The big anniversary concert of the Woodstock festival has been canceled, announced Wednesday that one of the co-organizers of the event, after a multitude of twists and turns incredible, between defections and changes of location.
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“We’re sad that a series of setbacks unforeseen circumstances has made it impossible to organise the festival as we had imagined”, said in a press release, Michael Lang, which was already the adventure of the first Woodstock. On 25 July, organisers announced a new venue, the Merriweather Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland, after being denied, on several occasions, the authorization to install the event at Vernon, in the north of the State of New York.
The organization in charge of the festival of the fiftieth anniversary, to be held from 16 to 18 August, had originally chosen to Watkins Glen, in northern New York State, approximately 230 km from the original site, located at Bethel, in the extreme south-west corner of the State. But the place chosen seemed under-sized in relation to the ambitions of the festival, who announced the 150,000 spectators when the production company, the provider argued that it was impossible to aim at more than 65,000.
The organization has, moreover, never been able to obtain the necessary permission to the festival to be held on the former Formula 1 circuit, whose owners have come to ask for the cancellation of the contract. In addition to the long uncertainty, the team has also experienced funding difficulties.
the Main financial partner of the project, Amplifi Live, a subsidiary of the japanese group Dentsu, was removed from the project, taking with him the $ 18 million that it initially invested. The production company provider, Superfly, was also disengaged, questioning the feasibility of the project. Before this final cancellation, the uncertainty over the participation of artists announced earlier this year, including Jay-Z, Miley Cyrus and Santana. Michael Lang explained on Wednesday that the organization had released all the artists of their contractual obligations, “so that any participation on their part is voluntary”.
Many of them have so indicated to the producers that they were willing to give up, he added, stating that all had been paid in advance. Soul of the festival, original Michael Lang has encouraged has to donate 10% of their cachet to HeadCount, a civic association, and musical, or other works of their choice. For the first Woodstock, 15 to 18 August 1969, approximately half a million people had made the trip for what remains, half a century later, as the cultural event and the most significant of the hippie culture of the 60’s and 70’s.
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