Promoter Says Likely No Woodstock 40th Anniversary Concert
Author: Jimi // Category: 1969, New ConcertsThis summer is the 40th anniversary of the infamous 1969 Woodstock concert, and rumors are flying about another massive Woodstock. Original producer Michael Lang has been hinting about plans for one concert in New York City and another in Berlin.
But Joel Rosenma, Lang’s producing partner for 40 years, says the concert hasn’t been booked yet and therefore likely won’t happen this year. “It may not be the year for Woodstock,” he says. “We’ve had some very encouraging news about this year in the past few weeks, but we don’t know for sure. We’re not going to let some technical number, some digit, determine when the next Woodstock is. We’re going to let something bigger than that determine it.” Would that be money?
Rosenman says there were ambitious plans last year for multiple Woodstock concerts across the globe, but the recession has made it difficult to secure funding. “That’s an ambitious format that we conceived of at a time when the tide was coming in in the world economy,” he says. “It’s a much different world a year later.”
Rosenman hopes to land enough sponsors that they won’t have to charge for tickets. “A lot of the venues we’re looking at would require the event to be free since they’re on public property,” he says. “Our current thinking is that if we do charge for tickets, the prices would way below market.”
Despite the setbacks, Rosenman believes the show will happen eventually. “There will be a Woodstock and it will be massive,” says Rosenman. “We must do it responsibility and with the right kind of message. If we don’t see those elements coming together, we’ll keep working until they do.”
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