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Carlos Santana

Carlos Santana

Photo: Jason Squires/WireImage/Getty Images

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Santana Plans 2019 Supernatural Now Tour santana-plans-epic-2019-supernatural-now-tour-doobie-brothers

Santana Plans Epic 2019 Supernatural Now Tour With The Doobie Brothers

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The GRAMMY-winning group, led by living legend Carlos Santana, has planned a massive year to celebrate both the 20th birthday of the classic Supernatural and the 50th anniversary of their Woodstock performance
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Jan 16, 2019 - 1:50 pm

The GRAMMY-winning legendary guitarist Carlos Santana is ready to make 2019 the year of Santana. He and his band have not only planned multiple headlining festival appearances, but they have also just announced a three-month tour and brand-new music on the horizon.

Proud to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Supernatural and the 50th anniversary Woodstock with the Supernatural Now Tour pic.twitter.com/o0gR0Siqq3

— Carlos Santana (@SantanaCarlos) January 16, 2019

The 2019 Supernatural Now tour will take Santana across North America for 29 shows beginning in Phoenix, Ariz. on June 22. The summer tour stops at plenty of amazing venues—many of them outdoors—including the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Austin360 Amphitheater in Austin, Tex., closing out on Aug. 25 at the Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, N.Y., one of the only major outdoor venues in the New York metro area. Fellow GRAMMY-winners the Doobie Brothers will be the special guests for all 29 dates.

The tour announcement also shares that fans who purchase tickets for the concert, for which the presale begins on Jan. 18, will receive "a new full-length album of highly energetic and hypnotic songs, rhythms, melodies and grooves from Santana." There is no further information about when this album will be released, but the world will definitely get a taste of new Santana grooves on Jan. 25 when their new EP, In Search of Mona Lisa, drops.

In an interview with the iconic guitarist, Rolling Stone reports that this album was inspired by his first trip to the Lourve Museum in 2016 and a connection he felt with the spirit of the famous painting.

While Mr. Santana had originally shared being in conversation with organizer Michael Lang to be a part of the official Woodstock 50th celebration, his discussion with the magazine reveals that his band will be performing at the Bethel Woods Music and Culture Festival in August, the unofficial 50th anniversary celebration of Woodstock, hosted by Live Nation. The event will take place on the site of the historic festival's original home, where a young group from San Francisco wowed the large audience with their performance of "Soul Sacrifice."

"They have an amphitheater there. I'm going to invite whoever is still here, whether it's Joan Baez or members from Sly Stone, and I'm going to play Santana music," he told the publication. "Santana's going to be the house band, but I want to be able to honor those who are still here and maybe invite rappers like Common or Kendrick Lamar."

The group also has plans for other festival appearances before they embark on their summer tour, including a literal rodeo in Houston on March 13, the New Orleans Jazz Fest on April 26 and BottleRock Napa Festival on May 26, plus several stops in Mexico, including the Pal Norte Festival in Monterrey on March 23. And as if that wasn't enough evidence that Santana is ready to own 2019, they have extended their limited-run residency at the House Of Blues in Las Vegas.

On the band's site, Mr. Santana shared some thoughts on the significance of both his Woodstock and Supernatural anniversary:

"Both were monumental moments in my life. Woodstock and Supernatural took me to places I never dreamed were possible. I embraced those incredible moments in my life with all my heart. Both were supreme lessons in maintaining focus, heart and integrity in every step every day and to strive to better oneself with a high standard on and off the stage. I cannot think of these two moments without thinking about Mr. Bill Graham and Mr. Clive Davis. They are two of many angels in my life that helped shape my career."

Supernatural, with unforgettable songs like "Smooth" featuring Rob Thomas and "Maria Maria" featuring The Product G&B, will turn 20 on June 15. The timeless 1999 album swept the 42nd GRAMMY Awards with eight total wins, including Album Of The Year.

Watch Carlos Santana's GRAMMY highlights

For info on all performance dates, visit the band's site. Tickets for Supernatural Now tour go on sale to the public on Jan. 25, with fan presale beginning Jan. 18.

