{"id":2443635,"date":"2019-05-01T10:09:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T16:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=829577"},"modified":"2019-05-01T10:09:55","modified_gmt":"2019-05-01T16:09:55","slug":"woodstock-50-loses-production-partner-superfly-putting-festival-in-jeopardy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/woodstock-50-loses-production-partner-superfly-putting-festival-in-jeopardy\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodstock 50 Loses Production Partner Superfly, Putting Festival in Jeopardy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Days after Woodstock<\/a> 50\u2019s financial backer announced it was canceling the festival, its production partner has severed its ties with the event. The entertainment company Superfly, which co-produces Bonnaroo and Outside Lands, confirmed to Rolling Stone<\/em> on Wednesday that it is no longer involved in the venture.<\/p>\n

A source who has worked on many festivals over the last 20 years tells Rolling Stone<\/em> the loss of Superfly is \u201ccatastrophic.\u201d \u201cWith Superfly leaving the fold, that\u2019s just the death knell,\u201d the source said. \u201cAny festivalgoer knows now that Superfly doesn\u2019t have faith in it. I don\u2019t know how you recover from that. It\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodstock 50\u2019s continuation may be dependent on a company like AEG, which produces Coachella, or C3, which produces Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits Fest, swooping in and saving it. \u201cMaybe one of them wants some money,\u201d the source, a festival marketing veteran, says. \u201cI guess AEG or C3 could make it happen. But they would need a lot of assurance that it was a tenable situation. It just feels so unwieldy. It feels really sick. I\u2019m not even sure Dr. Oz could revive this patient.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reps for AEG and C3 did not immediately reply to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Dentsu-Aegis, the company that was providing financial backing to Woodstock 50, announced Monday that the event was canceled,<\/a> noting that the event could not \u201cbe executed as an event worthy of the Woodstock Brand name while also ensuring the health and safety of the artists, partners and attendees,\u201d according to a statement. A rep for Woodstock 50 LLC did not immediately reply to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Michael Lang, who cofounded the original Woodstock and is organizing Woodstock 50, has fired back at Dentsu repeatedly. In a newsletter<\/a> to potential ticket buyers yesterday, he vowed to continue. \u201cWe have yet to understand why [financer Dentsu-Aegis] would try to prevent the festival from happening by seemingly undermining us in this way,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt is one thing to decide for oneself that it is best to move on, but it is entirely another thing to try and close the door on us. \u2026 Woodstock never belonged to Dentsu, so they don\u2019t have a right to cancel it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He followed that up later in the day with a statement from the festival\u2019s lawyer: \u201cThis confirms that Woodstock 50 is proceeding with the planning and production of the festival,\u201d attorney Marc Kasowitz said. \u201cDentsu has no legal right or ability to cancel it. All stakeholders, including the entertainers, should proceed with the understanding that the event will take place as planned and if they have any questions, they should reach out directly.\u201d<\/p>\n

A rep for Dentsu declined to comment on both statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael Lang created one of the sturdiest brands known to our culture,\u201d the source said. \u201cSo what the fuck happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

The first sign of trouble came when the Black Keys pulled out<\/a> of the festival on April 5th citing a scheduling conflict. \u201c[Their managers] are very smart people and they don\u2019t just walk away from things,\u201d the source said. \u201cThat\u2019s not just a booking mistake or [a conflict like] Patrick\u2019s kid has a play that weekend. Something deeper happened.\u201d On April 21st, organizers announced that the on-sale for tickets was postponed.<\/a><\/p>\n

If it all feels a bit like Fyre Festival, that\u2019s because it\u2019s similar \u2014 but not quite the same, as our source underscored. \u201cWhat people neglect to discuss with Fyre Festival, because it\u2019s such a crazy story, is that it worked,\u201d the source said. \u201cBilly McFarland sold tickets. He got people on planes and buses and got them on site. Woodstock 50 can\u2019t even get that far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Superfly was founded in 1996 and has since opened offices in New York City, San Francisco and Chicago. It co-created Bonnaroo and Outside Lands and it has also produced the fests the Great GoogaMooga and Life Is Good over the years. In 2017, Bonnaroo attracted 65,000 attendees, up from around 45,000 the year before; its 10-year average is around 75,000 attendees per year, according to Nashville Scene<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Days after Woodstock 50\u2019s financial backer announced it was canceling the festival, its production partner has severed its ties with the event. The entertainment company Superfly, which co-produces Bonnaroo and Outside Lands, confirmed to Rolling Stone on Wednesday that it is no longer involved in the venture. A source who has worked on many festivals […]<\/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":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 08:50:32","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}