Woodstock 50 reportedly releases all artists from contract

Will Richards 

It comes after the festival changed location from New York to Maryland

All artists set to play next month’s Woodstock 50 have been reportedly released from their contracts, a new report on Billboard states. The festival, who have had a whole world of problems over the past few months, mainly related to finding a new location for the event, had finally found a home in the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland earlier this week, with the new site over 350 miles from the original location in Watkins Glen, New York.

With the new Maryland venue such a distance away from the originally planned festival site, Billboard reports that such a change in distance would breach the contracts many of the artists signed in agreeing to play the festival.

They say that festival organizer Michael Lang and his team emailed the agents of the booked bands to inform them that they would not force the acts to still play the festival, but invite them to fulfill their performances if they pleased.

Earlier today, it was revealed that Jay-Z and John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival had both pulled out of Woodstock 50.

Other artists among those set to perform were The Killers, Miley Cyrus, Santana, Dead & Company, Chance the Rapper, Imagine Dragons and Halsey.

The new venue’s operator Seth Hurtwiz has explained the situation in a conversation with Billboard.

“Michael Lang called me a week ago about doing the show in DC proper but, on this short notice, there really wasn’t anywhere to do that. I suggested Merriweather would be a low-risk option and is considered DC. Plus it has a similar historic legacy,” Hurwitz said.

“We made a deal quickly contingent on him putting a show together and dealing with the fact that we have a show booked on one of those dates. So now I’m just a venue waiting to see if the promoter with the hold is going to confirm.”

The festival has had a host of problems over the past few months, and since April has lost its primary funding partner, Dentsu Aegis Network, and one of its headliners, The Black Keys.

Woodstock 50 is set to take place on the weekend of August 16-18