Woodstock 50 has been officially canceled two weeks before it was scheduled to begin after several months of setbacks.
The three-day music festival celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original August 1969 event was scheduled for August 16-18. The organizers announced Wednesday that they canceled the festival due to “unforeseen setbacks.”
“Woodstock 50 today announced that the three-day festival to celebrate its 50th anniversary has been canceled,” the organizers said in a statement released on Wednesday.
“We are saddened that a series of unforeseen setbacks has made it impossible to put on the festival we imagined with the great lineup we had booked and the social engagement we were anticipating,” the statement added.
Plans for the festival first suffered a hit when the original festival financiers Dentsu Aegis Network pulled out in April, followed by production partners Superfly in May.
After the organizers secured new financiers in May, Watkins Glen International racetrack in Upstate New York rejected them as the proposed site for the festival. Vernon Downs racetrack and casino in Vernon, New York also turned them down.
While the organizers considered scaling down the event as a free show at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, many headliners including Jay Z and Miley Cyrus, pulled out of the festival.
Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the current owner of the site of the original 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair in Bethel, NY, plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival with separate concerts by the Doobie Brothers, Ringo Starr, and Santana.