Foo Fighters have concerts on august 17 and 19 in Glasgow and Belfast, so they're out for this 50th anniversary of Woodstock.

I think "The High Strung " would be a great addition. They are a hard working band from Detroit and that lead singer does the best falsetto heard - Take the theme song from "Shamelesss" Showtime TV Series. "The luck you got" is the theme song. Plus they have a solid list of songs that are 60ish like.

[www.youtube.com]

They had decades to plan the 50th anniversary, and looks like it is going down as a bust.

Obviously the relationship between Lang and Live Nation fell apart thus the, now, dueling events.

I went to Woodstock '94. I probably won't go to this one, though. Who knows, it would be cool to re-live that experience.

Quote
bye bye johnny
“I haven’t heard anything, no. August in America is too hot for me to work in anymore. Since my Meningitis, my (body) thermostat’s gone up a creep and I can’t work in extreme heat anymore. I mean, you can’t re-do Woodstock, because the star of Woodstock was the audience. Well, most of them are probably dead by now, I don’t know (laughs). Law of averages, probably 50 percent of them are dead, anyway. You can’t re-do it — you can celebrate the dates.”

- Roger Daltrey

[1063thefox.com]

I guess Roger should qualify that as "the east coast" as the Who played Golden Gate Park (where it was foggy and quite cool) in August of 2016.....

I haven't really believed the Foo Fighters/Pearl Jam rumors since they started. Don't get me wrong, if they get them that'll definitely give it more legitimacy. But I just don't see them pulling big names for this thing, as I would think any big band would know there's way more chance of this being embarrassing than inspiring.

Roger is right. You can't redo Woodstock. The more you try, the more pathetic it kinda ends up being.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-01-06 22:06 by RollingFreak.

Three-Day Woodstock Festival From Original Organizer Coming This Summer

“Woodstock ’99 was just a musical experience with no social significance,” Michael Lang says of Woodstock 50. “With this one, we’re going back to our roots and our original intent”

By Andy Greene


Santana perform at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. Organizer Michael Lang will stage a three-day 50th anniversary festival this summer in Watkins Glen, New York.

Bill Eppridge/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

After months of rumors, Woodstock co-creator Michael Lang has confirmed to Rolling Stone that a three-day festival honoring the 50th anniversary of the original event is coming to Watkins Glen, New York on August 16th, 17th and 18th. Organizers won’t be announcing specific acts until tickets go on sale in February, but Lang says that over 40 performers have been booked already across three stages, including some big-name headliners. “It’ll be an eclectic bill,” Lang says. “It’ll be hip-hop and rock and some pop and some of the legacy bands from the original festival.”

He wouldn’t delve into specifics, but Lang did say that some “newer bands” will stage “celebrations of artists from the original Woodstock” that will likely include tribute performances to Janis Joplin, the Band, Jefferson Airplane and Joe Cocker, among others. “Having contemporary artists interpret that music would be a really interesting and exciting idea,” he says. “We’re also looking for unique collaborations, maybe some reunions and a lot of new and up-and-coming talent.”

Unlike most festivals that exclusively target a young audience, Lang hopes to bring in people of all ages. “I want it to be multi-generational,” he says. “Woodstock ’94 was a nice mix of young and old and that’s kind of what we’re going for here.”

That may be a challenge given Watkins Glen’s far distance from hotels, but Lang promises attendees will have options far superior to the original festival’s famously muddy field. “There will be ‘glamping’ tents and stuff like that,” he says. “There will be those types of experiences in various forms where there’s a real bed, and there’s a chair to sit in and a light bulb. There will also easier access to portable toilets.”

Filthy, overflowing portable toilets were major problems at previous Woodstocks, but Lang swears that he’s found a solution for that too. “There’s a new dimension in portable toilets now,” he says. “They are clean and airy and sizeable. They also don’t get pumped during the event, so you don’t have these wagons running around smelling everywhere. And then the end product is fertilizer.”

