Late last month, Michael Lang, one of the producers and co-creators of the original Woodstock Festival in 1969, announced that he would be organizing a 50th anniversary event, which will be separate from the previously announced gathering organized by Live Nation that will take place at the original Woodstock location of Bethel Woods, NY. Now, Lang has offered more details about his event—a three-day celebration in Watkins Glen, NY, on August 16–18—in a new interview with Rolling Stone.
Though none of the over 40 artists that Lang says are booked for the event have been announced, the organizer says that the three days will feature “an eclectic bill” with “hip-hop and rock and some pop and some of the legacy bands from the original festival.” Lang also notes that some of the more contemporary acts will be celebrating the music of those that played the original Woodstock festival, such as Janis Joplin, The Band, Jefferson Airplane and Joe Cocker.
“I want it to be multi-generational,” Lang tells Rolling Stone. “Woodstock ’94 was a nice mix of young and old and that’s kind of what we’re going for here.” He also admits the many failures of Woodstock ’99, calling it an “MTV event” “with no social significance” and promising that Woodstock 50 will be “going back to our roots and our original intent.
“Woodstock, in its original incarnation, was really about social change and activism,” Lang continues. “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.”
5 Comments comments associated with this post
MarZaPhiGar
January 10, 2019 at 10:37 amUmmmm…wasnt that Curveball wknd last yr??
[email protected]
January 9, 2019 at 3:08 pm(((Woodstock))) is a farce
wavy gravy
January 9, 2019 at 2:54 pmDont drink the brown water.
Letsgocaps
January 9, 2019 at 12:54 pm…but it’s also about instilling kind of an energy back into young people to make their voices heard, make their votes heard.”
….so long as they are voting for democrats.
Joni Mitchell’s son
January 9, 2019 at 12:27 pmWe got to get ourselves back to the garden ! Let’s make history again.