There are two big Woodstock-related events happening this summer to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the famous counterculture music festival: Woodstock 50 is the official three-day anniversary event taking place at Watkins Glen in the Finger Lakes, while the Bethel Woods Music & Culture Festival is the unofficial three-day anniversary event taking place at the original Woodstock site in Bethel. And it's become increasingly clear that the Woodstock 50 lineup is going to be the bigger deal—according to reports, their lineup is going to be a total hodgepodge dominated by modern rock/pop/rap acts, including the likes of Jay-Z, Chance The Rapper, The Black Keys, and more.
Variety has a list of all the rest of the artists who have reportedly been slated for the festival (these are "according to sources close to the situation," and have not officially been announced). They will perform on three stages, dubbed the Peace Stage, Love Stage and Music Stage. So take a deep breath and read the list and see whether this moves you to want to buy a ticket: The Raconteurs, Imagine Dragons, Run the Jewels, Gary Clark Jr., Cage the Elephant, the Killers, Greta Van Fleet, Margo Price, Sturgill Simpson, Portugal the Man, Dawes, the Lumineers, Bishop Briggs, Pussy Riot, Courtney Barnett and Dorothy. In addition, huge pop/pop-adjacent artists including Halsey, Miley Cyrus, Janelle Monae and Kacey Musgraves are also reportedly in talks for the fest.
One thing you may have picked up on is the fact there are almost no legacy artists or artists connected to the original festival lineup among those acts. Besides the Dead & Co., the only other two such artists rumored to be playing are Robert Plant (whose band Led Zeppelin didn't actually play the original Woodstock, but no matter) and Santana, who was there at the original.
There is one wrinkle with the report of Santana however: he is already booked to be playing the other Bethel Woods Music & Culture Festival, alongside other aging rockers including Ringo Starr, Edgar Winter, the Doobie Brothers, and fellow original Woodstocker Arlo Guthrie. The locations of the two fest are not so far from each other (around a 3 hour drive)—would the organizers really allow Santana to double-dip between fests like that?
Woodstock 50, which will take place from August 16th to 18th at Watkins Glen International speedway in Watkins Glen, NY, is being organized by Michael Lang, one of the producers of the original event, and is being billed as the only authorized commemoration of the 1969 festival. The Bethel Woods Music & Culture Festival, which is the unofficial Woodstock anniversary fest, will take place August 15th through the 18th at the original site in the Catskills. Only one of them will have TED-style talks. Choose wisely.
