Update: According to The New York Times, Woodstock 50 has reached an agreement to host the event in Maryland at Merriweather Post Pavilion. The event is scheduled to take place from August 16-18, with no word on which people from the original lineup will still perform. Check out the original story below.
Honoring the legendary Woodstock festival with a 50th anniversary event seemed like it might be a good idea, but it has proved difficult to get the event off the ground. First the festival was apparently canceled, then it wasn’t, then there were issues with funding, then the fest got new investors, but as it stands now, there’s no confirmed venue for Woodstock 50. Event founder Michael Lang was hoping to host the festival in Watkins Glen, New York, but since it appears that isn’t going to happen, he might have to settle on a venue outside of Baltimore.
Variety reports that Lang has had conversations with Seth Hurwitz, who runs Washington D.C.’s 9:30 Club, to host the festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. This would be a scaled-down version of the event as it was initially envisioned, as the venue has a capacity of 20,000 people. There are some positives to hosting the event at Merriweather Post Pavilion, though: It’s a roofed venue with a second stage, and there is already concert-ready infrastructure in place.
Even if this works out, the question remains about who would be performing at the fests, as the artists originally announced as part of the lineup don’t seem to know what’s going on. A couple months ago, John Mayer said, “I know that I’m… I was on the bill to some extent, being in Dead & Company, but I’m as much of a spectator as anyone else is to this wildness. I was told it’s not happening, but every time I hear someone say like, well, there’s only one person still saying ‘No, it’s going to go.'”
