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Woodstock 50 Performers: Jay-Z, The Killers, Miley Cyrus & More Announced

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Chance the Rapper, Black Keys, Robert Plant, Halsey, Dead & Company, John Fogerty, Santana, and more artists are slated to perform at the 50th anniversary celebration in Watkins Glen, New York
Rachel Brodsky
GRAMMYs
Mar 19, 2019 - 4:21 pm

Woodstock 50, which is taking place in Watkins Glen, New York on Aug. 16 through 18, has confirmed its three-day lineup.

According to the festival poster, headlining artists include Jay-Z, The Killers, Miley Cyrus, Dead & Company, Imagine Dragons, Chance The Rapper, Brandi Carlile, and more. 

Classic artists like John Fogerty, Santana, John Sebastian, Country Joe Mcdonald, Canned Heat and Hot Tuna, all of whom played at the original 1969 fest, are on the bill as well. 

Tickets for Woodstock 50 go on sale April 22. More information is available on the festival’s website.

Check out the full Woodstock 50 lineup below, courtesy of Rolling Stone:

Day 1: The Killers, Miley Cyrus, Santana, The Lumineers, The Raconteurs, Robert Plant, John Fogerty, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Run the Jewels, The Head and the Heart, Maggie Rogers, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Anderson East, Princess Nokia, John Sebastian

Day 2: Dead and Company, Chance the Rapper, Black Keys, Sturgill Simpson, Greta Van Fleet, Portugal. The Man, Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr., Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes, Dawes, Margo Price, Country Joe and the Fish, Rival Sons, Emily King, Soccer Mommy, Taylor Bennett

Day 3: Jay-Z, Imagine Dragons, Halsey, Cage The Elephant, Brandi Carlile, Janelle Monae, Young The Giant, Courtney Barnett, Common, Vince Staples, Judah and the Lion, Earl Sweatshirt, Boygenius, the Zombies, Canned Heat, Hot Tuna, Pussy Riot, Cherry Glazerr

Two Woodstock 50th Anniversary Events Planned For Aug. 2019

Woodstock 50

Photo: Woodstock 50/Billboard

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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 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 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 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.

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

Woodstock 1969

Woodstock 1969

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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Two Woodstock 50th Anniversary Events Planned For Aug. 2019

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As the golden birthday of the historic music festival approaches, available rooms in Sullivan County for Aug. 15–18 are already in limited supply, even before the lineups or major details for either event have been announced
Ana Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Jan 2, 2019 - 1:54 pm

Judging by the rapid rate hotels and Airbnbs are been being booked in Sullivan County, the site of the iconic ’69 Woodstock Music And Arts Fair, music fans from around the world are ready and excited to celebrate the historic fest's 50th birthday.

Official Lineup Dropped 3/19: Woodstock 50 Performers: Jay-Z, The Killers, Miley Cyrus & More Announced

Two music festivals will take place on the anniversary weekend, one unofficial at the Bethel Woods Center For The Arts, and an official 50th celebration at a to-be-announced venue, hosted by organizers of the original event. 

Bethel Woods Update: Carlos Santana, Ringo Starr Confirmed For Bethel Woods' Woodstock Anniversary

If you want to take part in the magic of the Woodstock 50th anniversary events and stay in Sullivan County during the long weekend of Aug. 15–18, you should think about booking a room soon. The Times-Herald Record Of Middletown reports that hotels, Airbnbs and everything in between have been booking up quickly, even before official news of an anniversary event had been revealed last month.

The newspaper also shared that many places to stay near the Bethel Woods Center—the venue which now lives at the site of the original event—are already completely booked with already-lengthy waiting lists. One hotel, which is still under construction and set to open this summer, is already fully booked with a waitlist, and shared that their first guest inquiry came in two years ago.

"There's a lot of interest on the domestic front and the international front, whether you were there in 1969, or just want to be here today," said Sullivan County Visitors Association CEO Roberta Byron Lockwood.

In terms of how exactly you can relive Woodstock in Upstate New York this August, the two major events are the aforementioned Bethel Woods Music and Culture Festival, hosted by Live Nation, INVNT (a "global brands communication agency") and Bethel Woods Center. Meanwhile, Michael Lang, the co-creator of the original event, has just confirmed an Official Woodstock 50 Celebration. Further details and a location are yet to be revealed.

The organizers of the Bethel Woods Festival describe their three-day event as a "pan-generational music, culture, and community event" with "live performances from prominent and emerging artists spanning multiple genres and decades, and TED-style talks from leading futurists and retro-tech experts." Attendees will get to visit the venue's year-round Woodstock-centric museum which will feature special new 2019 exhibit called We Are Golden: Reflections On The 50th Anniversary Of The Woodstock Festival And Aspirations For An Aquarian Future.