Chaka Khan Reveals First Album In 12 Years Coming Soon, Drops Video For Title Track "Hello Happiness"

Cover of Woodstock 50th Anniversary: Back to Yasgur's Farm

Woodstock 50th Anniversary: Back to Yasgur's Farm

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Mike Greenblatt On "Cosmic Accident" Of Woodstock woodstock-50th-anniversary-author-mike-greenblatt-talks-new-book-how-woodstock-was

'Woodstock 50th Anniversary' Author Mike Greenblatt Talks New Book & How Woodstock Was A "Cosmic Accident"

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"500,000 people pressed together, wet and cold, hungry and thirsty…There was no security and there was not one reported instance of violence...It's almost impossible to contemplate," Greenblatt tells the Recording Academy about the historic fest
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Aug 21, 2019 - 12:31 pm

On Aug. 14, 1969, hundreds of thousands of people took over the small town of Bethel, N.Y. to hear the sounds and inspirational words from their favorite artists, including Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead. Longtime music journalist, then an 18-year-old music fan, Mike Greenblatt was there. 

In his brand-new book, Woodstock 50th Anniversary: Back to Yasgur's Farm, out in honor of the fest's 50th anniversary, Greenblatt features his own firsthand account, as well as a collection of submitted stories from both artists and attendees to recreate the experience that transpired a half-century ago—one that original promoter Michael Lang hasn't been able to truly replicate since.

We caught up with Greenblatt over the phone to learn more about what it was really like to be at Woodstock, how we can apply the fest's activist mindset today, which acts blew him away and more.

Woodstock 1969

Photo: Warner Bros/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

How was it for you to revisit Woodstock 50 years later? 

I got a lump in my throat a little bit after I revisited that time of me being 18 and being at that particular festival, especially when I started talking to the artists. I did 32 interviews and I read nine books, because a lot of the artists are dead but they have books. And some of the artists would not talk to me. For instance, the guys in Credence Clearwater Revival didn't have very nice things to say about John Fogerty, who refused the band's participation in the movie and the soundtrack. And when I went to go call John Fogerty's people, they said, "He's not talking about that anymore, read his book." So I did.

But it was really a trip back to a much more innocent time and a time that I cherish.

I mean, it was a turning point in your life as a young man, but then also for this country and for so many of the artists that performed. So it's a lot of things coming together.

No doubt about it. It was a turning point for me because it was where I first embarked on the concept of music as salvation. In other words, as long as the music was playing, I was okay. No matter what was going on around me. And we were pretty damn uncomfortable on Sunday. If Thursday, Friday and Saturday were idyllic, Sunday was a disaster. A monsoon whipped through us and all my stuff was back at the car. Tents, clothing, food, pot and water, and we didn't even know where the car was. There was no getting back to the car and we were in T-shirts and shorts and were drenched.

After the rain, it got really cold, even though it was August. Plus, the LSD that I took on Sunday started coming on right when my friend Neil said, "I'm gonna go find a phone booth and call our moms to tell them we're right." Woodstock would have been a lot easier with cell phones and bottled water, let me tell you. He had left and I was alone now and the music stopped. They said, "We're gonna stop the music. There's a storm coming through. Hold on to each other, we'll be right back." So I'm alone, there's no music and it wasn't fun anymore. I started panicking and getting paranoid. And then they made an announcement from the stage, which is in the [1970 Woodstock] movie. They said, "Don't take the brown acid." And I said, "Oh no. I just took it."

"But [Woodstock] was like a cosmic accident." 

I would love to hear, in a nutshell, what was it really like to be an attendee, to be part of Woodstock?

I loved Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Saturday night was folk night and there was a light drizzle. People were very friendly and shared their food, water, wine and pot. It was really nice and there was a sense of "we're all in it together," that the long-hair sitting next to you on the grass on the ground was your brother. You knew he was against the war in Vietnam. And you knew he was for civil rights and women's liberation.

And, when Arlo Guthrie held up the newspaper on stage and says that famous line, "The New York State freeway is closed, man," we knew that the whole world was watching. There was a palpable sense of we better not screw it up because we were the peace and love generation. So we couldn't have any problems at this big festival or else it would all go up in flames. And we didn't, that's the whole point about Woodstock. 500,000 people pressed together, wet and cold, hungry and thirsty with not enough food, water and bathrooms and no police. There was no security and there was not one reported instance of violence. How could that be? It's almost impossible to contemplate.

