It’s been a little bit since I discussed the problematic “Woodstock 50” Festival, which is an event that was aimed at celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the famous three day concert that was held at Yasgur’s Farm in Woodstock, NY back in 1969. As you can see, a new banner graphic has been revealed as of just the other day and with that comes some additional information.
Let’s recap the events thus far. The first news was that the financial group behind the event had cancelled it (seen HERE) but then founder Michael Lang said that the show would go on (seen HERE). Then as an almost final nail in the concert coffin, the event space itself said “Nope, You Can’t Do It Here!” (seen HERE). At this point they pitched the reasonably close to Watkins Glen area of Vernon NY. Mind you, both of these locations are more than a four hour drive from NYC if anyone was thinking of going. The town of Vernon said “Nope” as they felt it was going to be a chaos of people and then the last word I read thanks to some other online resources was that the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD was going to host the event. Talk about a relocation. Before I continue with more thoughts on this, here are the rundown of artists that have either pulled out or have been released from the performance contract.
List Of Released Artists and Cancellations: The Killers, Miley Cyrus, Santana, The Lumineers, The Raconteurs, Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, and The Jewels. The Black Keys, Jay-Z and John Fogerty have all pulled out of the event.
PiercingMetal Thoughts: So while I hate to be negative about pretty much anything when it comes to events that bring the masses together for the sake of music, I’m finding it really hard to be anything less in terms of the confusion and mystery behind “Woodstock 50”. Oddly enough the Maryland event is easier to get to than the one in Watkins Glen and would be 1.5 hour less travel for anyone going. There have been reports that this affair would now be free but there still has not been any kind of formal statement from Lang in regards to the most recent development. Now as I’ve mentioned, there wasn’t enough Rock for me to even bother attending and there was certainly no Metal which is the kind of stuff that we live for. I’m only keeping pace with the story for those who like a lot more types of stuff than just a genre or two. One has to wonder who will even be performing at this point or if it has any legs anymore. Stay tuned I guess.
Official Website: http://www.woodstock.com