Why have one Woodstock anniversary festival when you could have two … plus all the others that happened before? Original Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang has announced that he’s tempting the fates by bringing back his cursed hippie oasis for an official 50th-anniversary bonanza, not to be confused with the other 50th-anniversary festival happening at the original Bethel Woods site. (That one will have TED Talks!) Lang’s Woodstock 50 will now take place over three days in August in Watkins Glen, New York, and he’s plotting it to be a mix of boomer, millennial, and whatever the hell is in between, with an activist twist. Expect “glamping” (to combat the old, er, sanitation issues) and clowns and jugglers and NGOs because this is Lang’s Woodstock 4.0 — just go with it! “There will be those types of experiences in various forms where there’s a real bed, and there’s a chair to sit in and a light bulb. There will also [be] easier access to portable toilets.” Lang told Rolling Stone. “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.”
According to Lang, some of the newer bands will do tribute sets to original acts like Janis Joplin, the Band, Jefferson Airplane and Joe Cocker, along with “unique collaborations” and possible reunions. But you’re gonna have to dream smaller than Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. “I’ve talked to them all individually,” Lang says. “And it’s a mess.” Lang hopes the festival will be “multi-generation” like Woodstock ‘94 but nothing resembling Woodstock ‘99, which imploded into a wasteland of crime and negligence. “Woodstock ’99 was just a musical experience with no social significance,” he says. “It was just a big party. With this one, we’re going back to our roots and our original intent. And this time around, we’ll have control of everything.” Attend at your own risk!