How did the conversations go with the surviving artists whom you interviewed for the book? Does that collective cultural moment still feel like a connective point for you and others who were there?

There is a generational situation going on between the Baby Boomers that we were special, that we were the generation, the dividing point. The artists' backstage revelations were fascinating, and the hard times that they had getting in and out of the festival and the equipment problems that they had. But I think that the interviews that I did with the people that actually ran the show were profoundly revelatory. I did not know, for instance, that governor Rockefeller wanted to send in the National Guard to disperse everybody at the butt of a gun, like Nixon tried to do at Kent State just months later.

Could you imagine? At Woodstock? I mean, the possibility of a disaster was always right there on the surface. But we did it. John Morris is a hero in my eyes. He ran the Fillmore for Bill Graham. Graham lent out his entire staff to Michael Lang for the Woodstock festival because no one had ever heard of Lang and the artists didn't want to commit. Graham vouched for him and the artists rolling in one after another.

But it was like a cosmic accident. Because there wasn't enough facilities. No one, in a million years, expected the people to keep pouring in from all sides and never stop coming. That 500,000 figure is the estimate, of course; there are those who think it was more like 800,000. And professor Chris Langhart from NYU, who is, again, one of the heroes of this festival, says that there's police aerial photos of the area that would almost prove that it was more like 800,000. He said to me, "You going to do a book about Woodstock? You want to get it newsworthy? Call the state police, get them to unleash those records." Well, I tried and it's impossible.

crowd at Woodstock 1969

Photo: John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Image

The police didn't go into the festival at all, right? It's surprising they decided to stand back.

They let the kids do their thing. The police kept saying how unbelievably well-behaved we were. Max Yasgur, the farmer who let us groove on his property, had to go to bat for us with the townspeople. He's another hero out of this thing. Because we were kicked out of Wallkill and the people that put this thing together, maybe a crew of about 125 people who built the stage and the water system and everything else, they had only 18 days to do the whole thing. And it rained like 15 of those days. It's still the record in Sullivan County, N.Y. for the most amount of rain in a three-week period.

Do you think a Woodstock festival, a.k.a. "three days of peace and music," could authentically be recreated in this day and age?

No. They tried in '94 and '99 and there were arsons, rapes, burglaries and violence. It can't be replicated. It was a one-of-a-kind event, it had never happened before where so many people got together with no violence. It certainly hasn't happened since and I don't think it could ever happen [again] because of human nature. I mean, it was the second-biggest city in New York for those four days. People were born, people died, one guy got run over by a tractor while sleeping in his sleeping bag, one guy had a burst appendix and someone else O.D.ed. That's it, three deaths and a couple of babies were born.

"They tried in '94 and '99 and there were arsons, rapes, burglaries and violence. It can't be replicated. It was a one of a kind event, it had never happened before where so many people got together with no violence."

It's crazy, like you said, to wrap your head around.

Well, we knew it at the time and we were in it. It was like everything that we had read about, heard about on the radio, watched on TV and the bands that we tried to see at [Madison Square] Garden and at clubs in New York. We would get so excited to see one band we loved. This was all our bands at the same place, at the same time. And watching this taboo of humanity, especially after the rains came on Sunday, where people that I would be scared to meet on a dark corner in Newark, N.J., where I was raised, were making fires and feeding people and handing out blankets, and the townspeople showed up in flatbed trucks handing out bread. To be in it and look at it and be heavily tripping at the time just made it phantasmagoric, surrealistic.

I knew it was so special, but I could only just stand there and look at it. I wasn't one of the people that would take charge in helping other people, I admit. I stood there and I looked all around me, fascinated.

How did being an attendee at Woodstock affect your path in life? I know you ended up going into music writing. How do you see that now, looking back?

My mother cried and cried when I came home, she had seen the news. I end the book with her tears as a metaphor for the older generation trying to understand us. But I think that was the moment I realized that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to listen to more music and tell people about it. The fastest way to do that was to go to shows and write about it, and that's all I've ever done, listen to music and tell people about it, be it as a journalist, an editor or a publicist. Ever since Woodstock, that was my mission in life. And it persists to this day.

