Photo: Getty Images North America
Michael Lang, the man who co-launched the groundbreaking Woodstock festival in 1969, has died at 77 years old.
Representatives confirm that Lang passed on January 8 at a New York hospital, following a battle with a rare form of lymphoma.
Lang is survived by five children and one grandchild.
"We are very sad to hear that legendary Woodstock icon and long time family friend Michael Lang has passed at 77 after a brief illness," Lang's colleague Michael Pagnotta wrote via Twitter. "Rest In Peace."
A producer, manager, artist and sculptor, Lang was one of four business people behind the original Woodstock concert in 1969 that gave rise to the modern-day music festival industry, cemented the careers of many iconic artists and endures as a symbol of the late-'60s hippie movement.
Lang was also one of the minds behind the legendary Miami Pop Festival, which preceded Woodstock in '69. He was also involved in planning Woodstocks '94 and '99. In 2019, as the last surviving Woodstock Festival co-founder, Lang attempted to launch a 50th anniversary Woodstock, which ultimately did not come to fruition.
Speaking to Q104.3 New York in 2019, Lang stressed the peace, love and "community" principals around which the original festival was founded.
"These days we seem to be living through the same lessons that we thought we learned [in the '60s]," Lang says. "... It just seems like we really need a reminder."