Woodstock 50 Now Officially Canceled

Indeed, there will be no Woodstock 50, because organizers, particularly Michael Lange - one of the major organizers of the first, "real" Woodstock - have officially cancelled the concert event. 

This time, it is official, although most observers could see the writing on the wall for quite some time. Clearly, this Woodstock felt and looked troubled from the start. Perhaps we might have known when so many reacted negatively to the list of artists scheduled to play, although you never were going to get something that pleased everyone. Perhaps we might have suspected that there were some real problems when they failed to secure Watkins Glen as the location for the venue, despite original contracts and promotions for that town. By the time that Woodstock 50 got denied by the new, alternative location in Vernon, New York, it was undeniable that there were  very serious problem. Then they tried to relocate the concert event to Maryland and, shortly thereafter, some of the major acts began to cancel. Eventually, the organizers announced that nobody originally under contract would be held to their contract and forced to play, and it seemed like many, if not most, of the major bands scheduled to play pulled out. Or, as Country Joe MacDonald, one of the artists from the original Woodstock Music Festival who was also scheduled to perform at Woodstock 50 put it to the Baltimoree Sun when officially declaring that he had pulled out:

“I have no airfare booked. I have no hotels. I have nothing planned. I’m not interested in getting on a ship that’s sinking, and I don’t see any indication that this ship is not sinking.”

Shortly thereafter, in fact, the organizers already had stated that the artists who had signed on, initially to play at Watkins Glen, New York, were no longer obliged to play. Very quickly, a number of artists dropped out.  Some of the formerly scheduled bands that dropped out of being a part of this concert included Pussy Riot, Miley Cyrus, the Raconteurs, Dead and Company, and Jay-Z. Perhaps the most symbolical major names to drop out of the Woodstock 50 lineup were some of the original artists who performed at the original legendary Woodstock concert in 1969. These include John Fogerty, Country Joe McDonald, Santana, and John Sebastian, formerly of the Lovin’ Spoonful.

By that point, the odds certainly were against this "new" Woodstock being any kind of a success story.

Then again, how could it be? Look at what it was, quite directly, trying to compare itself to!

Now, don’t get me wrong: I am not holding past events to impossibly high standards as a rule. Believe me, I would love to see an actual Woodstock festival, with the same kind of impact, happen today.             

Here’s the thing: I have said, time and again, that the times and circumstances surrounding Woodstock helped to make the concert, and that is no joke! You have to remember the backdrop, as the United States had shifted tremendously. It went from the conformist era of the 1950’s and early 1960’s, where legalized racial segregation was still very much the reality in the Jim Crow South, to a new era of testing boundaries. The civil rights movement helped to end legal racial segregation, and despite progress, racial tensions continued to be high-profile headlines for the remainder of the sixties. While women were seen as subservient and less than, if you will, in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, there was a feminist movement that altered virtually everything in that regard.  

And, of course, we cannot mention the sixties without mentioning the Vietnam War, and how dramatically that changed virtually everything. The war went very badly, and fairly quickly, at that. While many continued to support the war for a while, it just grew less and less popular as it continued to drag on. That meant that here at home, within the United States, there was unbelievable opposition that jarred many, and changed the whole focus on conformity. In fact, there were mass protests against the war, and these just got stronger and more serious as the sixties wore on.  

Add to that the explosion of artistic creativity that, most likely, had it’s roots in the Beatniks of the 1950’s, and which absolutely exploded with incredible art and just great music that began to dominate and obviously have a profound influence on society as the sixties wore on, and you have a whole society that changed. In fact, this was a worldwide phenomenon, but if there was one place where this probably reached it’s height, and which also shook the society up more than anywhere else, it would be here in the United States. This was where many of the hippies had their de facto headquarters, particularly in the Height-Asbury section of San Francisco, although it certainly was not relegated to this. It was there that was the center of the “Summer of Love” in 1967. It was also in California that the Monterrey Music Festival took place in 1968, which itself was a phenomenal, and also highly influential, three day music festival that might have been remembered the way that Woodstock is now remembered, if not for the latter actually eclipsing the former.  

Yes, there were drugs and experimentation, as well.  

But all of this added to the Woodstock phenomenon, and helped to make it what it would become: legendary.  

It was not expected to be such an incredible success. Traffic was an incredible mess. The weather did not always cooperate. In short, there were plenty of reasons why the concert could have failed, as many detractors expected it to. People behaved at their best for those three days on a rural New York farmland, even though the circumstances were challenged. By then, there had been plenty of other gatherings of young people, such as protests and such, that had turned out badly, devolving into violence. There had been high-profile riots the year before in many American cities, and there were some justifications for believing that some similarly ugly scenes could take place at this music festival, as well. After all, somewhere between 400,000 to 500,000 people were crammed into a small area, and there were limited places to go to the bathroom. Very little personal space, and again, the perception was that far too many drugged out hippies and antiwar protestors would not be able to keep the peace, surely. Many expected it to devolve into anarchy.  

