festivals
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As summer turns to fall, festival lineups for early 2025 are starting to drop. One of the first out the gate is Costa Rica’s Ocaso Festival, which on Thursday (Aug. 22) announced a 2025 lineup featuring house maestro Chris Lake, globetrotting idols The Martinez Brothers and Brazilian phenom Vintage Culture, along with Space Miami resident […]
At least 23 people were injured when two gondolas of a Ferris wheel caught fire at a music festival near Leipzig in eastern Germany, the German news agency dpa reported Sunday (Aug. 18). The accident took place at the Highfield Festival at Lake Strömthal near Leipzig. The fire started in one gondola and then spread […]
Aug. 15 marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Woodstock, the now iconic music festival that drew more than 400,000 people to Bethel, New York, for three days of peace and music. The three-day fest, which took place Aug. 15-18, 1969, saw performances from 32 acts, many of whom are some of rock’s most […]
When we think about the first Woodstock Music and Art Fair we think about the hippies. The mud. The brown acid. The helicopters. The chaos that became a utopia and a definitive statement for the ideals of the 60s counterculture.
And, oh yeah, the music.
The artists — three days of ’em — were, of course, the primary draw to the festival, and Woodstock boasted a lineup of formidable names, some of which were already historic, others that were on their way there and some who would use the festival to launch their careers. “We wanted the biggest and the best, and we worked hard to get them,” the late Woodstock producer Michael Lang told us in 2009, while preparing to celebrate its 40th anniversary. He acknowledged that it took a minute for the festival to be viewed seriously by booking agents and managers, but once Creedence Clearwater Revival signed on, interest was stoked and the gets became easier.
Thirty-three bands played in total, and there was even an impressive list of could’ve-beens: Lang made a run at the Beatles, for instance, but could only get John Lennon to offer a basically non-existent Plastic Ono Band, which wound up making its debut a month later at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival. Bob Dylan was invited but never showed. The Rolling Stones, Simon & Garfunkel, The Doors, The Moody Blues, The Guess Who, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Love were among acts that turned down offers. The Jeff Beck Group canceled its slated performance after breaking up shortly before it. Iron Butterfly attempted to change the day it would perform at the last minute and never made it to the site.
But nobody at Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, N.Y. was complaining about what they did get to hear.
“I guess by Saturday, when everybody had arrived or everybody who was gonna get there arrived, we knew that this was gonna be a historic moment,” Lang said. “Nobody ever thought about or how it would resonate, but we knew that this was extraordinary. I knew that we were all freaks and there were many of us out there and we were disbursed around the country and around the world really, so it was like a gathering of the tribes if you will.”
Through the Academy Award-winning 1970 documentary and an array of music releases — both individual titles and multi-disc compilations, including the Woodstock Back to the Garden — 50th Anniversary Experience in 2019 — we’ve come to know their sets well, which has kept a little whiff of The Garden fresh during the ensuing decades. They demonstrate that even amidst turbulent conditions, there were amazing — and also, again, historic — performances all the way through the extra, unplanned Monday morning.
With Woodstock turning 55 on Aug. 15, these are our picks for the 20 most iconic sets on that fateful weekend…
John Sebastian
More than 30 artists are set to play Day Zero 2025, once again happening in Tulum, Mexico, this Jan. 11. Leading the house and techno-focused lineup is Turkish-Italian phenom Carlita, South African twins Major League DJz, global club legend DJ Harvey, U.K. favorite Fatboy Slim and a crew of other acts including Lee Burridge, Francesca […]
Following a flurry of noise complaints about HARD Summer 2024, Inglewood, Calif., Mayor James T. Butts Jr. has released a statement about the issues experienced at the electronic music festival that took place last Saturday and Sunday (Aug. 3-4) at the city’s Hollywood Park Complex at SoFi Stadium.
“We were perplexed at the sound propagation experienced in the South Bay, because there have been multiple outdoor concerts on the SoFi campus without this issue,” Butts wrote in a statement released by the Mayor’s Office Friday (Aug. 9) and provided to Billboard. “After meeting with representatives from the event promoter and the venue, we conducted a thorough review of the modifications and changes made between Saturday and Sunday of HARD Summer, specifically in response to noise complaints from neighboring communities.”
This is the first time HARD Summer, which has been happening at locations around Southern California since 2008, has been held at Hollywood Park.
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Butts’ statement continues, “It is important to clarify that the sound and vibration issues experienced over the weekend were related to certain bass frequencies,” adding that such frequencies can be affected by stage position, reflection off of buildings and weather factors like the wind.
Butts notes that bass vibrations were first reported in nearby El Segundo on Saturday afternoon, not long after the two-day festival began, although online commenters first reported experiencing the noise issues on Friday (Aug. 2) while the festival was doing sound checks. Local paper The Daily Breeze reported that “the El Segundo Police Department received so many complaints on the festival’s first night that the law enforcement agency posted a notice on the social media platform X asking residents to stop calling 911.”
