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40th anniversary Woodstock planned
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 25 March 2009
Co-founder of the original Woodstock festival Michael Lang is seeking sponsors to fund an event to mark the 40th anniversary of the legendary 1969 hippy free-for-all. You know, because all other attempts to resurrect it have been such an overwhelming success. Lang told The Times: “The chances that something will happen are probable. But I don’t really have the answer yet as to what that will be”.
According to Billboard, Lang is seeking $10 million in sponsorship to fund “a free event” that will leave “as small a carbon imprint as we can”. Although he added: “Depending on how successful we are in raising that sponsorship will determine when and how we do this event”. He also revealed that bands he is hoping to convince to play the event include Santana, Joe Cocker and Crosby, Stills & Nash, who all played the original festival, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, who headlined the 30th anniversary festival.
That event ten years ago, of course, ended with mass looting, violence and large fires, which you might think would deter sponsors. Lang disagrees, though, saying that although there were “ramifications” from that event, they hadn’t done “any real damage” to the Woodstock name. Okay, but the top five things I think of when I think of Woodstock are mud, Jimi Hendrix, violence, fire and over-priced water, which doesn’t sound that good. Although I might be willing to take a couple of punches in exchange for seeing Jimi Hendrix play. If they can sort that out, I’ll be there.
