The hurdles facing Woodstock 50 seemed steep: artists dropping out, disputes over financing, and a last-minute bid to relocate the three-day music festival to Merriweather Post Pavilion. As it turns out, those issues were insurmountable.

With a little more than two weeks before the anniversary show promoting peace and love was slated to begin, the organizers announced its cancellation on Wednesday.

“We are saddened that a series of unforeseen setbacks has made it impossible to put on a festival we imagined with the great line-up we had booked and the social engagement we were anticipating,” said Michael Lang, co-founder of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, in a release.

After multiple permit denials in New York, where the original event was held in 1969, organizers sought out Merriweather Post Pavilion. The Columbia, Md., venue’s operators and Howard County officials expressed their willingness to make the festival happen.

“When this festival was in search of a new home, we saw an opportunity to bring a piece of American history to our storied stage,” Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said in a release Wednesday. “We had the experience, the infrastructure, and the passion to make this happen. Howard County and Merriweather were fully prepared to put on a world-class concert, if the festival promoters could secure the acts.”

But organizers couldn’t keep their line-up in place after trying to move the event to Maryland, Lang acknowledged.

“We released all the talent so any involvement on their part would be voluntary,” Lang said in the statement. “Due to conflicting radius issues in the D.C. area many acts were unable to participate and others passed for their own reasons. I would like to encourage artists and agents, who all have been fully paid, to donate 10 percent of their fees to [voter registration nonprofit] HeadCount or causes of their choice in the spirit of peace.”

Seth Hurwitz, the chairman of local concert and production company I.M.P., which operates Merriweather Post Pavilion, said that the company would be open to a similar event at the venue at a later date. “Hopefully, with plenty of time to prepare, Merriweather will become the site of a future festival that captures the original vibe,” he said in a release.

This is good news for fans of The Smashing Pumpkins and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, both of which were slated to perform at Merriweather on the same weekend as Woodstock 50 was scheduled. I.M.P. spokesperson Audrey Fix Schaefer confirmed to DCist via email that the August 17 concert is moving forward, and was “always still on.”

Previously:
Woodstock 50th Anniversary Concert Trying To Regroup At … Merriweather Post Pavilion?