Woodstock feels like a great early example of how gathering a large group people around music can really make waves in society. What are your beliefs or your thoughts on the power of music to create change?

Music is spiritual. People to listen to music and get from it what they will, but it's all about that connection between the human and the sounds. And there's something about lyrics and chords, melodies and harmonies and instrumentation, that when put together in the proper way, have a profoundly—it's religious to me. I consider myself agnostic, but music is my religion and my church. When I go to a show and the show is absolutely perfect, I'm in church, man.

I can relate to that. And for religious ceremonies, music is the part that moves people.

At the very beginning of time, all music was religious music.

What do you think performing Woodstock meant to each of these artists?

There's 32 different answers to that question, 32 different artists. Quill, for instance, was supposed to be the band that broke big after Woodstock. To me, they sounded like a bunch of guys banging on pots. Santana that became superstars after. The Santana album wasn't even out yet, nobody knew who they were.

Santana came out, people were enjoying themselves on a sunny day at the time, and their performance was so incendiary and so righteous, fusing unbelievably great hard rock with salsa music, no one had ever heard anything like that. They practically invented world beat music right on that very stage. And Michael Shreve's drum solo during "Soul Sacrifice" that day [pauses]—he was barely 20. It galvanized the entire Woodstock nation and they became superstars.

Now, that's just 1 of 32. And for my favorite, there's a few. There were bands that carried me away; The Band, for instance. Back then, we thought a band was great by how close to the record they sounded. The Band sounded exactly like their records, the vocals, the harmonies. And they kept switching instruments. They all played every instrument, Switching after every song, I have never seen that. So they stand out.

Sly and the Family Stone also stand out. Because it was so late, I was falling asleep and their set was so rabble-rousing. We were up on our feet and chanting, "Higher, higher!" during the song "I Want To Take You Higher." Sly Stone was at the top of his game and the band was unbelievable. And Mountain—Leslie West's lead guitar—was the loudest band I ever heard in my life. They practically invented heavy metal at Woodstock. There's so many others I can think of.

I think that's part of what's interesting with "hard questions" like this, of how we summarize these major things. And to see, 50 years later, what still stands in the front of your mind.

One thing that stands in front of my mind was Friday night, the very last performer was Joan Baez. She was very pregnant, and she came out and had a political agenda. Politics was a subtext of Woodstock, with Vietnam and Nixon. She sang "Joe Hill," the story of this union martyr who said, when they executed him for a murder he didn't commit, "Don't mourn, organize." That still sends chills through my rather leftwing, liberal body. Joan Baez was so affecting to us, when she sang "We Will Overcome." It wasn't corny back then, it was real. And she sang [the Byrds'] "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man" with a friend that she brought out, and they referenced Ronald Reagan, who everybody already hated as the governor of California.

"Get behind the people that you like politically and go out and volunteer. Do something. Work with the homeless, work with the disenfranchised. And don't just complain about things, get involved. You can change the world."

Santana said in a recent interview about Woodstock, "The people wanted the same things we want today." That really stuck with me because it's true; women and people of color are still not treated equally and we're still fighting wars abroad. So, what message do you have for young people today who are unhappy with the current state of affairs? What are your takeaways from the Summer of '69 and how do you think they apply today?

Well, just like Joe Hill said, "Don't mourn, organize." All politics is local, it all starts on a local level. If you're outraged at what's going on today, get involved, go door to door, take names. It's what I did this past year, in 2018, for a local woman who had never run for anything. I mean, she lost, but she made a point. Get behind the people that you like politically and go out and volunteer. Do something. Work with the homeless, work with the disenfranchised. And don't just complain about things, get involved. You can change the world.

That was the whole thing about the '60s. We really thought we were going to change the world. Well, guess what? We didn't, but that feeling, it's a feeling of camaraderie with your fellow hippie back at the time. Find like-minded people and get together and organize and fight to change what's going on today. It's almost worse now than it was in '69. I hate to say that.

I think, like you said, everyone at Woodstock knew the world was looking and that it was important to show what peace and love really meant.

