After years of watching promoters emulate Woodstock, Artie Kornfeld – one of the creators of the legendary festival – is ready to give it his own modern return.
Kornfeld and musician Larry McClurg are putting together an event, set to take place at Summersville, W.Va., July 19-21, where Kornfeld hopes to bring people "back to the Garden." "It’s a renaissance faire about the Summer of Love," Kornfeld told Pollstar. "It’s to create the feeling of hope that we had that weekend." Kornfeld has a storied history in rock ‘n’ roll over the past half-century, from writing songs in the Brill Building to being the first senior VP of rock for a record label (Capitol) to thinking up Woodstock with Michael Lang over a game of bumper pool. When it comes to Goodstock 2007, the dream isn’t grand; it’s manageable. "If I sell 10,000 tickets, I have my promotion budget," Kornfeld said. "It will have a better bottom line than a big festival with the Red Hot Chili Peppers because it will only cost $300,000 to $400,000 to do this total. I just want to promote it in a very cool way. You remember that ad that my partners didn’t want me to run three months before Woodstock?" Summersville is excited about the festival and has allowed Kornfeld and McClurg to put two stages on a 1,000-acre site free of charge, Kornfeld said. Stage security has been volunteered in return for some travel money. Meanwhile, the city gets all of the concessions. The acts are the new local heroes of the U.S.: popular MySpace bands. McClurg advertised on MySpace and, after getting 500 responses and reviewing hundreds of CDs, accepted 90 bands and turned down 190 others. Each band gets $3,000 to hop in vans and get their butts to West Virginia.
Source Pollstar
