Woodstock: 50th anniversary festival to be held at original New York site

Fifty years is a long time - especially in the world of rock and roll.

But five decades after a group of performers gathered at a New York farm and changed forever the course of popular culture, organisers are planning a re-run of sorts.

The Bethel Woods Centre for the Arts, a charitable group that owns the land on which the original Woodstock festival was held in August 1969, featuring the likes of Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker and Jimi Hendrix, said it was planning a “pan-generational” event to take place over the same dates and in the same fields 100 miles northwest of New York City, where the fun was had all those years ago.

“Fifty years ago, people gathered peacefully on our site inspired to change the world through music,” Darlene Fedun, chief executive of the Bethel Woods Centre, said in a statement.

“We remain committed to preserving this rich history and spirit, and to educating and inspiring new generations to contribute positively to the world through music, culture, and community.”

The organisation said it would announce the line-up for the event, to be held August 16-18 2019, on 37 acres of land that was once a farm, at a later date.

While many of the original musicians who performed before a crowd of up to 400,000 are dead, surviving musicians who are still performing in their 70s include Joan Baez, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who, and David Crosby, Neil Young, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Reuters said.

It said the planned 50th anniversary, which - like the original - is due to be held in Bethel, a good 70 miles south of the village of Woodstock, is not affiliated with Michael Lang, a promoter of the 1969 festival, who has also spoken of plans to organise a 50th anniversary event. He has yet to make any formal announcement.

Next year’s planned event will feature live performances from prominent and emerging artists across multiple genres and decades, as well as talks from leading futurists and tech experts, the organisers said. The festival is a joint venture with concert promoters Live Nation.

Syracuse.com said that among the artists rumoured to have been approached to perform next year, were Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Ariana Grande, Coldplay, Phish, Elton John, Bon Jovi and Pearl Jam.

Anniversary festivals were also held in 1994, 1998 and 1999.

The original event was billed as “An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace and Music” - an astrological reference.

“Festival goers will also be able to visit the Museum at Bethel Woods, which tells the story of the 1960s through immersive media, interactive engagements, and artifacts from the 1969 festival,” said the organisers of the 2019 version.

They will also have a chance to experience a special exhibit - We Are Golden: Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Woodstock Festival and Aspirations for an Aquarian Future.