Exactly. We proved it at Woodstock.

It speaks to the power of people speaking up and using the platforms of music, of festivals, of peaceful organized groups to show that love is indeed stronger.

Well, I thought when I was 16, when The Beatles sang "All You Need Is Love," I actually believed that. Of course it was naïve, you need a hell of a lot more than love. But it's a good starting point.

What do you believe, in the couple of months and years following Woodstock, were the biggest after-effects? What happened when you all came home?

The iconic nature of the festival really didn't manifest itself until much later. The movie came out in 1970, which was a year later, and all of the sudden people started getting interested in Woodstock again. It was a wonderful movie, it revolutionized cinema with the split screen effects and so forth. It hadn't been done at that time. After the movie came out, there was a rush of Woodstock appreciation. But then, in the mid- to late-'70s, when punk rock took hold and rock stars became passé, Woodstock became almost trivialized. It almost wasn't appreciated for what it was. I don't know when the tide turned again, but now it is really looked upon as something special. There's the great Woodstock museum up at Bethel Woods, which is on the site of the actual festival, where I'll be for three days, starting August 15.

Here we go!!!
I will be in Bethel all weekend for this amazing weekend of peace,love and music.
Please visit me by the merchandise store and check out my book.#Woodstock50thAnniversary #Santana #woodstock2019 https://t.co/3NmZnT70iM pic.twitter.com/x3QqLPoV87

— mike greenblatt (@mikeg1012) August 16, 2019

This is the last gasp of Woodstock, man. It's not going to have this much attention for the 51st, the 52nd; the 50th, this is it. This is our Woodstock swan song. But people should remember that for four days, the peace and love generation proved its point with no police and a half a million people in horrible conditions. No violence, that's the important thing.

I didn't know that before I read your book. I feel like it's not something that always gets highlighted about the event.

Well, there was a lot of things in the book that people are telling me that they read for the first time. I was edited a little bit, I was censored a little bit, probably rightfully so. That said, this is not a book for the whole family. The drugs were prevalent, sure, but my editor took out so many references and I said, "Why are you taking out drugs? This is sex, drugs and rock and roll." He goes, "Yeah, but on every page?" It was just a different time, be it sex, be it drugs.

There's a lot of written material about Woodstock out there. Why should people read your book?

Because I was there. I don't know how many books are coming out about Woodstock this summer, there's going to be a ton of them. But how many authors did the brown acid and can give you a firsthand [account]? I did, as I say, 32 interviews, read nine books, plus my own experiences. It's a tapestry, it's a mosaic of all those different perspectives. 

Why Can't Anyone Get Woodstock Right? 15 Of The Original Fest's Performers Weigh In

GRAMMYs

Carlos Santana

Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images

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Carlos Santana On Woodstock & The Power Of Music carlos-santana-woodstock-power-music-these-people-wanted-same-things-we-want-today

Carlos Santana On Woodstock & The Power Of Music: "These People Wanted The Same Things We Want Today"

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"The state of the world is so infected with fear and separation and disharmony, I know for a fact that the frequency of this music from Africa gives people hope, courage and joy," the 10-time GRAMMY winner said
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Jul 5, 2019 - 10:03 am

You may have heard that this August marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the music festival still ripe in our social consciousness. It was billed as "three days of peace & music," and whether or not Michael Lang's still TBD Woodstock 50 is able to recreate this, it lives on and embodies everything world-famous guitarist Carlos Santana does. And he's already celebrating it.

The 10-time GRAMMY winner first tapped into the black magic power of his guitar shredding back in '69 on the famed stage at Bethel Farm along with his then-new band Santana. 50 years later, he shows no signs of slowing down—and he is still connected with his musical and spiritual roots. The group is celebrating their big year—it also marks 20 years since they released the 42nd GRAMMY Awards knock-out album Supernatural—with the epic 29 date Supernatural Now Tour.

