Santana performing at festival in Bethel
BETHEL, N.Y. >> Carlos Santana, who played at the original Woodstock festival in 1969, will perform at the 50th anniversary show at Bethel Woods, the guitarist has told Rolling Stone magazine.
The festival at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, which is adjacent to the field where the 1969 concert was held, is scheduled for Aug. 16 to 18. Bethel Woods and concert promoter Live Nation have not yet announced a lineup of performers, but Santana, 71, confirmed his involvement, with the band that shares his last name, in an interview with Rolling Stone that the magazine posted on its website Tuesday.
And he hinted at other veterans of the 1969 festival playing at the Bethel show, too.
“I’m going to invite whoever is still here, whether it’s Joan Baez or members from Sly [and the Family] Stone, and I’m going to play Santana music,” Santana told Rolling Stone. “Santana’s going to be the house band, but I want to be able to honor those who are still here...”
Sanata, who performed in the amphitheater at Bethel Woods in 2010, 2014 and 2017, is known for such songs as “Black Magic Woman,” “Oye Coma Va,” “Evil Ways” and “Smooth.”
The Bethel Woods show in August is one of two Woodstock 50th anniversary concerts planned for the weekend of Aug. 16 to 18. The other, being put on by Ulster County resident Michael Lang, who staged the original festival as well as anniversary shows in 1994 and 1999, will be at the Watkins Glen International speedway in New York’s Finger Lakes region.
Lang has not yet identified any of the Watkins Glen performers.