After a day that confused and called into question whether or not Woodstock 50 would take place, organizer Michael Lang cleared the air with a resounding, the show must go on, declaration.
UPDATE: Woodstock 50 Is Canceled: ‘We Just Ran Out of Time’ – nytimes.com
If you weren’t following the news, yesterday a financial partner backed out Woodstock 50. The fallout was immediate as this backer released the news, not to the organizer, but to Billboard. A complete crap move if that’s indeed the way it went down.
But now, there are two big questions:
1) Will there be any domino effect with artists backing out? Chance The Rapper, JAY-Z, Miley Cyrus, Halsey, and Santana were among the confirmed headliners for the festival. We can only hope that when they originally decided to play Woodstock 50, it was with all the right intentions. ‘Cause all the goodwill, just like original concert had 50 years ago, will be needed to make this concert a success.
2) Why haven’t the tickets gone on sale yet? They were supposed to already be on sale, as of April 22nd.
Here’s a snippet of Woodstock organizer, Michael Lang’s statement.
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It seems in a way that history is repeating itself. In July of 1969 we lost our site in Walkill and with only a month to go we managed to move to Bethel. Woodstock was going to happen no matter what!…
Yesterday, our financial partner, Dentsu-Aegis, made the decision to pull out and informed us that they were cancelling the festival at the same time they let the press release go public.
We have yet to understand why they would try to prevent the festival from happening by seemingly undermining us in this way. It is one thing to decide for oneself that it is best to move on, but it is entirely another thing to try and close the door on us.
Yesterday, I couldn’t help but relive that moment 50 years ago – it was “déjà vu all over again!”
Supporting the principles of activism and sustainability are too important to be derailed by shortsighted partners.
We continue our work with NYS, Schuyler County and various parties to keep things on track.
Woodstock never belonged to Dentsu, so they don’t have a right to cancel it.
Woodstock belongs to the people and it always will.
We don’t give up and Woodstock 50 will take place and will be a blast!
Stay tuned to see how it all goes down.
Woodstock 50
August 16-18, 2019
at Watkins Glen, NY