Sanitation was just one of many major problems at Woodstock ’99, a disastrous event held on a former Air Force Base in Rome, New York that culminated in fires and riots. It was held on a brutally hot weekend with few places to find shade. Water was sold at $4 a bottle. There was also a death resulting from a drug overdose and reports of sexual assaults in the mosh pits. Promoters dealt with a wave of lawsuits in the aftermath and for a while, it seemed like there would never be another Woodstock. (Lang’s original Woodstock co-promoter John Scher absorbed some of the blame for the fiasco. He is not involved with Woodstock 50.)

Twenty years later, Lang is able to look back at Woodstock ’99 and see where things went wrong. “I shouldn’t have left the booking to others,” he says, noting that he’s booking many of the acts himself this time. “And the water situation was ridiculous. As soon as I saw that, I tried to get everyone to lower the prices and I couldn’t. I did order tractor trailers of water and put them out for free. I do think a lot of people had a good time, but the fires at the end became the imagery of it. It was just about 200 kids who went on a rampage. They exploded some of the cooling systems in the tractor trailers and just wreaked havoc.”

Lang goes on to dismiss Woodstock ’99 as an “MTV event” and says that Woodstock 50 will be its antithesis. “Woodstock ’99 was just a musical experience with no social significance,” he says. “It was just a big party. With this one, we’re going back to our roots and our original intent. And this time around, we’ll have control of everything.”

They aren’t, however, going back to the site of the original Woodstock in Bethel, New York. The former farm was transformed into a 15,000-seat concert venue in 2006. That venue will host its own Woodstock 50th celebration there this summer, though bringing the actual event back there just wasn’t an option. “They’re good stewards of the original site and they built a beautiful performing arts pavilion,” says Lang. “But it’s a 15,000-seat shed. That’s not a Woodstock.”

Finding a place that did fit their needs became a huge challenge. “I was desperate to keep it in New York,” he says. “I looked everywhere because I needed 1,000 acres of clear land with access and infrastructure. Frankly, we weren’t finding it. We had talked about Watkins Glen over the years and I decided on a whim to look at it since having it at a racetrack didn’t appeal to me. But when I looked, I knew it was the perfect facility for what we had in mind. It was reminiscent to me of finding Max [Yasgur]’s field.”

The festival site is no stranger to enormous concerts. In 1973, a reported crowd of 600,000 people flocked there to see a one-day event featuring the Allman Brothers Band, the Grateful Dead and the Band. The exact headcount has been disputed over the years, but it was almost certainly larger than even the original Woodstock four years earlier.

Phish held their Superball IX at Watkins Glen in 2011, but they were forced to cancel their Curveball Festival last August because the water supply had been contaminated. According to Lang, that sort of catastrophe will be impossible at Woodstock 50. “At Woodstock ’94 [in Saugerties, New York] we had a different sort of water issue since the town didn’t have a big enough reservoir,” says Lang. “We had to put up two 1 million gallon temporary tanks and filled them over the time. That’s the solution we’re going to use this time to make sure the water is potable.”

Lang and the other organizers are still mapping out the site and haven’t settled on an exact capacity yet, but he says it’ll likely be in the six figures. Bringing in that many people may seem like a big challenge, especially since this is the first Woodstock since Bonnaroo, Coachella and nearly every other major festival landed on the scene, but Lang hopes this one will stand out. “We are looking for unique performances,” he says. “A lot of festivals these days are kind of cookie-cutter. Very few of them have any sort of social impact [and] that’s a wasted opportunity.

“Woodstock, in its original incarnation, was really about social change and activism,” he adds. “And that’s a model that we’re bringing back to this festival. It’s a gathering for fun and for excitement and for experiences and to create community, but it’s also about instilling kind of an energy back into young people to make their voices heard, make their votes heard.”

But for now, most people simply want to know who’s playing. And although Lang is talking about “reunions” and “bands from the original Woodstock,” he clamps up when pressed for details. Is there even a slight chance, say, that Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young would put aside their differences for a single night? “I’ve talked to them all individually,” he says. “And it’s a mess.”

