50 years after Woodstock, can festivals match its magic?

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50 years after Woodstock, can festivals match its magic?

2019-08-17 01:59 Last Updated At：02:00

Fifty years after Woodstock, the mystical and messy event that gave birth to a myriad of musical festivals, the entertainment industry is diluted with festivals and events like it — some genre specific, some extremely diverse and others offering experiences in addition to music, ranging from food to art, in order to appeal to wider audiences.

And while there have been historic moments at music festivals since Woodstock — from Prince's 8-minute cover of Radiohead's "Creep" at Coachella in 2008 to Radiohead's groundbreaking Bonnaroo set in 2006 to Beyoncé's black pride summit at last year's Coachella — could what happened at Woodstock be replicated?

"It's hard to compare any modern-day festival to what occurred at the original Woodstock. It was a cultural event that was a watershed happening that captured the imagination of an entire generation," said Ray Waddell, president of media and conferences at Oak View Group, which owns concert trade publication Pollstar. "It was an amazing summer, an incredible year. It all kind of came together at Woodstock in 1969. To try to replicate that, they've never fully been able to."

Since the original Woodstock, which took place August 15-18 in 1969 in Bethel, New York, and featured Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead and more, festivals have grown tremendously and, when done properly, are money makers. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which takes place every April in Southern California, is the most successful festival in the United States, selling out quickly, and even before its lineup is announced. Other festivals have maintained a strong presence, too, from the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee to Lollapalooza in Chicago.

Today, about every major city has at least one festival — some gone after a year, others persisting through. But it's made the festival scene overcrowded, and now producers are working tirelessly to make their festivals different than the next one. That has become increasingly difficult over the years, as many acts use festivals almost as a touring stop, headlining multiple festivals within a matter of weeks.

"What makes the festival stand out is one, the experience, and two, exclusivity and uniqueness of the lineup. They can ebb and flow with the lineup. You look at Bonnaroo, which fell off for a couple of years and then came back this year with the perfect mix of a lineup that captured the attention of the people who are willing to camp out three or four days," Waddell said. "The problem is there's not enough headlining acts out there."

He continued: "One thing that Coachella has going for it is it's first in April. When they had Outkast that year, LCD Soundsystem that year, Guns N' Roses — they were the first and three or four or more booked those same acts but you didn't know that."

Boutique festivals that cater to smaller audiences as well as artist-curated festivals have been a success in recent years. Jay-Z launched Made in America in Philadelphia seven years go, and other artists have done the same, including Drake, Pharrell, Travis Scott, Mumford & Sons, J. Cole, Bon Iver, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, the National and others.

"There are a lot of reasons festivals don't work right now, oversaturation being one of them," said Jordan Kurland, co-founder of Noise Pop Festival in the San Francisco Bay Area and co-founder of Brilliant Corners, the artist management company home to Death Cab for Cutie and She & Him.

Kurland said some festival organizers need to think beyond performances. "What is the festival doing differently? Why does it exist? It's not enough to just fence a field and say we're going to have 30,000 people here because we have major acts," he said. "Launching a good, sustainable festival is doing something unique. It doesn't just stand on talent at this point. It's festival experience. It's festival location."

Alec Jhangiani, the co-founder and producer of Fortress Festival in Fort Worth, Texas, said he believes festivals have lost their "sheen a little bit as it becomes more prevalent."

"I think what a lot of these festivals are keying in on now is it can't just be so music dependent. It can be anchored in music, obviously — that's going to be a large part of it — but how do you refresh it from the content side?" he said.

"I don't think anytime soon people are going to stop their impulse to gather at these large festivals and places where there are tens of thousands of people — that seems to just be a part of human experience — but I think they're obviously going to demand more and more new and interesting ways of presenting the content. It's our job to keep innovating the space.

Storms battering the Midwest bring tornadoes, hail and strong winds

2024-05-08 13:32 Last Updated At：13:52

DETROIT (AP) — Severe storms continued to barrel through the Midwest early Wednesday, unleashing a curtain of heavy rain, gusty winds and tornadoes that forecasters warned could spill out of the region.

The tornadoes were first spotted after dark Tuesday in parts of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, while portions of Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri were also under a tornado watch, according to the National Weather Service.

As the storms raged on in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday, the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh warned that a tornado in northeastern Ohio could cross into Pennsylvania. Parts of West Virginia were also under a tornado warning.

Hours earlier in southwestern Michigan, two tornadoes blitzed the city of Portage near Kalamazoo on Tuesday night, destroying homes and commercial buildings, including a FedEx facility that was ripped apart.

There were no serious injuries immediately reported, but city officials said in a news release that the twisters knocked out power to more than 20,000 people. Most of them would be without power until late Wednesday, city officials said.

At one point, about 50 people were trapped inside the FedEx facility because of downed power lines. But company spokesperson Shannon Davis said late Tuesday that “all team members are safe and accounted for.”

Tuesday's storms came a day after parts of the central United States were battered by heavy rain, strong winds, hail and twisters. Both the Plains and Midwest have been hammered by tornadoes this spring.

On Monday night, a deadly twister in Oklahoma tore through the small 1,000-person town of Barnsdall. At least one person was killed and another was missing. Dozens of homes were destroyed.

Aerial videos showed homes reduced to piles of rubble and others with roofs torn off. The twister tossed vehicles, downed power lines and stripped limbs and bark from trees across the town. A 160-acre (65-hectare) wax manufacturing facility in the community also sustained heavy damage.

It was the second tornado to hit Barnsdall in five weeks — a twister on April 1 with maximum wind speeds of 90 to 100 mph (145 to 161 kph) damaged homes and blew down trees and power poles.

Before Monday night's powerful tornado touched down, the National Weather Service had warned that “a large and life-threatening tornado” north of Tulsa was headed toward Barnsdall and the nearby town of Bartlesville.

At the Hampton Inn in Bartlesville, several splintered 2x4s were driven into the south side of the building. Chunks of insulation, twisted metal and other debris were scattered over the hotel’s lawn, and vehicles in the parking lot were heavily damaged with blown-out windows.

Hotel guest Matthew Macedo said he was ushered into a laundry room to wait out the storm.

“When the impact occurred, it was incredibly sudden,” he said.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who toured the twister's damage on Tuesday, said it was rated by weather researchers as a violent tornado with winds reaching up to 200 mph (322 kph). Stitt said he and legislative leaders have agreed to set aside $45 million in this year’s budget to help storm-damaged communities.

“Oklahomans are resilient,” Stitt said, “and we’re going to rebuild.”

Areas in Oklahoma, including Sulphur and Holdenville, are still recovering from a tornado that killed four and left thousands without power late last month.

The powerful storms come amid a wild swing in severe weather across the globe that includes some of the worst-ever flooding in Brazil and a brutal Asian heat wave.

Across the U.S., the entire week is looking stormy. The eastern U.S. and the South are expected to get the brunt of the bad weather through the rest of the week, including in Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati — cities where more than 21 million people live. It should be clear over the weekend.

Murphy reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including Rio Yamat, Heather Hollingsworth, Colleen Slevin, Jim Salter, Kathy McCormack, Sarah Brumfield and Beatrice Dupuy.

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