Woodstock 50 Does It Again: Gets Denied A Permit For New Proposed Location
Woodstock 50, the concert meant to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the sex-and-drug fueled music festival where a person allegedly died because they slept under a tractor and another person may have overdosed, is probably not happening. So it looks like you’ll just have to sleep under a tractor somewhere else. The music festival has been tainted with issues from investors pulling out, to investors stealing, to venues pulling out, to safety concerns; it’s a mess. Now the latest proposed venue for the show is saying: “Hard pass” and Woodstock 50 is without a location once again.
Variety reports that Woodstock 50 is a full-blown disaster. More like Flop-stock 50, amirite?
The Oneida County Executive, Anthony Picente Jr., tells Variety that Woodstock 50 will not be taking place in the town of Vernon in Upstate New York. The application for the festival was apparently handed in very much after the 120-day deadline and that was just the beginning. Their submission was also incomplete and the plan was changing. Anthony says:
“What they have submitted to date has not met many of the requirements [to stage the festival and the chances of it taking place in Oneida Country seem] highly unlikely… It’s been chaotic… Originally it was going to be a three-day festival, but then [the producers] said instead it would be three one-day events, with all 65,000 or however many people vacating the grounds at the end of each day.”
Anthony does say that “anything is possible” and so maybe the festival could happen in Vernon but if there was more time it would be more likely. This festival is supposed to be happening August 16th to 18th:
“We could have done this with a year or 16 months advance [planning], but to do it in three to six weeks is really a near impossibility from a public safety and health standpoint. As someone who was here for 1999 [Woodstock’s troubled 30th anniversary concert in nearby Rome, N.Y., which was marred by violence and fires], some names have changed but it’s largely the same situation.”
Woodstock 50 won’t let themselves be slandered and they responded with this:
“In response to the denial of an event permit by the Town of Vernon, Woodstock 50 believes certain political forces may be working against the resurrection of the Festival. Local reports claim Woodstock’s filing for the permit was ‘incomplete’ but that is not the case. Woodstock 50 officials were informed by the Town of Vernon that most questions had been answered and asked only that Woodstock submit medical, safety/security and traffic plans by this past Sunday, which it did. With a venue chosen, financing assembled and many of the artist’s supporting Woodstock’s 50th Anniversary event, the organizers are hopeful that their appeal and reapplication tonight will prevail without further political interference.”
What “political interference”? This isn’t the 2020 election! Russia doesn’t care about you!
The festival is now only five weeks away and tickets still haven’t gone on sale. But they’re still really trying to throw this concert with performers like Jay-Z, Halsey, Janelle Monae and Miley Cyrus. But if these Woodstock organizers have any sense they’ll start looking elsewhere from Vernon. At a town meeting in Vernon, the local head of emergency services, Kevin Revere, called Woodstock 50 a “recipe for disaster”. I guess someone saw that Fyre Festival documentary.
Listen, I don’t know who on the Woodstock 50 team needs to here this but listen up. In the eternal words of Regina George: “Gretchen: stop trying to make Woodstock 50 happen; it’s not going to happen.”
Pic: Instagram