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Business News Gigs & Festivals Live Business
Woodstock 50 has until this Friday to secure new financial backing
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 7 May 2019
Ever since it was announced by an investor last week that the 50th anniversary edition of Woodstock had been cancelled, its chief organiser Michael Lang has been very busy insisting that this is not the case. However, Billboard now reports that if further financing is not found by Friday this week, it definitely will be.
Amplifi Live, a division of marketing group the Dentsu Aegis Network, announced last week that it was pulling its financial backing of Woodstock 50, meaning the festival would not be able to go ahead. But Lang quickly insisted that it would still happen, just without Amplifi Live’s involvement.
However, Lang reportedly needs to raise $30 million this week to keep the event afloat. Live Nation and AEG have already both turned down requests to take over production of the festival, and some booking agents have said that Dentsu withdrawing its backing has voided the event’s contracts with their artists.
An attorney for Lang said last week that he disagreed with the line that those contracts no longer stand. And it does seem that most agents are now waiting to see if the festival can be saved before officially withdrawing their artists from the bill.
