Woodstock Loses Appeal In Case to Force Former Investor Dentsu to Return $18.5 Million

In 1969, over half a million young people gathered in Bethel, New York to celebrate peace and love through the power of music at the first Woodstock festival. Ever since, a tradition has carried from this cultural phenomenon with legendary American music festivals such as Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo.

However, the status of the 50th anniversary Woodstock festival appears less promising than ever before.

The festival received grave news in April when its largest investor, multinational media company Dentsu Aegis, withdrew $18.5 million from the festival’s funds. Organizers sent a court appeal demanding that the company return the money, but they lost leaving the festival in a dire situation just months before its scheduled show dates in August.

Woodstock said, “Although our financial partner is withdrawing, we will of course be continuing with the planning of the festival and intend to bring on new partners.”

Matters got even worse when the festival lost its venue in upstate New York Watkin Glens horse racing track when it failed to pay $150,000.

Within an hour after the news released that Watkin Glens would no longer host Woodstock, the event producer CID Entertainment announced that it would be pulling all business ties from Woodstock.

Leading up to this devastating blow to Woodstock, it was reported that the festival had yet to acquire a mass gathering permit, which many suspected caused the delay of ticket sales.

However, the festival’s spree of bad luck changed when American investment bank Oppenheimer & Co. decided to become its financier.  Nevertheless, the new financial support did not stop other misfortune from occurring at the festival.

In April, The Black Keys pulled out of the festivals line up due to a scheduling conflict and tickets are still not up for sale with the festival being less than two months away.

Woodstock commented, “… the bottom line is, there is going to be a Woodstock 50th Anniversary Festival, as there must be, and it’s going to be a blast.”

The festival heads are determined to keep the show rolling with no venue, no producer and a big act dropping from its line up. Music fans are anxiously awaiting for ticket sales to go live along with an announcement of the festival’s new location.