With less than six weeks left until the scheduled kickoff of the troubled Woodstock 50 festival, things don’t seem to be working in favour of its hopeful organizers.
After losing their initial site, Watkins Glen International, last month, the team behind the anniversary festival has been in a dire search for a new venue to host the upcoming event.
Over the last three weeks, one of Woodstock’s main contenders has been Vernon Downs, a hotel and horse-racing track in Oneida County, near Utica, N.Y., as reported by the Poughkeepsie Journal.
Although the venue was never advertised or confirmed as a possible Woodstock 50 host by either the festival organizers or representatives of the venue, Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang claimed in a recent interview with Rolling Stone that it was one of the “three or four” sites his team had in mind.
Lang, 74, and the festival’s other organizers reportedly applied to the proposed site in late June, however, according to Variety, their application was denied by Vernon Downs earlier this week.
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The Woodstock 50 team is expected to appeal the venue’s decision.
Oneida County executive Anthony Picente Jr. told Variety the organizers only had five days to do so.
He also suggested the potentially scaled-down version of the festival would no longer include camping, as it once did at its former 100,000 plus capacity venue.
“It’s been chaotic.”
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Global News has reached out to representatives from Woodstock 50, the Oneida County government and Vernon Downs for further clarification on the matter.
With little time to spare, the likelihood of Woodstock 50 going forward is dwindling, along with the hopes of many of its potential ticket buyers.
Here’s how some social media users reacted to the news:
Tickets were initially set to go on sale back in April.
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With no recent major developments regarding the festival, it’s currently unclear when — or if — tickets for the festival will actually go on sale.
Woodstock 50 is set to take place between Aug. 16-18.