ago, people gathered peacefully on our site inspired to change...

In the seconds immediately after The Who concluded "Pinball Wizard", from Tommy, Hoffman, who had ingested LSD after working the past few hours at the medical tent, abruptly walked onto the stage and began addressing the crowd from Pete Townshend's microphone. He shouted, "I think this is a pile of sh**! ... While John Sinclair rots in prison ..." Alerted to the disturbance, Townshend (who apparently had been too distracted to notice Hoffman ambling onto the platform), snarled at Hoffman, "F*** off! F*** off my f***ing stage!" He then struck Hoffman with his guitar (which you can hear in the...

On August 15, 1969 more than 400,000 people flocked to a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, for “3 days of music and peace.” Woodstock became a cultural icon representing the spirit of many of the young generation at the time. Check out some pictures from the event to see how crazy it actually was! Peace Out Wallkill, Hello Bethel Woodstock was originally supposed to take place in Wallkill, Orange County, New York. However, the town board quickly passed a bill stating you must have permit in order to host any event over 5,000. A permit was applied for but...

The organizers’ war against former investor Dentsu is going to court next week in a last-ditch effort to save the beleaguered festival. >snip< Less than two weeks after investor Dentsu Aegis announced it was pulling the plug on Woodstock 50, the festival’s organizers fired back at the company on Wednesday through the courts. In a filing with the Supreme Court of New York, Michael Lang, the original festival’s co-founder, and other organizers requested an injunction that would, among other things, force Dentsu to hand over $17.8 million in disputed funds and continue work on the festival. A hearing on the...

Michael Lang said plans for a 40th anniversary Woodstock concert are "all speculative ideas" for now, but he hopes to bring them to reality this summer. The Woodstock co-founder told Billboard.com that his vision is "a free event...a very green project," possibly in New York City. "We want to have as small a carbon imprint as we can and use as many green techniques as we can," said Lang, who was in Austin as part of a South By Southwest panel discussion about Woodstock. The holdup? "It's got to be sponsor-driven," he explained. "It's free, but it costs a lot...