Bethel Woods Scales Back Woodstock 50th Anniversary Weekend Plans

Plans for a three-day festival at Bethel Woods in Bethel, New York have been scaled back to three separate events. The news comes just months after organizers of Bethel Woods Center For The Arts announced they would team with Live Nation and INVNT for a “pan-generational music, culture and community event” at the site where the original Woodstock took place in 1969. Michael Lang, who co-created the festival in 1969, is still planning to go ahead with Woodstock 50 at Watkins Glen International race track in Watkins Glen, New York August 16 – 18.

A series of concerts set to take place at Bethel Woods over the anniversary weekend has been confirmed. Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band, Arlo Guthrie and Edgar Winter with The Edgar Winter Band will play the venue on Friday, August 16. Santana and The Doobie Brothers will bring their co-headlining tour to Bethel Woods on Saturday, August 17. Stay tuned for Sunday’s lineup.

As noted by Brooklyn Vegan, INVNT revealed they will not take part in what was originally called the Bethel Woods Music & Culture Festival. “INVNT will not be involved in the new format and we wish Bethel Woods and Live Nation, as well as the organizers of the other 50th anniversary celebrations taking place around the world, the very best,” said INVNT CEO Scott Cullather in a press release. “Bethel Woods Music and Culture Festival was always about putting fans at the very heart, by celebrating the legacy of the 1969 Woodstock festival – the artists who played there and the people who attended – and inspiring them to make the world a better place through carefully curated music, culture and community-driven experiences. We hope that past, present and future fans are able to revel in the celebrations this year, and that the events empower them to advocate for positive social change just as the 1969 festival did.”

Bethel Woods will extend its museum hours and screen Woodstock: The Directors Cut on the field where the original festival took place as part of the venue’s “Anniversary Week,” which spans August 15 – 18. The lineup for the separate Woodstock 50 event at Watkins Glen has yet to revealed.