Festival

Festival

Woodstock Returns Again on the Festival’s 50th Anniversary

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New York Times:

Half a century later, in a music market already jammed with big-ticket festivals, could another Woodstock muster the same impact?

Michael Lang, one of the producers of the original event, is betting that it can. From Aug. 16 to 18 — almost exactly 50 years after the first Woodstock — he will present an official anniversary festival, Woodstock 50, in Watkins Glen, N.Y., with ambitions to not only attract a huge multigenerational audience but to rally those fans around a message of social activism.

Coachella Enacting New Safety Policies

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Coachella is enacting a new initiative to fight assault and sexual harassment:

This year, Coachella announced its most thorough efforts yet to prevent and combat sexual harassment and assault. The program, which the Goldenvoice-produced festival is calling “Every One,” is a new endeavor comprised of fan resources and policies designed to not only prevent sexual misconduct but to improve how the festival deals with it.

Organizations and activists have long called for such policies and pressured events to work harder to fix these problems. Increasingly, those that stay silent are not only risking fan backlash but in danger of being out of step with today’s cultural climate.

AEG chairman, Philip Anschutz, who oversees Goldenvoice, is still out there pushing for the exact opposite with his political donations, however.