Michael Lang, Woodstock co-creator, dies at age 77

By Laura Studley, CNN

Michael Lang, famed co-creator of the Woodstock music festival, died Saturday, CNN has learned. He was 77 years old.

Lang died from “a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at Sloan Kettering Hospital in NYC,” read a family statement provided to CNN by longtime family friend Michael Pagnotta.

“He is survived by his wife Tamara, their sons Harry and Laszlo and his daughters LariAnn, Shala and Molly.”

Lang was just 24 years old when Woodstock took place in August 1969 in New York’s Catskill Mountains.

Officially billed The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, An Aquarian Exposition, the festival staged on a dairy farm in White Lake became a seminal moment in music history.

The lineup included Santana, Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Joe Cocker, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Band and Jimi Hendrix, who performed a legendary rendition of “The Star-Bangled Banner.”

Posters for the event promised “3 Days of Peace & Music.” About 100,000 attendees were expected, but 350,000 to 450,000 people showed up, overwhelming the venue. With no system in place to charge them, Woodstock became a free event.

Lang also co-founded and produced the planned Woodstock 50 festival in 2019 — but that event was canceled.

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