Closing Bell: Woodstock 40th Anniversary at Prospect Park?
Yes, this could really happen. NY Daily News reports that Michael Lang, who helped put on the famous 1969 festival, is hoping to put on a Woodstock 40th anniversary concert in Prospect Park’s Long Meadow this summer. However, he needs to find $8 million to $10 million to pay for it by the end of…
Yes, this could really happen. NY Daily News reports that Michael Lang, who helped put on the famous 1969 festival, is hoping to put on a Woodstock 40th anniversary concert in Prospect Park’s Long Meadow this summer. However, he needs to find $8 million to $10 million to pay for it by the end of the month. The event would be billed as a throwback to the original with bands like Crosby, Stills and Nash and Dave Matthews Band (different from the ’99 fiasco). Do you think this is a good idea? Would you go?
Photo by FlySi.
Ritchie Havens is da bomb.
Ritchie Havens is my Great Uncle. He was the first artist to take the stage. He is still performing (A LOT 🙂
I’m amazed at how many negative comments are posted here. I must be missing something.
Also, to whoever thought that nobody from the original Woodstock is still alive, you’re mistaken. We still have a handful of musicians going strong –
Crosby, Stills, Nash
Neil Young
Santana
Richie Havens
Country Joe
John Sebastian
Arlo Guthrie
Joan Baez
Most members of the Dead – (Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzman, Donna Jean Godcheaux)
John Fogerty (who still puts on a great show without Creedence)
Pete Townshend & Roger Daltry
Joe Cocker
Levon Helm (also puts on a great show without “The Band”)
Johnny Winter
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
That seems like a pretty solid group of artists to me.
Insert negative feedback below—–
Guess what….this is kind of idiotic to have the anniversary concert in Brooklyn. There is a state of the art facility on the exact location of the Woodstock event of 1969. THIS IS WHERE IT SHOULD BE!!
http://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/
And p.s. no, I don’t think I would go. I would probably leave town, like someone else suggested. 🙂
Using the “Woodstock” name is just a sad attempt to make $… I was living in the Hudson Valley when they had the first W-stock “reunion,” and it was a disgusting mess. The field was a swamp of mud, abandoned camping supplies, muddy clothes, and bottles of urine. Took them ages to clean up the field. I think it’s fine to think about expanding programming and concerts in the park, but grasping at an event like this seems kind of pathetic. And I agree that the Prospect Park Alliance would probably think carefully about the damage to the grass and etc., although some people don’t care about that kind of thing. They had Dylan last summer. Why not stage a series of smaller concerts? Easier and less expensive to manage. Michael Lang just needs to go away. Hasn’t he made enough money?
Are Country Joe & the Fish still alive?
“What are Fighting For” is still relevant today
DIBS: “I think you’re just too young to remember classic CSNY. “Southern Man??””
Southern Man was Neil Young… no CSN in sight
A cultural milestone like Woodstock is diminished when people contrive to recreate it, and considering the state we are in as a planet, now is not the time for empty gestures and wasting resources.
Think of all the things that could be done to support music, throughout the country, with $8-10 million, things that wouldn’t involve destroying an already fragile Long Meadow in a city that has precious little green space as it is.