Features
Woodstock 50’s Michael Lang Confident Fest Will Happen While Industry Waits And Sees
(Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Woodstock 50) –
Michael Lang speaks on stage at the announcement of the Woodstock 50 Festival Line-Up at Electric Lady Studio on March 19, 2019 in New York City.
Michael Lang of Woodstock 50 LLC took to the press May 1 to say that not only is the 50th anniversary festival commemorating the historic event not canceled but that he is “very close to concluding something with an investor” and is confident the festival will go on. The industry, meanwhile, is waiting and seeing.
“It was a sneak attack,” is how Lang described news, broken April 29 in Billboard, that Dentsu Aegis Network, the Japanese advertising conglomerate that had partnered with Woodstock 50, was pulling out of the event while also claiming the festival was canceled. Dentsu said in its statement, issued without consulting Lang, that it felt they couldn’t ensure the “health and safety of artists, partners and attendees.” This coincided with Woodstock 50’s failure to obtain permits in time for its scheduled ticket on-sale a week earlier (April 22) and reports that the festival was seeking an additional $20 million cash infusion from major promoters — all of which Lang disputes.
Woodstock 50: Michael Lang Says Financial Partner Can’t Cancel Festival
“I don’t believe Dentsu reached out to those people because they’d have no reason to,” Lang, who co-founded the original Woodstock, told Pollstar. “They’re a nine- or ten-billion-dollar company, they’re not going to reach out to Live Nation for a $20 million investment.”
Lang also maintains that Woodstock 50 was and remains on the verge of obtaining the necessary permits: “In fact, on the Monday before, when we pushed the on-sale back, the County and State were ready to issue a conditional permit but there was a bond issue. We decided to just make sure the submissions got completed rather than wait and do a bond, which would have added four or five days to the process. The permits were about to be issued so it wasn’t that.”
Schuyler County Administrator Tim O’Hearn did not return calls, but one festival producer told Pollstar that organizers should apply for the Conditional Use Permit as early in the planning process as possible. Multiple reports indicated, however, that the Woodstock team did not file for that permit until April 15. One source said that was because of haggling over the capacity between Lang, Dentsu and now-former producer Superfly.
“Initially we were thinking 150,000 would have been a number we’d love to go with,” Lang said. “Once we got into it, to see what was feasible at the track and what land would be available, we revised that to 100,000. Dentsu was insisting that we agree to a 75,000 figure which was what they were comfortable with. The permit that is going to be issued that is on its way is for 75,000.”
Lang, 74, said that capacity along with tickets prices, which they are trying to keep under $400, “should cover the expenses.” Some rough math indicates that 75,000 tickets sold at $400 each yields $30 million – roughly the amount of the initial artist outlay. That figure does not include sponsorship dollars, concessions, parking, camping, VIP areas and other ancillary revenues.
The permitting process would have also addressed how the team planned to handle the logistics of so many bodies in one space, including housing for festival production, administrative staff and non-camping attendees, security, medical provisions, drinking water, food and other necessities. The population of Watkins Glen, N.Y., was 1,859 in 2018, though its location in upstate New York’s Finger Lakes region and the Watkins Glen International race track, Woodstock 50’s festival site, attracts large numbers of visitors.
In light of last year’s cancellation of Phish’s Curveball Festival at Watkins Glen due to water contamination, Lang said Woodstook 50 plans to bring its own water system.
–
Additionally, Lang confirmed Billboard‘s report that festival producer Superfly is being replaced. “We’re going to be transitioning with Superfly and bringing in someone else,” Lang said. “One of the company’s we’re talking to is Dan Berkowitz’s CID.”
At press time, neither Berkowitz nor Dentsu had returned Pollstar’s requests for comment.
Meanwhile, Woodstock 50’s impressive lineup, which was curated with Danny Wimmer Presents and includes Jay-Z, Santana, Robert Plant, Dead & Companyu, Chance the Rapper, Sturgill Simpson, Leon Bridges, Miley Cyrus, Imagine Dragons, Halsey, Courtney Barnett, Vince Staples, John Fogerty, David Crosby, Margo Price and The Killers, remains intact.
