Woodstock 50’s Pivotal Week Ahead

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As Woodstock 50 continues to salvage what’s left of its music festival celebrating the 50th anniversary of its iconic 1969 namesake with a mere 19 days left before show time, a dwindling lineup, an audience a fraction the size of what was initially planned and decreasing revenues, this would seem a make-or-break week.

If one’s been keeping track of the struggling festival’s devolving permutations, last week seemed to mark a nadir: First, Woodstock 50 confirmed it was in the process of moving venues from what was originally planned for Watkins Glen Speedway for as many 125K in upstate New York to the Merriweather Post Pavilion, a D.C. area amphitheater in Columbia MD with a weekend capacity of 32.5K. This resulted right off the bat with John Fogerty, Jay Z and Dead & Company pulling-out of the festival as the change in venue represented a material breach of contract enabling the nearly 75 announced Woodstock 50 acts the legal cover to pull out of the festival while still receiving some if not all of their compensation.

Woodstock May Have Merriweather, But Will It Have Artists?

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Woodstock 50 line-up

Woodstock 50, after inviting all its booked artists to play Merriweather reportedly released its acts from their contracts (reported by Billboard) which has reportedly left artists represented by the same agencies considering leaving the festival en masse (per a report in Variety). Then, according to reports that broke on Saturday, Woodstock 50 may be changing the Merriweather festival into a benefit concert. Pollstar reached out to Woodstock 50 to verify these reports but its spokesperson declined to comment.

When asked over the weekend about how the show not charging for tickets would impact the venue, Seth Hurwitz, chairman of I.M.P. which operates Merriweather responded: “That was the last thing we heard too,” he said. “We’re still waiting to hear who is playing, but that’s not our job. They do still have a venue if they have a show.”

That could come in handy as at least one influential act, the Zombies, along with Hollis Brown, who have the same manager (Chris Tuthill) and agent (APA’s Bruce Solar) told Pollstar of their intention to play Woodstock 50. Yet, no headliner (i.e. top names on the poster) including Miley Cyrus, Chance the Rapper, Sturgill Simpson, Santana, The Raconteurs, Halsey, The Killers, The Lumineers, and Imagine Dragons, has announced if they’ll play or not along with the sixty-something other acts, many of whom are substantial draws including: Robert Plant, Brandi Carlile, Run the Jewels, Maggie Rogers, Greta Van Fleet, Leon Bridges, Portugal The Man, Margo Price, David Crosby, Janelle Monae, Courtney Barnett, Canned Heat. The Head & The Heart and Vince Staples among others.

Woodstock 50 Fallout: Bands Released From Contracts

At this juncture, one has to wonder what Woodstock 50’s motivations are. A lot is at financial stake with the liability of $32 million already paid out to artists as well as hiring producers (including Superfly, CID), bookers (including Danny Wimmer Presents), a financial advisor (Oppenheimer & Co.), P.R. (including Rogers & Cowen) and others as well as litigation with the festival’s original investor, Dentsu Aegis, who pulled out in April. Perhapss alvaging the star-crossed festival at a much smaller scale stems less from a desire to commemorate the iconic event than a way for the organizer to protect itself from further litigation and liability while seemingly operating in good faith and doing its due diligence in trying to put on the event.

No matter Woodstock 50’s motivations, this coming week looks to be pivotal with so much riding on the decisions currently being made by artists along with their managers and agents as to whether they’ll play or skip the jeopardized music festival which even at this late date still could happen in some form.