Well this doesn’t really come as a surprise. It was being deemed “Fyre Fest 2.0,” as more and more reports came out of just how disorganized and a mess Woodstock 50 was becoming.
The first sign of a problem was last week when they couldn’t even begin selling tickets because they didn’t have everything set up correctly.
I personally tried reaching out for press credentials a while ago–and not only was it impossible to find out who was actually running Woodstock, getting a contact for them even proved more of a mess. You literally couldn’t navigate to find out who to reach.
Well, seems like I wasn’t alone because the organizers, not learning a damn thing from the beautiful disaster that brought us a lot of laughs because we weren’t there, Fyre Fest, decided not to GET THE DAMN PERMITS.
How do you hold a festival… yet alone, freaking WOODSTOCK, and not get the permits all set up?
In addition, Billboard reports that, “Besides issues with financing and permits, organizers were growing increasingly concerned that the Watkins Glen International speedway would not be able accommodate the 100,000-person festival.”
Sounds like a genius idea. Let’s pick a venue that can’t hold the actual amount of people that may attend.
Regardless. Shout out to both AEG and Live Nation as they were both given offers to invest in the Festival to try and save it. They both said hell no we don’t want to be a part of this mess.
Full article on Woodstock cancellation HERE:
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/festivals/8509091/woodstock-50-festival-cancelled
I’ll write a longer blog soon about my next question–do festivals really matter as much these days when a lot of these artists are touring individually on their own? Is it worth going to a festival – in the middle of nowhere? Coachella did well but I also know many people that had gone in the past that weren’t going this year, especially if they didn’t live in LA. When I was younger I did Bonarroo. Would I do it now? Probably not. Did I know ANYONE that was going to Woodstock? Nope. Not really besides artists or artists friends.
Any way. Let’s look back at when Woodstock was awesome for anyone my age. That would be GREEN DAY at Woodstock 94. Completely transformed the game. Made me pick up a guitar and absolutely fall in love with punk rock and pop rock music. The mud people were like none other that day. Check out “When I Come Around” below.