In short, expectations were generally very low. Few expected it to go well, and even fewer would have expected it to go as incredibly well as it, in fact, went.  

Woodstock was the height of the counterculture movement. There was an explosion of creativity. Musical creativity on the stage, and artistic creativity off of it. And through it all, it remained peaceful. There were no recorded instances of violence, despite the challenging conditions stated above. In short, it became the single event that probably best symbolized the very best of the values and idealism that the youthful counterculture at the time championed and continually advocated.  

Recently, I watched the incredible documentary on the Vietnam War by Ken Burns, which I would strongly recommend to anyone who wants to understand more the war, or those times more generally. Funnily enough, they glossed over the Woodstock Festival, and did not mention the Monterrey Festival at all.  

Yet, the fact that it was mentioned illustrates just how influential this event was. Again, it was a positive example of the antiwar movement, not to mention a demonstration of musical and even cultural brilliance.  

Plus, the era of brilliant and inspirational political leaders – which the United States had been amply blessed with for a long time, from Washington to Lincoln to FDR to Eisenhower to Kennedy, just to name a few –had effectively come to an end. But a new era of musical and artistic genius that continued to keep the United States as the focal point around the world was beginning. I might go as far as to say that Woodstock, coming as it did at a time when the elected so-called “leaders” were failing the American people by lying and hiding their stunningly narrow self-interest and political ambitions, went some ways towards shifting the influence and perception of the United States and the positives that it was capable of, at it’s best, away from politicians, and to artists and musicians. It hardly seems like a stretch to suggest that the world looked more positively at American musicians and other artists after Woodstock, than they did to leaders like Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon.  

It also seems to have begun a process where many around the world were impressed and influenced by artistic and cultural movements within the United States, while simultaneously repudiating the American political establishment, and condemning American policies, both foreign and domestic.  

So yes, I think that Woodstock was perhaps the best symbol of this shift from thinking of American political leaders as inspirational and positive influences around the world, to American artists and musicians and other cultural leaders.  

It clearly was a time of change for American society. Probably, those changes were necessary. The conformity of the 1950’s and early 1960’s just simply was not sustainable, and neither was it particularly positive. There may have been excesses with the counterculture and antiwar demonstrations, and certainly, those who take a skeptical view of civil rights protesters will point to the race riots as clear examples of just how much things spun out of control and went too far. But the United States kind of needed to loosen up a bit. It began to do that a little bit with the Beatniks and Elvis, and then began to do a lot more of that with the arrival of the Beatles and the Second British Invasion. But it continued to do that for the remainder of the decade, and by the time of Woodstock, it was clearly a movement that had permanently altered the country. I would argue it changed it for the better.  

Woodstock does not stand alone in that regard. Again, this was a movement, and things had been building up to that point for a long time. But Woodstock became the greatest, shining symbol of what the counterculture, if you will, were capable of and wanted to share with the country. It is remembered, mostly in a positive manner, for half a century now, and deservedly so. Really, it did change everything, in many real respects.  

That makes this concert in particular a difficult, if not outright an impossible, act to follow, or try to emulate. And it does not help when music festivals who share little of that kind of spirit and brilliance have the name Woodstock slapped on them, as they did in 1994, and 1999, as well as the one which was just now cancelled a couple of days ago. Trust me, if there were guarantees that this Woodstock 50 would even come close to approaching the levels of success of the first Woodstock in 1969, neither Watkins Glen nor Vernon would have rejected the festival, but would have been clamoring to be the host, and promoting it endlessly to try and have their towns immortalized in popular perception by the event.

I said it before, and I will say it again: the first Woodstock, which I would suggest is the real Woodstock Music Festival, cannot really be surpassed. No, it cannot be topped, nor even closely matched. Whatever you might think of the antiwar movement, or the general countercultural movement of the 1960’s, there is no denying that there was an explosion of brilliant artists and ideals that rose to prominence in that decade. A few artists emerged at that Woodstock – the real one – in August of 1969. Frankly, it perfectly embodied the very best of the idealism and principles of the counterculture of the time. They championed the cause of peace, and indeed, that music festival was remarkably peaceful, considering that it gathered somewhere between 400,000 to 500,000 people (I have heard a range of estimates, but the most common is somewhere between those two numbers). There were no recorded instances of violence.  

Also, the music and artistry was simply brilliant. There were legendary performances that are remembered to this day, and for good reason. That is not to detract from the performers who were set to be on the bill at Woodstock 50. Admittedly, I am not overly familiar with, say, Jay-Z, or Miley Cyrus. But my guess is that they would not be able to compare with some of the amazing, immortal performances from the original Woodstock, because those were different times. There was more experimentation on almost every level. Even if you try and dismiss it due to drugs, that does not change the fact that it had an enormous impact on popular culture for a long time to come. After all, there is a reason why this particular concert is remembered so long after it took place.  