What he can say is that they’re going to livestream the event online, bring in clowns and jugglers to roam the grounds, play movies on an enormous screen and, most important to Lang, bring in various NGOs to tell attendees how to get involved in various political causes. “Things on the planet are critical at this point, especially when it comes to global warming,” says Lang. “Everyone has a stake and ignoring it is ridiculous. I really want people to explore how they can get involved. That’s one of my main motivations for doing this.”

[www.rollingstone.com]

What a mess . Now the site is Watkins Glen .Unbelievable !

Woodstock Returns Again on the Festival’s 50th Anniversary

Michael Lang, one of the event’s original producers, will present Woodstock 50 in Watkins Glen, N.Y., with a focus on activism.


Lauren Lancaster for The New York Times

By Ben Sisario

Jan. 9, 2019

WOODSTOCK, N.Y. — When the first Woodstock music festival was held in 1969, bringing around 400,000 people to a muddy field in Bethel, N.Y., it focused the world’s attention on pop music’s power to shape the culture.

Half a century later, in a music market already jammed with big-ticket festivals, could another Woodstock muster the same impact?

Michael Lang, one of the producers of the original event, is betting that it can. From Aug. 16 to 18 — almost exactly 50 years after the first Woodstock — he will present an official anniversary festival, Woodstock 50, in Watkins Glen, N.Y., with ambitions to not only attract a huge multigenerational audience but to rally those fans around a message of social activism.

Mr. Lang, who at 74 still has some of the cherubic look seen in the 1970 documentary “Woodstock” — though his curls are threaded with gray — said in an interview at the festival office in Woodstock that he is still booking the acts for the new show; he is hoping for a mixture of legacy bands, current pop and rap stars and, possibly, some news-making combinations.

But his vision for Woodstock’s 50th, he said, is clear: a large-scale camping weekend combining music with a program of films, speakers and partnerships with organizations like Head count, which registers young voters.

“Coachella’s got its thing, as does Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza,” Mr. Lang said. “But I think they’re all missing an opportunity to make a difference in the world. They’re all perfect places for social engagement and for fostering ideas, and I think that’s lost.”

“We want this to be more than just coming to a concert,” he added. “And hopefully a lot of the bands will become part of this effort to get people to stand up and make themselves heard, to get and out vote. And if they don’t have a candidate that represents their feelings, to find one — or to run themselves.”

Yet activism plays a significant part in a number of festivals. Environmental sustainability is central to Bonnaroo, for example, and this year Jay-Z’s Made in America Festival, in Philadelphia, has “Cause Village,” with some 56 charitable and activist organizations represented.

Woodstock 50 will be held in the fields surrounding the Watkins Glen International racetrack, where the Summer Jam in 1973 drew an estimated 600,000 people for the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers and the Band; more recently, it has been the site of two festivals by Phish.

For Woodstock, three main stages will be supplemented by three smaller “neighborhoods,” as Mr. Lang described them, with their own food and programming.

Tickets? Mr. Lang and his team are still working on that. But they envision selling a maximum of around 100,000 three-day passes, with most attendees camping on site.

As with its other anniversary years, Woodstock’s 50th will be widely celebrated and exploited in the media, with books, albums and a PBS documentary among the projects planned. But unlike the last Woodstock anniversary concerts, in 1994 and 1999, which Mr. Lang presented along with partners, the event now faces severe competition from large-scale festivals around the country.

Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, the three biggest, are now highly developed brand names, with the drawing power to sell out well in advance; tickets for Coachella’s two weekends, for example, sold out in a matter of hours last week.

There is even a competing Woodstock: the Bethel Woods Music and Culture Festival, over the same anniversary weekend — which will also feature “TED-style talks” — will be held on the same grounds as the original, around 60 miles from the town of Woodstock. (The Watkins Glen site is further afield, about 30 miles west of Ithaca.)

For many concertgoers, another issue is whether the Woodstock name itself was damaged by the 1999 festival, which was marred by fires, rioting and reports of sexual assault.

“It’s not tainted,” Mr. Lang said. “’99 was more like an MTV event than a Woodstock event, really. I take some responsibility for that. It was also kind of an angry time in music.”

And then there is the corporate consolidation of the concert business, which has grown especially intense over the last few years as two companies, Live Nation and AEG, compete to book major tours. Live Nation is a partner in the Bethel Woods event.