Related: New Woodstock 50th Anniversary Box Set Offers A Complete Listen To The Summer '69 Fest

"We're going to bring a lot of fury and fire [on tour]. Most of the time, we play close to two-and-a-half to three hours, so we're going to honor yesterday, today and tomorrow," Mr. Santana explained in a recent Rolling Stone interview. The group recently released their 25th studio album, Africa Speaks, featuring Spanish singer Buika on vocals for all 11 powerful tracks, on June 7. The band enlisted power-producer, and fellow GRAMMY winner, Rick Rubin to assist, and recorded it at his famous Shangri La Studios. On the tour this new music, along with their endlessly epic catalog, is helping arenas full of people across North America feel something.

"The state of the world is so infected with fear and separation and disharmony, I know for a fact that the frequency of this music from Africa gives people hope, courage and joy. The ingredients and the nutrients from everything that comes from African music makes people dance and rejoice like a revival," Santana said in the interview.

He explained that Afro sounds have always had a special place in his heart and his music collection, and he wanted to make an album honoring the beauty and power of that aesthetic.

"I originally heard 'Africa Speaks' on a Cannonball Adderley record, Accent On Africa. I put the poem in there and Buika put the vocals in it. We basically took these African songs, and I asked permission in every kind of way from the writers, so we got all that with impeccable integrity, then we redid the songs our way," he explained. And with the tour having kicked off already, he's seen its power at work.

"People like 'Breaking Down the Door.' We're in a place that people need rejoicing. People need celebrating. People need romance. Everybody is thirsty for higher consciousness, righteousness," Santana shared. "I can see it because I'm watching the audience sometimes and I can see how they respond to the music. It's like watering the plants after they haven't been watered for months."

While the visuals and music of the Supernatural Now shows offer a nod to Woodstock, on Aug. 17, exactly 50 years since their breakthrough performance, the tour will stop at Bethel Woods Center For The Arts, the venue that lives on the original site of Woodstock '69. If Woodstock 50 happens, the group is booked to headline the fest the day before that. And Santana is ready to tap back into that energy he first felt 50 years ago.

"I'm ready. My band is ready. By the grace of God, we have the clarity. We have the energy. I have more energy than the first time. So we look forward to tearing it out," he told the outlet. He also spoke to what the first event was really about, peace and music, and how it's still so important today: "The first was done, and I mean this in the most respectful way, with a bunch of long-haired freaks that wanted something different than what was happening in Vietnam or politics or religion. These people wanted the same things we want today."

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Woodstock 50

Photo: Woodstock 50/Billboard

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Woodstock 50 Music Festival Has Been Canceled funder-announces-woodstock-50-music-festival-has-been-canceled

Funder Announces Woodstock 50 Music Festival Has Been Canceled

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The three-day event in Watkins Glen was set to be the official 50th anniversary celebration of the iconic 1969 fest
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Apr 29, 2019 - 12:03 pm

Today, the company funding Woodstock 50 released a statement that the music festival is canceled. Rumors have surrounded both the festival's details and feasibility long before the lineup was revealed on March 19, and were reignited following ticket sales not launching as planned on April 20. Woodstock 50 has not updated either their website or social accounts to reflect this news.

Dentsu Aegis Network, a multinational media and marketing company funding Woodstock 50, shared an official statement with Billboard this morning detailing the cancelation:

"It's a dream for agencies to work with iconic brands and to be associated with meaningful movements. We have a strong history of producing experiences that bring people together around common interests and causes which is why we chose to be a part of the Woodstock 50th Anniversary Festival. But despite our tremendous investment of time, effort and commitment, we don't believe the production of the festival can be executed as an event worthy of the Woodstock Brand name while also ensuring the health and safety of the artists, partners and attendees.

As a result and after careful consideration, Dentsu Aegis Network's Amplifi Live, a partner of Woodstock 50, has decided to cancel the festival. As difficult as it is, we believe this is the most prudent decision for all parties involved."

Billboard also writes that over $30 million has already been spent on the festival's lineup, as most artists had already been paid. Festival organizers were concerned about the venue, Watkins Glen International Speedway, located in a remote area of upstate New York, being able to safely support a 100,000-person capacity event.

As previously mentioned, the Woodstock 50 site still reads that tickets will go on sale soon, although the organizers have yet to release an offical statement. Today, the Poughkeepsie Journal detailed the conflicting messages about the fest, including a note from the organizers that say it has not been canceled.