“Danny Wimmer and Gary Spivak did a masterful job in putting [the lineup] together with us and making an amazing lineup in a matter of two months,” said Lang, noting that “none of the artists have pulled out and all have been paid in full.”
As this story went to press, Billboard posted a story claiming artist contracts were no longer valid because “the artists’ contracts were reportedly with Dentsu and not with Woodstock 50 or Michael Lang“ and that Dentsu’s decision to pull out of the event would nullify the contracts.
Woodstock 50’s lawyer Marc E. Kasowitz of Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP issued the following statement to Pollstar: “A story just ran in Billboard saying that the Woodstock 50 artists can terminate their contracts because the agreements were with Dentsu and the festival is canceled. Both those statements are untrue. The artists’ agreements are with Woodstock 50 LLC and the festival has not been canceled and preparations are continuing.”
When asked about artists contracting directly with Dentsu, Mark Ford, First Tennessee Bank’s vice president, Music Industry Group, told Pollstar that “It could be that the investor wanted to keep tight control on the money and it could be a smart move.” Ford and his group work with producers and provide loans and financing for several festivals. “If that’s correct, it’s definitely a different structure. I’ve never seen one like that.”
Agency contacts reached by Pollstar expressed the larger concern that, with three and a half months until Woodstock 50, it is still unclear who is financing the event, who is doing the production and whether the permits will be granted. That doesn’t bode well for the festival. Simultaneously, sources say Woodstock 50 representatives have reached out directly to artists or agencies — some of which are already booking 2020 festivals. While no artist has yet pulled out of the festival based on this week’s reporting – The Black Keys dropped out in early April due to a “scheduling conflict” – sources says this is because it would jeopardize their payments, though many are operating under the assumption that the fest will not happen.
Meanwhile, Lang said organizers are looking to put Woodstock 50 tickets on sale in roughly two weeks. “It’s our responsibility to make sure financially everything is solid before we do that,” he said. “We wouldn’t be selling tickets without knowing that all the funds were in to produce the festival properly and in a quality way. Obviously, it’s a short window, we’re hoping within the next two weeks we’ll have everything resolved and we’ll be able to put the tickets on sale.”
(Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images) –
Common and Michael Lang at Electric Lady Studio on March 19, 2019 in New York City.
Lang remains calm and composed about the seemingly stressful situation. “My hair’s not on fire,” he said. “It’s always been kind of my nature that when things get weird I get calm. But for us there’s a clear path. While it’s jarring the way they pulled out we’ll just deal with it.”
His sangfroid (ice in his veins) may be because he’s faced such pressures before, including 50 years ago with the original Woodstock. “We worked at Wallkill [New York] for three months building the site and on July 15 they passed a law which made it impossible for to proceed there,” Lang recalled. “So we had a month to put the festival back together and to find a new site. We just packed up, I put everybody on the phone making calls to the press and radio stations looking for someone who had a home for us and the next day someone called.”
That was Max Yasgur, the famed dairy farmer in Bethel, N.Y., where the original Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held Aug. 15-18, 1969.
Lang seemed to embrace something of a digital version of that strategy and said that this week he “sent an email out to all the people who had emailed us – we have a couple hundred thousand people who emailed us about tickets and things. I sent an email just explaining what’s going on and we had about 110,000 responses to that which were very supportive. Everybody’s pulling for us and it’s kind of inspiring.”
As an industry source pointed out, the live business has changed radically since the original Woodstock, becoming much more professionalized with corporate investment, insurance policies, government permits and security and safety plans an essential part of any major festival.
Lang, however, is steadfast in his conviction that the festival will happen. “[The news] is only two days old,” he said. “We’re telling everybody just to stay in place, things will continue so hopefully there won’t be much of a gap and we can continue on the same time line.”
Additional reporting by Deborah Speer.