Woodstock 50 has apparently secured a new location less than a month before the festival is scheduled to take place on Aug. 16–18. Merriweather Post Pavillion in Columbia, Md. will host the anniversary event, Bloomberg and The New York Times report.
“When we heard that there was an opportunity to save this festival and bring a piece of American history to our community this summer, we jumped at the chance,” Calvin Ball, a Howard County executive, reportedly told organizers in a note.
Merriweather Post Pavilion is Woodstock 50’s third proposed venue. The originally announced Watkins Glen International speedway in upstate New York revoked the event’s access to the site last month after the festival’s primary financier and production company respectively withdrew following disputes over budget and scale.
Officials in New York’s Oenida County subsequently rejected organizers’ repeated attempts to secure permits to relocate the festival to the Vernon Downs horse racing track, calling proposed safety plans for the event “illegible” and “worthless.” Last week, the festival’s latest production company also announced it would no longer participate.
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Variety reports that two anonymous sources claim performers will not agree to perform at a location with less than half the capacity of the originally contracted venue. Jay-Z, Dead & Company, the Killers, Chance the Rapper, and Miley Cyrus were among the festival’s originally scheduled performers.
Asked the name of the festival’s current production company, and whether organizers have secured health permits to host Woodstock 50 at the new venue, a festival spokesperson declined to comment to SPIN. Representatives for Maryland’s health department and the Howard County sheriff did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
