Woodstock 50 Is No More

Organizers cancel the troubled music festival
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 31, 2019 2:08 PM CDT
Woodstock 50 Is No More
This Aug. 14, 2009 file photo shows a van decorated with "Woodstock or Bust" at the original Woodstock Festival site in Bethel, NY.   (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin, File)

Woodstock 50 is officially canceled. Organizers announced Wednesday that the troubled festival that hit a series of setbacks in the last four months won't take place next month, the AP reports. The three-day festival was originally scheduled for Aug. 16-18, but holdups included permit denials and the loss of a financial partner and a production company. Last week Jay-Z, Dead & Company and John Fogerty announced they wouldn't perform at the event after organizers said it was moving to Maryland from New York.

The original Woodstock, a festival pushing the message of peace, love and music, was a seminal, groundbreaking event in 1969 that featured performances by Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Joan Baez, the Who and other iconic acts. A separate event marking the 50th anniversary is still planned for the original Woodstock site in Bethel, NY, next month. (The organizer had originally promised Woodstock 50 would be nothing like Woodstock '99.)

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