The festival of all festivals is coming back this summer for its 50th anniversary. Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang dropped details about how grand the festival is going to be. The biggest surprise of them all is that it will not take place at the original site of Bethel, New York. The iconic location has unfortunately been deemed too small for what Michael has in mind. Woodstock is staying in upstate New York but instead, it is going to be taking place at Watkins Glen International Speedway. Do I hear EDC vibes??
Michael was looking for a site with at least 1000 acres of land and access to facilities. It will take place between August 16th-18th. Michael revealed some more details to Rolling Stone but is also keeping some surprises for us. Over 40 acts have already been booked across all of their stages. When asked about specific acts that will be performing he had this to say:
“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.”
Whereas most festivals target a specific audience Michael wants this one to be open to all. He plans to have Woodstock go back to its original intent and have a social purpose, rather than just a music festival. He wants up-and-coming talent while keeping the music true to the original performers 50 years ago. You can expect some tribute performances to Janis Joplin, the Band, Jefferson Airplane and Joe Cocker.
In 1969 they didn’t have the best lodging for the festival goers. Probably due to them not thinking over 400,000 people would show up. This time around they plan to have much better camping than being in the mud.
“There will be ‘glamping’ tents and stuff like that. 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. ”
Activism is going to be a paramount part of the festival once again. As stated by him there are a lot of things going on in the planet right now and he wants to instill a voice back into younger generations. He wants people to get involved with specific topics like global warming.
Tickets go on sale this February! Stay tuned here to find out right when they get dropped. This lineup will most likely be released around that time too. We now begin to wonder which DJs might show up to the anniversary of the most famous festival. Certainly, Swedish House Mafia would cause quite the raucous there.