Investors canceled Woodstock 50, the Anniversary festival, which was supposed to feature Miley Cyrus, Halsey, Jay-Z, and plenty others. The investors cited permit and capacity issues.
Prior to this, the event was being hyped up as the biggest festival of the summer. Celebrating the 50th anniversary since the iconic Woodstock show, investors saw an opportunity to put together a solid musical event. Now, just weeks after doing a media blast to promote the event, the team behind the concert had to cancel it.
The main funding for the event came from Dentsu Aegis. The company stated today, “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. 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.”
Interestingly enough, the Poughkeepsie Journal is reporting that the event’s organizers aren’t ready to call it quits yet. “Woodstock 50 vehemently denies the festival’s cancellation and legal remedy will (be) sought,” said a statement from Woodstock 50.
The Woodstock 50 festival was scheduled to go on in August in Watkins Glen, NY, which isn’t the original site of the concert. The original site, which is a field in Bethel, NY, plans to have their own concert series (which they do most years to celebrate the Woodstock anniversary), and has an impressive lineup of their own, which was overshadowed by the namesake festival.
Those 50th anniversary Woodstock concerts will go on as planned at the original site, featuring Ringo Starr, Santana, and the Doobie Brothers.
At a press conference announcing Woodstock 50 in March, Michael Lang, one of the main organizers told the media, “What we’ve assembled here is a combination of some of the great artists from our era and many of the great artists of today and hopefully some of the great artists of tomorrow. Many of these artists are committed to social change, have their own issues that they support, but also support these global issues of climate change and Black Lives Matter.”
But rumors began to swirl soon after Woodstock 50 was announced. Various outlets reported that the organizers still hadn’t obtained the proper mass-gathering permits from the state, and the original date for the lineup release was missed. Tickets were supposed to go on sale in January, and that was pushed back to April.
Check out what else you can do to celebrate Woodstock’s 50th anniversary through the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Luckily, this is New York, and there’s no shortage of music festivals to check out.