Woodstock 50 May Move to a Much Smaller "Racino"

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Jun 24, 2019

Refusing to give up, Woodstock 50 has reportedly applied to host the festival at a new site — though one that's significantly smaller than its original venue.

While the festival is still scheduled to take place on August 16 to 18, its original festival site of Watkins Glen International pulled out earlier this month. Now according to a report by Poughkeepsie Journal, festival organizers have applied for a permit to hold the festival at Vernon Downs — a so-called "racino" in Oneida County, near Utica, NY, that's even smaller than Watkins Glen.

While Woodstock 50 had originally planned to host some 150,000 festivalgoers, the proposed capacity of the event has shrunk to 45,000 to 50,000 people — that's a third of what organizers had hoped for.

Town of Vernon Supervisor Randy Watson told the publication that Woodstock 50 organizers have applied for a permit to hold the event at Vernon Downs. Vernon Downs owner Jeffrey Gural also told the Associated Press today that the venue is close to signing a letter of intent to host the event.

So far, though, Woodstock 50 organizers have not publicly confirmed the move.

As previously reported, Woodstock 50 lost its festival site at Watkins Glen International because organizers failed to make a $150,000 USD payment. The festival also recently lost its appeal to have former financier Dentsu — which announced the festival was cancelled —  return $17.8 million to the festival's bank account.
 

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