“The industry has completely changed since 1999,” said John Scher, the veteran concert promoter who was a partner with Mr. Lang on Woodstock ’94 and ’99. “The entrepreneurial spirit of 1969 doesn’t exist anymore.”

Mr. Lang declined to discuss the budget for Woodstock 50, but festivals of its size typically spend tens of millions on talent alone.

“We paid $135,000 for all of our talent in 1969,” Mr. Lang said. “Times have changed.”

The festival is being financed by the Dentsu Aegis Network, a unit of the Japanese advertising giant Dentsu; agencies within the Dentsu Aegis Network will be involved in marketing and selling sponsorships.

One advantage for Woodstock 50 is that it is “official.” Mr. Lang remains a partner in Woodstock Ventures, the company that controls the trademark rights, and licenses it for various products. The one Mr. Lang has been closest to is Woodstock Cannabis.

“Cannabis has always been in our DNA,” Mr. Lang said with a smile; his first commercial venture, in 1966, was a head shop in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami.

Of the other young men on the team that created Woodstock — Joel Rosenman, John Roberts and Artie Kornfeld — Rosenman is a partner in Woodstock Ventures, along with the family of Roberts, who died in 2001. Kornfeld will return as a consultant and “spiritual adviser,” Mr. Lang said.

Merchandise sales — particularly featuring the original Woodstock bird-and-guitar logo — provide one proxy for gauging the continuing appeal of the Woodstock brand. Dell Furano, the chief executive of Epic Rights, who has handled official Woodstock merchandise for 15 years, said that he is expecting over $100 million in retail sales of Woodstock licensed products in 2019 — four or five times that of non-anniversary years.

“There’s every type of tie-dye. Children’s products. Dog products. Speakers, wine, cannabis,” Mr. Furano said in an interview. “The appeal is multigenerational.”

In 1969, the mud, the tie-dye and the idealism were all catalysts in creating what the original festival had promised: three days of peace and music. Mr. Lang said that the divisiveness of the current political climate called for that once again.

“It just seems like it’s a perfect time,” he said, “for a Woodstock kind of reminder.”



[www.nytimes.com]

Carlos Santana confirms he'll be playing at the Bethel Woods festival.

[www.rollingstone.com]

Wonder if Jefferson Airplane will be there or Starship, think Slick retired 20 years ago.

Quote
babyblue
Wonder if Jefferson Airplane will be there or Starship, think Slick retired 20 years ago.

Slick retired and the other half of Airplane are dead unfortunately. Basically Hot Tuna still are around but thats it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-01-17 15:51 by RollingFreak.

Quote
RollingFreak

Quote
babyblue
Wonder if Jefferson Airplane will be there or Starship, think Slick retired 20 years ago.

Slick retired and the other half of Airplane are dead unfortunately. Basically Hot Tuna still are around but thats it.

A shame.

Quote
dmay
Oh my. How many times can they milk this cow?

I think this is #3.

it's become a joke.

I liked Lang's book, if I was going to one of these i'd give my money to him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-01-17 17:40 by mnewman505.

Wavy Gravy Talks Woodstock 50th Anniversary and Healing the Blind with the Seva Foundation


Mickey Hart, Jackson Browne, Joan Osborne, Bob Weir, Wavy Gravy and Bonnie Raitt backstage at the Sing Out for Seva 40th anniversary benefit concert on Jan. 12/photo by Jay Blakesberg

From Jordan Runtaugh's interview:

In addition to four decades of Seva, Wavy is preparing for another milestone: the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. Last week, the festival’s co-creator Michael Lang announced that he would be holding another three days of peace, love and music this August in Watkins Glen, New York. Though the lineup has yet to be announced, many hope that Wavy will make yet another appearance. “I would not be surprised if I did,” he says. “I’m there for Michael and he knows that. Whatever he wants to do I’m there for him.”

