{"id":488417,"date":"2019-07-25T14:32:34","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T20:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=863681"},"modified":"2019-07-25T14:32:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T20:32:34","slug":"woodstock-50-festival-relocates-to-maryland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/woodstock-50-festival-relocates-to-maryland\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodstock 50 Festival Relocates to Maryland"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/merriweather-post-pavilion-woodstock.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/woodstock\/\" id=\"auto-tag_woodstock\" data-tag=\"woodstock\">Woodstock<\/a> 50 festival will relocate from upstate New York to Columbia, Maryland in a last-ditch effort to save the beleaguered event, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2019-07-25\/woodstock-50-festival-moves-to-maryland-in-bid-to-salvage-event\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Bloomberg<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;reported. Organizers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/25\/arts\/music\/woodstock-50-maryland.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">confirmed to <em>New York Times<\/em><\/a> that the festival will now take place at Merriweather Post Pavilion, which is about an hour\u2019s drive from Washington D.C. \u2014 and about four-and-a-half hours from the original Woodstock site in Bethel, New York \u2014 on August 16th through 18th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In documents obtained by <em>Bloomberg<\/em>, Calvin Ball, an executive with Howard County, Maryland, wrote to Greg Peck, one of the Woodstock organizers: \u201cWhen we heard that there was an opportunity to save this festival and bring a piece of American history to our community this summer, we jumped at the chance. Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia is a jewel of Howard County and one of the top music venues in the nation. It felt like such a natural fit to host a historic festival on our storied stage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Should the festival actually proceed at Merriweather Post Pavilion, it\u2019s unclear who would perform. The lineup initially featured a mix of original Woodstock vets like Santana, Dead &amp; Co. and Canned Heat, and contemporary stars like Jay-Z, Miley Cyrus and the Killers. Organizers are reportedly in conversation with artists and their representatives, though none are contractually obligated to perform at the show in Maryland, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2019\/music\/news\/woodstock-50s-hail-mary-merriwether-post-amphitheater-maryland-1203279602\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Variety<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The documents also note that the festival would be renamed \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/woodstock-50\/\" id=\"auto-tag_woodstock-50\" data-tag=\"woodstock-50\">Woodstock 50<\/a> Washington\u201d and that it would primarily serve as a fundraiser for nonprofits dedicated to climate change and voter turnout. Some of the proceeds from ticket sales \u2014 which could range from $129 to $595 for various passes \u2014 would be donated to organizations like HeadCount. Organizers reportedly also circulated a marketing plan that included a mass e-mail campaign, billboards in Washington, Maryland and Virginia and full-page ads in local newspapers, <em>Bloomberg<\/em> noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The decision to move Woodstock 50 to Maryland comes after several tumultuous months for the festival, starting back in April when the start of ticket sales was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/woodstock-50-ticket-on-sale-postponed-825171\/\">conspicuously pushed back<\/a>. By the end of the month, the festival\u2019s original investor, Dentsu Aegis, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/woodstock-50-canceled-828606\/\">canceled<\/a> the event, claiming organizer and original Woodstock cofounder, Michael Lang and his company Lang &amp; Co. had not kept up their end of the bargain. The primary reason behind the cancellation: Woodstock 50 had not procured the proper permits to host the concert at a speedway in Watkins Glen, New York.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Following the cancellation, Lang scrambled to keep the festival alive even as it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/woodstock-50-loses-superfly-829577\/\">lost production partners<\/a> and the original venue, Watkins Glen International speedway, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/woodstock-50-loses-festival-grounds-846494\/\">pulled out<\/a> of its contract with the organizers. Lang also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/woodstock-dentsu-aegis-legal-filing-833397\/\">filed a lawsuit<\/a> against Aegis in an attempt to regain control over the festival. Earlier this month, Woodstock 50 tried to obtain a permit to host the festival at Vernon Downs in Vernon, New York, but that attempt was also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/woodstock-50-denied-permit-for-new-proposed-location-vernon-downs-857252\/\">denied<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/woodstock-50-relocate-maryland-merriweather-post-pavilion-863681\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Woodstock 50 festival will relocate from upstate New York to Columbia, Maryland in a last-ditch effort to save the beleaguered event, Bloomberg&nbsp;reported. Organizers confirmed to New York Times that the festival will now take place at Merriweather Post Pavilion, which is about an hour\u2019s drive from Washington D.C. \u2014 and about four-and-a-half hours from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-488417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 08:03:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}