HARD Summer is produced by Insomniac Events, which puts on many major global electronic music festivals including EDC Las Vegas. The HARD Summer 2024 lineup featured electronic artists including Disclosure, Major Lazer, deadmau5, Sub Focus, Chase & Status, Sofi Tukker and many more. The 300-acre Hollywood Park Complex adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood featured four stages during the festival, with one of them located in the Stadium’s American Airlines Plaza and the other three located around the Complex’s sprawling parking lot.
Butts’ statement notes that the stage in the American Airlines Plaza was “a major contributor to the issue” given that the area is elevated. He adds that no stages will be permitted in this area for future events and that “we will require even greater sound engineering with a more comprehensive plan when it comes to addressing sound and bass frequency management.”
Following the noise complaints, Butts writes that “city authorities engaged the event promoter and the venue and implemented several critical adjustments to each stage and established enhanced monitoring plans for overall sound and bass levels. Additional sound engineers were strategically positioned in areas of concern from Saturday afternoon through Sunday and were promptly dispatched to make necessary adjustments in real time. As a result, a significant decrease in call volume was observed on Sunday in the initially impacted areas.”
He continues that despite these changes, some in the area continued to experience the effects of the bass vibrations — including rattling windows and doors — adding that “with the lessons learned this past weekend, we are prepared to better monitor and supervise future event organizers to minimize the sound and vibration impact on the community outside the venue.”
Two other festivals are currently scheduled to take place at the Hollywood Park Complex: Fool In Love on Aug. 31 featuring Lionel Richie and Diana Ross and, in March 2025, Rolling Loud. The lineup for the latter event has yet to be announced.
“Over the past 10 years Inglewood has re-emerged as a premier hub for sports and entertainment,” Butts’ statement concludes. “That title comes with significant responsibility and we are committed to maintaining the highest standards.”
After SZA took the stage as the day two headliner of Lollapalooza over the weekend, the star took a moment on her Instagram Stories to spotlight another major performance of the Chicago festival — Chappell Roan’s. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “She makes me wanna keep making […]
From the members who constantly stole the spotlight to SKZ stepping into full rock star mode, these are the unforgettable moments.
While KCON has long been heralded as the Mecca for K-pop fans, a new party that launched amid the 2024 Los Angeles date could also make it a must-attend for those in the industry as well.
What was meant to be a night to celebrate K-pop ended up being a cross-industry collaboration event hosted by Day 13, a new joint venture merger between K-pop and marketing expert Jenny Zha with Keith Kawamura, the anime and gaming marketing veteran who is also CEO of 3i Productions. Following KCON LA’s second day of concerts on Saturday, July 27, artists, execs, and influencers were on their way to downtown LA hot spot Hatch.
Notable attendees included KCON performers like K-pop star and American Song Contest winner AleXa, as well as Mikha of the Filipino girl group BINI — both of whom enjoyed bites and drinks in the roped-off back section of Hatch with friends like The Kelly Clarkson Show producer Jasmine Stephen, songwriter Vanessa Jefferson whose love of K-pop has been long documented by her sister Lizzo, and Henry Jiang of OfflineTV who talked to AleXa about their interest and collaborating in the game space.
“With the inaugural Day 13 industry party, we wanted to bring everyone together to create more avenues for ideation, and establish a longstanding tradition that can give way to even more exciting cross-collaboration projects,” Zha reflects to Billboard. “Subcultures like K-pop and anime are so pervasive it’s now part of mainstream conversation — especially at the forefront for key stakeholders behind-the-scenes.”
A host of journalists, publicists and other media figures that long worked in the K-pop space were also in attendance. Lively discussions included the extra effort being put into ILLIT’s comeback single, ATEEZ’s recent move to United Talent Agency, excitement and inquiries about TITAN CONTENTS’ first girl group AtHeart (originally revealed on Billboard), a K-pop act’s upcoming song collaboration in partnership with Netflix, a new K-pop artist’s signing with a U.S. PR, gripes about working with and guesses about the future of one major Korean agency, as well as tons more juicy tidbits to compete with Hatch’s wagyu and wasabi skewer.
Also in attendance was award-winning actress and dancer Krystal Ellsworth (who blew up in India after starring in the 2017 flick Heartbeats that was shot in the country). Brian Chau of CAA was in the house, linking up Konami and Bandai Games over drinks to explore how talents could be further integrated in a convo about video gaming industry.
Influencers like “The Transition Guy” Jonny Tran (930,000 TikTok followers) and Twitch streamer iGumdrop (with nearly 300,000 Twitch followers and 450,000 Instagram followers) were seen connecting with members of Sony’s Santa Monica Studios — producers behind the God of War franchise – for collaboration opportunities.
From a local surprise guest to the performance of her new viral hit, these were Hot Girl Meg’s unforgettable moments.