{"id":122158,"date":"2019-05-07T08:01:24","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T12:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=122158"},"modified":"2019-05-07T08:01:24","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T12:01:24","slug":"who-is-sabotaging-woodstock-50-and-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=122158","title":{"rendered":"Who is sabotaging Woodstock 50? And why?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woodstock 50 Co-Founder Says Investors \u201cIllegally Swept\u201d $17 Million, Asked Artists to Drop Out<\/h1>\n

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Michael Lang says former financial partner Dentsu Inc. is attempting to \u201csuffocate and kill Woodstock\u201d<\/h3>\n
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Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang (Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Woodstock 50)<\/p><\/div>\n

by Evan Minsker
\nNews Editor, Pitchfork<\/p>\n

Woodstock 50<\/a>\u00a0is scheduled to take place from August 16-18 in Watkins Glen, New York, but the festival is facing uncertainty after former backers Dentsu Inc.\u00a0pulled financial support<\/a>\u00a0from the festival back last month. At the time, Dentsu claimed that the festival was canceled, prompting founder Michael Lang to\u00a0insist<\/a>\u00a0that the event will still take place.<\/p>\n

Today, Lang sent a five-page letter to Dentsu (viewed by Pitchfork), which alleges that the former investors \u201cillegally swept approximately $17 million from the festival bank account.\u201d After claiming that the company was responsible for\u00a0blocking ticket sales<\/a>, Lang said that Dentsu suggested that performers, the venue, vendors, and others to cut ties with Lang.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have evidence that Dentsu representatives have gone so far as to say that should the talent back out of Woodstock, they would be seen favorably by Dentsu and that this could result in their performing the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where Dentsu is a major organizer,\u201d Lang wrote. \u201cIn these actions too, Dentsu has acted not only without honor, but outside of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the letter, Lang once again insists that the festival will continue as planned and claims that organizers have found \u201crenewed interest in financing.\u201d He asks that Dentsu return the $17 million and stop interfering with the festival going forward. \u201cIt is one thing if your company, Dentsu, wanted to back out of its commitment to Woodstock because it would not make as much money as it had hoped, but to try to suffocate and kill Woodstock so that we could not have a festival for our Golden Anniversary without you is puzzling for any company, let alone one that claims reform,\u201d Lang wrote.<\/p>\n

Woodstock 50\u2019s lineup includes JAY-Z, the Killers, Dead & Company, Chance the Rapper, Miley Cyrus, the Raconteurs, and more. Pitchfork has reached out to Dentsu for comment.<\/p>\n

Read Pitchfork\u2019s\u00a0timeline<\/a> detailing Woodstock 50\u2019s ongoing troubles.<\/p>\n

___
\nhttps:\/\/pitchfork.com\/news\/woodstock-50-co-founder-says-investors-illegally-swept-dollar17-million-asked-artists-to-drop-out\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woodstock 50 Co-Founder Says Investors \u201cIllegally Swept\u201d $17 Million, Asked Artists to Drop Out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}