Woodstock 50 Has Been Canceled

I live 30 minutes away from the site where it was supposed to be held, and there was no way that a town that small could have held the amount of people they were expecting. I’m glad they had the foresight, because it would have been a disaster.

 

Honestly I respect them for getting out ahead of this before it was too late.

 

Probably for the best.

I wasn’t impressed with the amount of legacy acts left out of the anniversary either. Just looked like any other festival.

 

Playing footage from the original in an outdoor theater seems like a proper 50th anniversary anyway and I can do that with friends for $20.

 

Billy McFarland would've made this happen

 

lol ummm

 

Looking forward to the Netflix/Hulu docs.

 

I think people are more risk adverse of failing in the delivery of high profile music festivals now. As they should be. And should have been even before Fyre.

 

Dear Woodstock Friends

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!

This time around, Woodstock’s new hometown, Dix & Watkins Glen, NY and New York State have been really wonderful. I went door to door to talk to the neighbors. Some remembered Summer Jam back in ’73 and were worried about history repeating itself. But they opened their doors to us and we talked it out. Many of those people have reached out over the last 24 hours with messages of hope and encouragement.
The venue, Watkins Glen International, have been totally supportive and professional.

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!

Thanks for Listening, Michael

 

I know I'm nitpicking a stupid little thing within that press release, but 'm not sure what a giant music festival has to do with supporting the principles of sustainability? I'm sure he'd say there was going to be some advocacy mixed into the event, but I do get a bit annoyed when people try to greenwash things.

As for the funding partner announcement, I get understand his announce, but I suspect for their financial partner, they can't put their funding and resources from an event like this quietly, and there may be good reasons why they wanted it known that they weren't involved anymore.

 

I remember when this was announced people posting that we had the best Frye festival on our hands, and here we are, at least they canceled ahead of time, I guess no one wanted to go to prison or be featured in a documentary.