Massive Woodstock May Not Come in 2009

While original producer Michael Lang has been talking about plans for one concert in New York City and another in Berlin, Joel Rosenman, Langs business partner of 40 years, says the show is very far away from being booked and may not even happen this year.

It may not be the year for Woodstock. We dont know. Were not going to let some technical number, some digit, determine when the next Woodstock is. Were going to let something bigger than that determine it.
Joel Rosenman

Rosenman says there were big plans for multiple Woodstocks all across the world last year, but the economic crash has made it very difficult to find funding. Thats an ambitious format that we can conceived of at a time when the tide was coming in in the world economy, he says. Its a much different world a year later.

Rosenman hopes to pull in enough sponsors that they wont have to charge for tickets. A lot of the venues were looking at would require the event to be free since theyre on public property, he says. Our current thinking is that if we do charge for tickets, the prices would be beyond reasonable. No acts have been booked, but they hope many of the bands that played the 1969 event will return. Id love to see Crosby, Stills and Nash and the Who and maybe Joe Cocker, he says. When it comes to music of today, there are a number of acts to chose from. The A&R of today is not something my partners or I really take charge of.

Has the legacy of Woodstock 99 which ended in bonfires and riots made it difficult to get another one off the ground? Hundreds of thousands of people have a great time at the last one, says Rosenman. There were some who didnt. There is no Woodstock that weve had that has been uniformly regarded. Despite the setbacks, Rosenman has little doubt the show will happen eventually. There will be a Woodstock and it will be massive, says Rosenman. We must do it responsibility and with the right kind of message. If we dont see those elements coming together, well keep working until they do.