Michael Lang, founder of Woodstock festivals, dead at 77

PHOTO: YouTube/HBO

Michael Lang, the co-creator of the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Festival and producer of the subsequent versions in the 1990s, has died at the age of 77.

Alternative rock fans are likely to have more of a touching point with the 1994 and 1999 versions of the festival, which featured Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Bush, The Offspring, and many more. Lang also attempted a 50th anniversary edition in 2019, which never came to fruition.

Lang was most recently interviewed in an HBO documentary about the 1999 iteration, which was marred by intense heat, violence, vandalism, and sexual assault.