Half a century on, Wavy still recalls the original gathering as “absolutely, jaw-droppingly amazing” — and not just because of the lineup that included Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, the Who, Santana, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and so many more. “It wasn’t just the music. It was all these different people from all over the country who thought they were the odd kid in town, who suddenly came together. Then there were half a million of us to work on the environment, or stop the war. Music brought us together.”

[people.com]

Quote
bye bye johnny
Wavy Gravy Talks Woodstock 50th Anniversary and Healing the Blind with the Seva Foundation


Mickey Hart, Jackson Browne, Joan Osborne, Bob Weir, Wavy Gravy and Bonnie Raitt backstage at the Sing Out for Seva 40th anniversary benefit concert on Jan. 12/photo by Jay Blakesberg

From Jordan Runtaugh's interview:

In addition to four decades of Seva, Wavy is preparing for another milestone: the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. Last week, the festival’s co-creator Michael Lang announced that he would be holding another three days of peace, love and music this August in Watkins Glen, New York. Though the lineup has yet to be announced, many hope that Wavy will make yet another appearance. “I would not be surprised if I did,” he says. “I’m there for Michael and he knows that. Whatever he wants to do I’m there for him.”

Half a century on, Wavy still recalls the original gathering as “absolutely, jaw-droppingly amazing” — and not just because of the lineup that included Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, the Who, Santana, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and so many more. “It wasn’t just the music. It was all these different people from all over the country who thought they were the odd kid in town, who suddenly came together. Then there were half a million of us to work on the environment, or stop the war. Music brought us together.”

[people.com]

I was at this show and it was amazing. I got a great recording too. I do not think Wavy is in condition to do cross country travel unless it is a private jet. He is pretty frail and semi mobile.

this thread is finally starting to mean something to me.
make a Big difference in my life.
i knew it before but i really feel it so much more deeply in my heart
and thru the years; i just have to say it and he free:
let it all hang out and just tell it like it is brother
like how it is for sure man
Joan Osborne is hot. She breathes hot. she sounds hot.
because she is hot brother.
peace

She needs to learn bass and replace Darryl.
Yo JOAN! Joan do some Stones, girl!!! YESSS

didn't bonnie do "you can keep your nose on?"
anyway, Joan, look me up. nose no prob girl



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019-01-19 00:13 by hopkins.

Maybe Robbie K. and John Densmore could play with John Sebastian and we'd have the Lovin' Doorful.
Who else is still kickin amongst the old freaks?
Jorma could sit in with Mickey and Bob and we'd have The Jefferson Dead.
do NOT even tell me that doesn't sound groovy baby.
hmmmm, i might use that myself.
The Jefferson Dead.
Debut Album Release!!!!
"Anywhere But Frisco"
12 Stomping Tunes from your New Favorite Band!!!!
Get the new single, "Friction Grease" dOWNload today!!

Makes you thankful that Monterey Pop was a only done once.

Quote
tomk
Makes you thankful that Monterey Pop was a only done once.

otis and band here are so indelibly thrilling.
a totally essential recording imo.

Quote
hopkins

Quote
tomk
Makes you thankful that Monterey Pop was a only done once.

otis and band here are so indelibly thrilling.
a totally essential recording imo.

Absolutely, it’s THE band! Cropper, Duck Dunn, Booker T & Al Jackson Jr. It’s basically the guys who backed him on the studio stuff and they are really tight. In fact I’m going to stick brother Otis on now.

Poor old Otis dead and gone
Left me here to sing his song
Pretty little girl with a red dress on
Poor old Otis, dead and gone.

Quote
tomk
Makes you thankful that Monterey Pop was a only done once.

They did a 50th anniversary show in 2017.

[montereypopfestival50.com]

Compared too the rumored Woodstock lineup this one was actually decent.

Woodstock at 50: Michael Lang On What He Learned From The Iconic Festival And Why He Wants to Do It Again

1/30/2019 by Dave Brooks


George Holz

[www.billboard.com]

Wavy can fly across country Daspy....I saw the show Jackson Brown, Weir and Bonnie played at the Sweetwaterin the fall, that was killer!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-02-01 00:23 by Woz.

I was at that Festival but spent most of the 3 days right near a 'B' Stage where very,
very damn good tri-state area and also from San Francisco.

