Woodstock 50: troubled festival relocates to Maryland

[brooklynite]

The Guardian

Organizers of the beleaguered Woodstock 50 anniversary festival are to move the event to suburban Maryland in a last-ditch effort to salvage the half-centennial celebrations of the era-defining hippy love-in.

The festival will now take place at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, a 32,000-capacity venue about 250 miles south of the original Woodstock site in Bethel, New York. It is scheduled to run from 16-18 August.

The anniversary event has been spiralling out of control after the original ticket release was delayed, headliners including the Black Keys pulled out, and its financial backers, Dentsu Aegis, walked away, claiming the right to cancel the event entirely.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. Pretty soon they'll be relocating to that island where they held the Fyre Festival. nt

[randr]

2. Time to put Woodstock to rest

This is just another struggling attempt to use the fame of a past beautiful event for profit.
Could be that the event that celebrated freedom has an aura around it to never be exploited.

[Stinkfoot007]

6. I agree

In my opinion this event is nothing more than a cash grab

[Dale Neiburg]

4. Merriweather Post Pavilion is in the middle of Columbia,

a fairly densely-inhabited suburb, with generally horrendous traffic at the best of times. It's a far cry from the farm, and going to be much more congested.

[lindysalsagal]

5. Burningman is the new Woodstock: Though it's not about music, or politics.

But for people to do the "sudden-temporary-love-in-self-expression" thing, they've got it figured out. My daughter's going for the second time.

The desert playa is perfect: No neighbors to complain. However, the nearest towns really take a hit.

There's nowhere on the east coast with that kind of open space and so few people to piss off. Also, if it takes a couple of months to set up and take down, that's ok out in the desert: No one else has plans for the place.

You'll never catch me there. Give me a state campground, any day, with facilities-hello!