There is a reason why they keep trying to do new Woodstock concerts. But it is this same reason why these other Woodstock festivals keep failing to live up to the name of the first, what I would suggest was the real, Woodstock. There were some decent and memorable musical performances in the 1994 and 1999 Woodstock concerts, but none of them that were quite as legendary or memorable as the original. And now, Woodstock 50 is falling apart at the seams. With all of the bad publicity that this one has gotten already, and the bad luck or disorganization, or whatever it is, that had followed it along like tail to a comet that seems intent on crashing and burning and disintegrating for all to see, it feels to me that they would have been better off not even bothering to try this at all.  

Don’t get me wrong: I would love to go to a concert like the original Woodstock. In fact, if I could go to any concert in all of history, even those that took place before I was born (like that original Woodstock), that would be the first concert that I would pick. There are plenty of musicians whom I would have loved to see or have seen, including the Beatles. But Woodstock surpassed any other single concert even in my estimation. There is no other concert that I am aware of which people talk about in such glowing terms, and which has left as much of an impression as that one did. Hell, it had been a farm, and they built a whole concert venue and museum on those grounds now. Can you think of any other concert event where that happened before? They did not even preserve Shea Stadium, despite the legendary Beatles concerts that happened there in 1865, not to mention the other historic events that took place there. At Bethel, that concert eventually built a whole facility to host more concert and other events, and a museum dedicated to that one weekend, when the musical world was watching everything that happened at Woodstock.  

People are clearly still influenced by Woodstock, the real one. Which is why it feels so sad and unfortunate to me that the concerts that took place in the nineties, and this scheduled 50th anniversary concert, fell so short of the mark. Frankly, they were unworthy of the name.  

Sure, have a concert event to try and relive, or even reignite, the spirit of the original, real Woodstock. Hell they did that at Bethel Woods, the grounds where the real Woodstock concert took place. In fact, I was thinking of going to that one, for at least one day. I did not, because of financial reasons, but the idea certainly appealed to me in a way that going to Woodstock 50 really did not. It seems to have worked, too, because there were no embarrassing headlines about cancellations and other fiascoes. It was a music festival on the grounds of the actual Woodstock, and even though it did not have anywhere near the impact or high profile of the original Woodstock concert, it still seems to have worked out relatively well, all things considered.  

Why did it work? Well, because it actually took place. And frankly, it probably worked, in no small part, because they had the good sense not to call it Woodstock, even though it clearly tried to emulate the spirit on some level. Perhaps they knew what the organizers of Woodstock 50 did not apparently know or understand, and that is that the original concert set an impossibly high bar for any future Woodstock wanna be music festivals.  

Maybe Woodstock 50 would have been similarly brilliant and influenced future generations on a level with the original. Most likely, however, it was going to be over-hyped and overpriced, as almost everything is these days, and then would have proven to be a letdown. Not least of all, any positive message similar to the one left by the original Woodstock would have been lost in the empty promises and boasts about how great and phenomenal and historic this version of "Woodstock" was going to be or, if it had actually happened, was. Almost assuredly, it would not have held a candle to the original, which has continued to run circles around every other event that has tried to repeat it's success.

It is a shame that Woodstock 50 could not have been a more positive event. I am not rejoicing in seeing it crash and burn. But again, when you name an event after that legendary, and let’s face it, untouchable original concert, you are almost assuredly setting yourself up for failure, making this one unworthy of the name.

I have said this before, and will conclude on this point again:

By all means, get a concert or music festival going. But just please, please stop trying to push “Woodstock” concerts that prove completely unworthy of the name for that one, true concert that went by that name, and transcended arguably all other concerts in history as symbolic of a whole era and frame of mind and worldview.

Here are the links to the now official cancellation of Woodstock 50:

Woodstock 50 Is Officially Canceled Weeks before it was supposed to begin, Woodstock cofounder by Kory Grow, July 31, 2019:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/woodstock-50-canceled-2-834313/?fbclid=IwAR0EsUO87971R93kYUr9ibyMPNbO8KGXjx3kgwfGgsnNmZTqjMxk38ebxno



Woodstock ’69 Vet Country Joe McDonald Leaps Off ‘Sinking Ship’ Woodstock 50  The Lovin’ Spoonful founder John Sebastian also drops out as organizers attempt relocation to Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion by Ryan Reed, July 29, 2019:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/country-joe-mcdonald-john-sebastian-woodstock-50-865039/



This time it’s for real: Woodstock 50 has been canceled by RANDALL ROBERTSSTAFF WRITER  JULY 31, 2019:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2019-07-31/woodstock-50-canceled