Woodstock’s 50th anniversary show is in limbo right now after the financial backers pulled out, and Billboard have revealed in a new report that promoter Michael Lang was attempting to book a Led Zeppelin reunion performance. He went with the next best thing though, booking Robert Plant and Greta Van Fleet, though now unless new funding is secured, it doesn’t look like anybody will end up performing.
A week after tickets were supposed to go on sale on April 22 (Earth Day), local and state permits for the concert site in Watkins Glen, N.Y., hadn’t been approved, and Superfly, the company that investors had hired to produce Woodstock 50, wanted to cut attendance in half for safety reasons — from 150,000 to 75,000 — which would make it nearly impossible for the event to turn a profit. Meanwhile, Dentsu, the Japanese firm financing the 2019 festival, was getting increasingly nervous about the $30 million that it had wired in March to about 80 acts, including Imagine Dragons, The Killers, Miley Cyrus and Jay-Z.
The lineup was a far cry from Lang’s wish list for Woodstock 50, which included Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and a reunited Led Zeppelin. Though Lang did get Dead & Company, John Fogerty and Santana, he couldn’t count on the Woodstock veterans to draw crowds: Dead & Company had been touring extensively, and both Fogerty and Santana were also playing a rival Live Nation Woodstock tribute the same weekend on the site of the original concert in Bethel Woods, N.Y.
Variety is reporting that Dentsu, who were bankrolling Woodstock 50, filed new legal documents Monday defending the decision, saying its investment arm Amplifi Live worked “nonstop for the last 10 months and invested millions of dollars.”
“But Woodstock 50 LLC’s and Michael Lang’s misrepresentations, incompetence, and contractual breaches have made it impossible to produce a high-quality event that is safe and secure for concertgoers, artists, and staff. The production company has quit, no permits have been issued, necessary roadwork has not begun, and there is no prospect for sufficient financing,” Dentsu’s attorney said. “As much as the parties might wish it otherwise, the festival contemplated by their agreement cannot happen and allowing it to go forward would only put the public at risk. The injunction sought by W50, even if there were a legal basis for it, cannot change that.”
