To celebrate 50 years since the first iteration of Woodstock back in 1969, the festival’s original creator has confirmed that there’s going to be a massive three-day festival over the dates of the festival that cemented the 60s as a time of free love, peace, experimenting, and bringing your kids to a festival where they could run around shirtless. Truly simpler times, folks.
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Being held over August 16-18 in Watkins Glen in New York – about 200km away from the original site of the ’69 festival – the OG festival’s co-creator Michael Lang has said that he’s going to stick to the ethos and legacy of that first counter-culture event, and wants modern-day activism to be a big part of the 2019 event.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, Lang explained his vision for activism playing a role in Woodstock 50, and how this year’s festival is going to be very different from the notorious chaos of Woodstock 99.
We want this to be more than just coming to a concert. 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.
Woodstock ’99 was just a musical experience with no social significance. 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.
Though we don’t know the lineup just yet, what we have gleaned from a press release about the 50th-anniversary festival is that it’s going to be a little bit bigger than the original free love fest – we’re looking at about 60 artists spanning over three days, people.
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According to the Woodstock 50 team, the move away from the original site in Bethel is because it’s simply too small for the scale of the event that’s being planned for August, which is expected to have around 100,000 people in attendance.
“The original site in Bethel is wonderful but much too small for what we’re envisioning,” said Lang.
“Watkins Glen International gives us the ability to create something unlike any other commemorative event and something uniquely Woodstock.”
The original site in Bethel is actually going to be hosting another music and arts festival called Bethel Woods Music & Culture Festival, which is also on the weekend of August 16-18.
The only hint we have so far about who’s playing Woodstock 50 on the iconic site that was home to the record-breaking crowds of Summer Jam ’73 (just a casual 600,000 people watching The Grateful Dead) is that it’s going to be a pretty diverse in the way of music coming off that stage – expect hip-hop, rock, pop, and some of the legacy bands that forged that Woodstock vibe – Santana is still noodling away, right?
The same vibe that 2019 free-spirited festival folk pine for when they say “oh I was totally born in the wrong era, man.”
Actually, looking at pictures from Woodstock ’69 is like playing a weird game of Was This The ’60s Or Just 2018 With A Film Camera? And honestly? I’m here for it.
We’ll keep you updated on when that lineup drops, but until then absolutely figure out how you’re going to find yourself at Woodstock in the American summer of 2019.