"50 years ago, people gathered peacefully on our site inspired to change the world through music," said Darlene Fedun, Bethel Woods Center CEO. "As the stewards of this historic site, we remain committed to preserving this rich history and spirit, and to educating and inspiring new generations to contribute positively to the world through music, culture, and community."

Lang, who was one of the main promoters for Woodstock '69 and has been hinting at an official 50th anniversary event for some time, confirmed minimal details with the Poughkeepsie Journal, who on Dec. 19 wrote that Lang had "definite plans" for an anniversary concert not held at the original location.

On Dec. 30, Woodstock Ventures, which runs the official Woodstock website and works with Lang, shared a statement from the co-founder:

"While the original site in Bethel remains close to our hearts, it no longer has the capacity to hold a real Woodstock Festival. I'm delighted that Bethel Woods is doing events in the coming year to celebrate what we brought to life in 1969," wrote Lang.

However you choose to celebrate Woodstock's 50th anniversary, Sullivan County is ready to welcome you this summer with peace and love vibes, complete with 36 fiberglass dove statues painted by local artists in '60s-inspired colors.

Just make sure to book a place to stay sooner rather than later, unless you want to relive the memories of many would-have-been-Woodstock-goers stuck on Route 17B, aka Woodstock Way.

2019 Music Festival Preview: Noise Pop, Ultra & More

Santana

Santana at Woodstock

Photo: Tucker Ransom/Getty Images

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

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The limited-edition set will allow music fans to listen to the powerful live performances from Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and every other artist who played Woodstock '69
Ana Yglesias
GRAMMYs
May 8, 2019 - 6:01 pm

An official 50th Woodstock anniversary concert may or may still not be in the works, but one thing's for sure: a lot of music fans really want to celebrate the Summer of '69 on its 50th birthday.

Now, with an expansive special-edition box set titled Woodstock 50 — Back to the Garden — The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive, listeners can hear full performances from the original Woodstock concert.

Spanning 38 CDs, the limited-edition (of 1,969 copies, of course) set, which will be released on Aug. 2 via Rhino, will include 432 songs, 267 of which are previously unreleased, from the three-day event. It will be the most comprehensive look at Woodstock '69, i.e., the first time every artist, including greats Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, are included on record.

Rock On: Jimi Hendrix's 'Electric Ladyland' Turns 50

As reported by Rolling Stone, the tracks are ordered chronologically based on the actual lineup order and sets performed during that mystical weekend of Aug. 15–17, 1969, with each artist's set on one disc.

The collection came together from the work of Los Angeles producer and archivist Andy Zax and co-producer Steve Woolard, who had the herculean task of making a pile of 8-track tapes from 1969 see the light of day in the digital age of music. Zax was originally sent to take a look at the tapes back in 2005, and realized there was a massive musical treasure that needed to be unearthed. He didn't have the resources to do a fully comprehensive release with the 2009 40th anniversary Woodstock set he also worked on, so the new set will finally give (almost) all of the tracks the light of day.

"The Woodstock tapes give us a singular opportunity for a kind of sonic time travel, and my intention is to transport people back to 1969. There aren't many other concerts you could make this argument about," Zax said to Rolling Stone. "From the moment I saw those tapes, I was like, 'Oh my God, there's so much more than I'd ever thought. It was clear to me that no one was exploring this stuff and dealing with it in totality. Here was this vast trove of material not treated correctly."

The three tracks that didn't make the cut include two songs from Hendrix's set, per the request of his estate, for "aesthetic reasons." The only other missing song is from Sha Na Na.

The first 37 CDs take you through each act's show, and the 38th "bonus" CD features audio extras, like attendee anecdotes recorded during the fest. 

The non-musical audio moments, also featuring off-kilter announcements, are hidden gems of the archival work themselves. Zak speaks to the 38th disc, which includes "this one guy moaning about what a disappointing experience [Woodstock] was and that it was a sell-out. It's a great slice of real people in the moment reacting to it, which pleases me immensely."

In addition to the CD collection, the deluxe edition of the new set also includes a DVD of the director's cut of the 1970 Woodstock film, the 2009 "Woodstock" book by Michael Lang and various replicas of Woodstock '69 paraphilia, like a copy of the original program book. This deluxe set, housed in a plywood box designed by GRAMMY-winning graphic designer Masaki Koikethe, costs $800 and is the only option with the full audio.

Rhino also offers more economic 10-CD, 3-CD or 5-LP vinyl sets; all four options are available for pre-order now.

Pieces Of Woodstock's Original Wooden Stage Are Now Collectibles