Co-founder of music festival Woodstock and manager Soulsister passed away

Michael Lang, one of the organizers of the Woodstock festival in 1969, died on Saturday at the age of 77. Long suffered from a rare form of lymphoma.

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Michael Lang, one of the organizers of the Woodstock festival in 1969, died on Saturday at the age of 77. This is reported by various media, including the trade magazine Rolling Stone. Long suffered from a rare form of lymphoma.

The famous festival took place from August 15 to 18, 1969 on a huge meadow in the American town of Bethel in New York State. The festival, themed 3 Days of Peace & Music, was named after the place of the same name that was considered the center of hippie culture. Almost all the great artists and bands of that time climbed the stage. This included Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Who, Joe Cocker and Santana.

Lang was only 24 years old when he organized the festival. He also co-directed subsequent editions of Woodstock in 1994 and 1999. In 2019, he made another attempt to celebrate Woodstock’s 50th anniversary with a new festival. However, after months of problems, the plug was pulled from Woodstock 50, partly because no suitable location could be found.

Lang was also manager of Joe Cocker and of Leyers, Michiels and Soulsister. Under his impulse, Soulsister adopted that group name. In Flanders Johan P. Berckmans pulled the strings of the group.

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