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Woodstock anniversary event details firming

 

A lot both has and hasn't happened since we learned there would be competing Woodstock 50th anniversary concerts going head-to-head on the same August, 2019 weekend (story).

Live Nation, which had secured rights to the original site by virtue of the fact it has been booking events at Bethel Woods, the amphitheater adjacent to it, announced it would do a few headlining concerts instead of a multi-day, multi-act festival. Michael Lang, one of the organizers of the 1969 event, made arrangements to host his anniversary event at Watkins Glen, the Finger Lakes region home of the road race course that hosted the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers Band and The Band in 1973. 
Original festival highlight Carlos Santana elected to opt-in with Live Nation. Ringo Starr and the Doobie Brothers will also appear there.
Speculation grew that Lang's event could get scuttled due to funding problems got walked back today when Billboard reported that a Japanese company backing the Watkins Glen site concert had come through with the dollars needed to ink The Dead and Company, Santana, the Black Keys, Imagine Dragons and The Killers and rappers Jay-Z and Chance The Rapper. Negotiations are also reportedly underway between Lang's group and Robert Plant, Gary Clark Jr., The Raconteurs, Greta Van Fleet, Portugal The Man, Dawes and several other groups.
Lang has promised a line-up of 80+ artists for the Watkins Glen event.