Woodstock 40th Anniversary

The Woodstock Festival is looking to be reborn in 2009 as it celebrates its 40th Anniversary.

The festival’s co-founder Michael Lang is currently seeking sponsorship for the event which he hopes will be a reunion of sorts with at least some of the bands that played in 1969 returning to the stage for this year’s event.

“There would be a lot of legacy bands – the Who, Santana, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joe Cocker maybe,” he told Billboard Magazine. “And it would be people like Steve Earle and Ben Harper. There's certainly room for the (Red Hot) Chili Peppers and Dave Matthews...That would be the shape of the music.”

The difficulties faced at the moment all revolve around finance, however. Lang wants the festival to be a free event, and that means that he needs a lot of money to help fund it.

"It's free, but it costs a lot of money. That's kind of what we're in the middle of right now. Depending on how successful we are in raising that sponsorship money will determine when and how we do this event – or if we do this event, frankly.

"The festival celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 1999 with a festival headlined by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but the event was marred by complaints about facilities and access to water which eventually led to a mass riot by the festival goers.

Billboard reports that the festival will be celebrated in many other ways during 2009, including a release of a director’s cut, four hour version of the seminal ‘Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace And Music’ film featuring 18 performances that weren’t in the original movie.

Rhino Records will also release a six CD box set of performances from the festival.