Organizers report that sponsors are key in making the Woodstock 40th anniversary event a reality.
The progress of Woodstock 2009 is reported to be caught up in seeking sponsorship. Billboard reported that creator of the original Woodstock 1969, Michael Lang, is still looking for people to pay for what he hopes to be a free festival. At SXSW, Lang shed some recent developments on the status of Woodstock 2009, but nothing that amounted to concrete evidence.
About the only pieces of information that could be considered facts are that Lang hopes to hold concerts in Berlin, Germany and New York City’s Prospect Park. Lang is attempting to make the Woodstock 40th anniversary a free and eco-friendly event and is seeking sponsorship to help make it a reality.
Lang has expressed intentions of returning to the roots of the Woodstock festival. He hopes to bring acts such as Santana, Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Grateful Dead, and other original Woodstock performers to the new installment. No sponsors have stepped up and confirmed being involved in the event as of yet.
People have been wondering after the 1994 and 1999 installments if the Woodstock 2009 can return the spirit of the original Woodstock 1969 festival without making the event an advertisement driven cash cow. The riots of the 1999 festival were partially blamed on the allegedly corporate nature of the event. Reports claim that people were outraged by being forced to pay inflated prices for food and water.
Sponsorship would be necessary in order to drive a free music festival as well as offer proper promotion, but the advertising world has changed dramatically since the original Woodstock. Fans are rightfully suspicious of the possibility of the Red Hot Chili Peppers be wearing socks over their junk with visible brand names and The Who be depicted as avatars from the new Who Rock Band edition.
We are all patiently waiting to see if Woodstock 2009 can toe the line between sponsorship and corporate monstrosity. Many people believe that a sponsor driven event would go against everything that the festival stood for. It remains to be seen whether or not the music world is ready for another Woodstock. Visit http://www.woodstockstory.com/ for more news and info.