Woodstock 50 is homeless as Watkins Glen International, the auto racetrack that was going to host the event, has pulled out of its contract.
They released a statement Monday saying, "Watkins Glen International terminated the site license for Woodstock pursuant to provisions of the contract. As such, WGI will not be hosting the Woodstock 50 festival.”
Gregory Peck, one of Woodstock founder Michael Lang's financial partners for the 50th celebration, says, “We confirm that we will not be moving forward with Watkins Glen as a venue for Woodstock 50. We are in discussions with another venue to host Woodstock 50 on August 16th, 17th and 18th and look forward to sharing the new location when tickets go on sale in the coming weeks.”
Lang has his work cut out for him because despite New York being the 27th largest state in the country with lots of open space, he wants a location that offers what he called green field -- a large area for camping.
Michael Lang says, "We looked for over a year trying to find someplace to keep it in New York. And I was looking in California and Colorado just as kind of back-up plans because I wasn't finding something in New York, which was kind of what happened the first time when we found ax[Yasgur]. You know, it was a whim going up to the Glen and when I got there it was just perfect."
And Lang has no interest in returning to Rome, New York, the site of Woodstock '99 due to its layout and lack of green field.
Also bailing on Lang is CID Entertainment, which replaced the original production company, Superfly, the folks behindBonnaroo. The company's Dan Berkowitz issued a statement saying, "CID Entertainment had been engaged to provide enhanced camping, travel packages and transportation forWoodstock 50. Given developments, we can confirm that CID is no longer involved inWoodstock 50in any capacity."
These latest developments follow original investors Dentsu Aegis pulling out, and the on-sale date for the tickets being postponed.
Among the artists scheduled to perform are Robert Plant, David Crosby, Santana, John Fogerty, The Killers, Jay-Z, Imagine Dragons and Dead & Company.