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Never losing faith, Woodstock 50 might be back on at a new venue

If there is anything we’ve learned from Woodstock in the last year, it’s how not to give up in the face of adversity, no matter how much other people want you to, no matter how much you probably should.

Woodstock 50 has faced a series of setbacks on the road to the festival, including the venue – Watkins Glen – pulling out last month. Now, just under two months before the festival is set to go ahead, they may have found a venue.

Woodstock 50 proves, yet again, their ability to soldier on in the face of adversity as they may have just found another venue to host the festival.

Originally, Woodstock 50 seemed like a dream come true, a celebration of one of the most iconic festivals of all time. The promised line-up consisted of legends both new and old, such as Santana, The Killers, and Chance, The Rapper.

Concern started to develop at the beginning of the year that the festival was struggling financially and the festival might not be able to go ahead. The festival persevered and continued booking acts, apparently anyway. A mind-blowingly huge star-studded line-up was leaked in March, with more huge names such as The Raconteurs and Jay-Z.

Then in April, it was announced that Woodstock 50 would be canceled, when one of their primary investors Dentsu Aegis Network, came out with a statement that the festival wouldn’t be able to go ahead. But, in true Fyre Festival style, Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang insisted that the event would go ahead anyway. Woodstock luckily found some new investors a month later and it seemed like, maybe, the festival might be back on.

At the beginning of this month, Woodstock 50 lost not only its venue but also a key event producer in a single hour.  This pretty much topped it all off to convince everyone that, surely, this “dream festival” would remain just that, a dream.

Now, the town of Vernon supervisor Randy Watson, has told the Poughkeepsie Journal that the festival organisers have applied to host Woodstock 50 August 16-18 at Vernon Downs, roughly 56 kilometers away from the OG festival site. Watson says that the proposed capacity was for 45,000-50,000 people – far smaller than the 150,000 planned for the initial venue.

Vernon Downs owner Jeffrey Gural said in an email that they’re close to signing a letter of intent and could host up to 65,000 people, but without camping. Woodstock concert promoters had no comment on Monday.

With the festival set to be held in just under two months, nothing confirmed and no ticket sales, it’ll be a wonder if Woodstock 50 really does go ahead this year.