The three-day event was set to take place in Watkins Glen, New York on Aug. 16–18 to celebrate the 50 year anniversary of the original Woodstock festival in 1969. The lineup boasted a range of big name acts including Jay-Z, The Killers, Miley Cyrus, Dead & Company, Imagine Dragons, Chance The Rapper and Santana.  

The unofficial 50th anniversary celebration to be held at the original fest's location at Bethel Woods is still set to take place during the same weekend, albeit in a smaller, non-festival format than originally announced. The 15,000 capacity venue sits on what was the farm where the first fest was held back in 1969 and has announced two nights of concerts with several '69 alumni.

GRAMMY-winning legends Santana will take to the Bethel Woods stage exactly 50 years after their breakthrough Woodstock performance, with the Doobie Brothers as part of their Supernatural Now tour.

Pieces Of Woodstock's Original Wooden Stage Are Now Collectibles

Woodstock 1969

Woodstock 1969

Photo: John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

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Official Woodstock 2019 Festival Venue Confirmed official-woodstock-50th-anniversary-festival-location-date-confirmed-2019

Official Woodstock 50th Anniversary Festival Location & Date Confirmed

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"Woodstock, in its original incarnation, was really about social change and activism. And that's a model that we're bringing back to this festival," organizer Michael Lang reveals
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Jan 9, 2019 - 2:27 pm

As the 1969 Woodstock Music And Arts Fair approaches 50 years, music fans have been anticipating any and all news surrounding a possible half-century celebration. Now, Michael Lang, one of the original event's organizers, has shared new details around Woodstock’s confirmed 50-year event, including a new location.

https://twitter.com/woodstockfest/status/1082991031971442688

The Bird of Peace is Back #Woodstock50 ☮️❤️🎵 pic.twitter.com/H3iuebpjnu

— WOODSTOCK (@woodstockfest) January 9, 2019

Today, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Lang re-confirmed that the official event will be taking place Aug. 16–18 in Upstate New York, but not in Sullivan County, home to Bethel Woods. He also revealed the challenge of finding a space that would work, settling on Watkins Glen, a more remote location with enough open space to host what will around six figure’s worth of attendees. The rustic locale has hosted several huge concerts before, including approximately 600,000 people in 1973 for the Allman Brothers Band, the Grateful Dead and the Band (all of whom also performed at Woodstock '69).

There may not be many hotels by Watkins Glen, but apparently there will be glamping: "I was desperate to keep it in New York. I looked everywhere because I needed 1,000 acres of clear land with access and infrastructure," Lang told Rolling Stone. "When I looked [at Watkins Glen], I knew it was the perfect facility for what we had in mind. It was reminiscent to me of finding Max [Yasgur]'s field."

Watkins Glen is about 160 miles from Sullivan County, so for music fans who have already booked rooms (a large portion of hotels and Airbnbs are already booked for Aug. 16–18) and want to attend the official Woodstock '19, you may want to reconsider your concert accommodations.

While no performers have been announced for either the official event or the previously announced unofficial anniversary concert at Bethel Woods Center For The Arts, Lang did offer some juicy hints as to what’s in store, namely that performers will begin to be announced in February when tickets go on sale.

Lang said that over 40 performers have been booked three stages, including some big names. "It'll be an eclectic bill. It'll be hip-hop and rock and some pop and some of the legacy bands from the original festival," he explained.

He continued that attendees and those tuned into the live stream can expect that newer artists will pay tribute to original Woodstock performers like Santana, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

"Having contemporary artists interpret that music would be a really interesting and exciting idea. We're also looking for unique collaborations, maybe some reunions and a lot of new and up-and-coming talent," Lang shared.

He hopes that this mix of talent and sounds, along with promotion of Woodstock's peace, love and activism ideals, will help draw a "multi-generational" crowd.

"A lot of festivals these days are kind of cookie-cutter,” he said. Very few of them have any sort of social impact [and] that's a wasted opportunity. Woodstock, in its original incarnation, was really about social change and activism. 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."

Stay tuned to grammy.com for updates on the Woodstock '19 lineup, and for all the big 2019 festivals as well.

Dove Statues To Decorate Upstate New York For Woodstock's 50th Anniversary

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