The infamous painted bus they made the cross country trip with,
was parked real close and Hugh (Wavy Gravy) was everywhere at once.
The "security officer," and sort of lovingly,
and with grand good humor on his feet checking everyone he saw
with a greeting and open-ears, wanting to help.

I WAS out front that first day, I had only just graduated High School in Spring of '69 and originally from NY,
with family in "upstate" New York, so it was almost
immpossible for a teenager from that general area NOT to give it a looksee.

I recall seeing the Elvis Presley Singer Sewing Machine Christmas Special on re-run that Summer,
I had missed it the previous Christmas, but LOVED that album.

Seeing that TV show at my relative's house right before Woodstock, sort of,
in a way, well....for Hoppy anyway,
in many ways much more significant to me that weekend, than anything I saw at the main stage Festival.
I really felt safe and warm amidst an entire population of a major city,
and MORE attendees than the entire population or the State of Vermont at the time!!!

...so a little of that crowd was enough. It took me what seemed like forever
to get OUT of that crowd.
Damn hippies kept stopping me and forcing me
to keep smoking a huge hashish pipe with about a dozen tubes coming out of it,
so that a whole lotta peeps could toke up together.

The rains, the mud and etc...were of no particular consequence as you saw in the movie.
It was very, very Unlike what happened at the Speedway with The Stones as the year wrapped up.

I saw Zero bullying, zero fights, zero arguments. a Lot of Love and fun, it's true.
The official Woodstock movie soundtrack album slick; the back cover with the little blonde child giving the drumkit a try...
...was shot in that B Stage area, away from the main crowd.
I DID miss The Who, but had seen them so many times around that same time.
And for years before as well. Bigass into them I am.

Peeps DID share and care with each other; that's true as well.
I've actually turned down free all access passes
(Not for The Stones,
I wudda BEEN THERE FOR SURE)..
but another really Big band still together at the time.
just because I usually won't even consider a stadium type concert unless
I am SURE to have good seats with good sonics;
unlikely to happen unless
I can pull of a heist at Fort Knox.
I'm not going in any case, but it's good they'll give it a 'go'...
The farmer was perfect and upstate New York is gorgeous and green.
.....

Bethel Woods’ Woodstock Celebration Downsizes; Ringo Starr, Santana To Perform

[www.pollstar.com]

Woodstock 50 Concert Reportedly Plagued by Financial Issues

Co-founder Michael Lang says a lineup will be announced "within the next couple of weeks."



March 4, 2019

The Woodstock 50 event, meant to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the festival this August, is reportedly running into financial and logistical issues staging the concert.

Due to take place Aug. 16-18 in Watkins Glen in Upstate New York, the event promised to “give generations of fans the opportunity to join together in the festival’s foundational intent of harmony and compassion.” But since that January 9 announcement, few details have emerged — namely, the lineup reveal.

According to Hits Daily Double, that delay is due to “issues regarding the raising of money and venue capacity.” The site notes that such acts as Dead & Co., The Killers, Miley Cyrus, Santana, The Black Keys, Chance the Rapper, Jay-Z, Imagine Dragons and Halsey have been approached to perform at the 1,000-acre Watkins Glen International race track.

But in a statement to Variety, festival co-founder Michael Lang insists that Woodstock is a go. Says Lang: “There’s always been lots of rumors around Woodstock. We have excellent partners and an incredible talent lineup of over 80 artists which will be announced within the next couple of weeks. We’re preparing a once in a lifetime event.”

While not the original site of Woodstock, the race track has hosted two Phish festivals as well as the 1973 “Summer Jam,” which featured the Band, the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band. The festival was due to have three main stages featuring “more than 60 of the biggest names and emerging talent in rock, hip hop, pop and country,” read the announcement, which also described lodging availability for tents, RVs and camping.

The Woodstock 50th anniversary is being produced under license from Woodstock Ventures, which was founded by Lang with original festival co-founders Joel Rosenman and the late John Roberts; Artie Kornfeld, who co-produced the 1969 event, will be rejoining the team for Woodstock 50.

[variety.com]