Woodstock 50 Probably Cancelled?

This year 2019 marks the 50th Anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival 1969. Plans to have another historical musical festival are under way, but with the going back and forth statements from the investors and organizers, no one is so sure whether the actual festival will be held. The music festival is planned to take place for three days, August 16, 17 and 18, 2019. The location for Woodstock 50 is in Watkins Glen, New York., USA.

On April 29, 2019, the investor made an announcement that they were pulling out of this historic concert and Woodstock 50 because they were not satisfied with the way the planning was going on. They also gave a statement that Woodstock 50 cancelled! Later the same day in the evening, one of the the main organizer, Michael Lang, made an announcement that he was doing everything possible to have the Woodstock Festival held as originally planned.

Michael Lang, was the producer and organizer for Woodstock Festival in August 1969. If the concert goes as planned, we will experience another Woodstock success.

Surprises and Challenges

Probably, the challenge now is to avoid what happened at the first Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. The plan original number of people who showed up was twice the number they had originally anticipated. Approximately 400,000 people showed up. It was difficult to sell tickets at the gate because people climbed the fences from all directions.

With this situation, Woodstock 1969 became a free concert for those who did not purchase the tickets in advanced. There were no security personnel on site to stop people from climbing or smashing the fence. The theme of the concert was “3 Days of Peace and Music”.

Since people came from everywhere around the world, it was difficult for people to drive their vehicles to the festival because of traffic jam. Even some musicians who were supposed to play earlier were caught up in traffic. They had to reschedule their time of performance.

The weather also contributed to the challenges. There were times they had stop performing until the rain stopped. The precaution was necessary to avoid damaging the amps. Could this happen again at Woodstock 50? Maybe.

The Musicians

Some of the musicians who performed in 1969 are scheduled to play again at the Woodstock 50. One of the bands at Woodstock 50 years ago and is still active is Santana. John Forgerty of the Credence Clear Revival will perform too. David Crosby and the three Greatful Dead members have confirmed that they will be in attendance and play. Modern musicians to play at Woodstock 50 is Jay-Z and Miley Cyrus.

In my opinion, I would have love to see some old musicians who are still active but missed the opportunity to play at Woodstock 1969 to be included in the lineup.

Some bands missed the opportunity because they had other engagements that weekend but others were invited but declined. Led Zeppelin declined the offer because they did not want to. They never thought it was going to be a historic event to be part of.

Bob Dylan, who lived not very far from Woodstock, declined to play. He was not serious about the event. He left for England on August 15, 1969, the opening day at Woodstock Festival. Her good friend, Joan Baez performed early Saturday night from 12:55 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.

Jimmy Hendrix

If you talk about Woodstock, only one name is associated to this event. It is Jimi Hendrix. For those who stayed to watch him play experienced the best concert at woodstock.

Due to the bad weather, Jimi Hendrix perform took the stage Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. He played for a solid 2 hours. Many people left and it’s believed he perfomed to a small audience of around 30,000 people compared to the 400,000 that weekend.

What stands out most of Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock is when he played on his Fender Stratocaster guitar, the National Anthem of the USA “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Watch this video see how Jimi played the guitar to to produce the unbelievable sounds out of amplifiers. The sounds, if interpreted well, is as if you are in a war zone. Sirens, bombs, jets flying and in the background you can hear a machine gun! All these sounds were produced by his guitar tremolo, Vox the wah-wah pedal. The Amplifiers were overloaded with pre-amps to create the heavy distortion.

Conclusion

With all that goes on to prepare for a historic music festival Woodstock 1969, there are many challenges. Times have changed and and it might be easy to solve some logistic problems because there is advanced technology to do that. Some problems will be solved by having enough security at the event.

So far, no one is really sure whether the concert will take place or not but the hope is still there because the advertisements are still going on. No tickets are being sold.

Can we now conclude that Woodstock 50 is probably cancelled? Not yet. Until we get an official statement from all parties, Woodstock 50 will still take place. Thanks to the internet because this time tickets can be bought online, even at short notice!