Saugerties knocks down suggestion to host fest
Promoters, short on time, reapply for permit in Vernon
SAUGERTIES, N.Y. >> The town that hosted the Woodstock ‘94 concert is dismissing any notion that it could take on next month’s planned Woodstock 50 festival, which has been denied a permit for its chosen venue in central New York.
The assertion at Wednesday’s Town Board meeting came after Saugerties resident Paul Schoenweiss suggested, somewhat lightheartedly, that the promoters be offered the use of Winston Farm, which hosted the massive Woodstock ‘94 show a quarter-century ago.
“I saw on the news tonight that [promoter] Michael Lang is looking for a home,” Schoenweiss said. “I live right on Route 212. I
have no problem if you want to see if somebody wants [to use] Winston Farm.”
Saugerties Supervisor Fred Costello was quick to reject the idea.
“It’s too late to consider hosting that type of event,” he said.
Winston Farm, spread over more than 700 acres near the junction of Routes 32 and 212 in Saugerties, drew an estimated 350,000 people for Woodstock ‘94, which featured such headline acts as Aerosmith, Metallica and Bob Dylan.
That concert, marking the 25th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock festival in Sullivan County, was announced more than a year in advance and went through a lengthy and detailed approval process. Lang, a longtime Ulster County resident, didn’t announce Woodstock 50 until this past January, and the festival planning was plagued with problems from the get-go.
The problems culminated with the original intended site, the Watkins Glen International motor speedway, announcing last month that it would not host the Aug. 16-18 event, and the Oneida County town of Vernon, in central New York, denying Woodstock 50 the permit it needed to use its second preferred site, the Vernon Downs harness racing track.
Lang and his partners appealed the permit denial, but Vernon officials upheld the decision this past Tuesday. The Woodstock 50 team reapplied for the permit Wednesday, but the Oneida County sheriff quickly threw cold water on the idea of allowing the event.
“There is no practical or logistical possibility that this event could occur without significant risk to public safety,” Robert Maciol said.
Costello, dismissing talk of a quick shift to Saugerties, said: “If you have as many as 300,000 people coming to the community, you have to give yourself a year and a half to plan that and to do it safely and responsibly for the people who are going to come as vendors and guests . ...
“It’s not something you’re going to do in a couple of weeks,” he said. “So we would not be interested in hosting it at this late stage of the game.”
Councilman Paul Andreassen, a musician, admitted that he goaded Schoenweiss into making the suggestion, even though he knew there was not enough time for proper planning.
“I put him up to that,” he said.