Michael Lang
BLACKSBURG, Va., April 12, 2010 – The Virginia Tech Union is bringing Michael Lang to Virginia Tech on Wednesday, April 14 in the auditorium in the Graduate Life Center.
This event is open to the public. Tickets are $1 for students and $2 for non-students. Tickets go on sale at the door at 6:30 p.m. The doors for the show open at 7 p.m. and the event will begin at 7:30 p.m.
Music industry maverick and entrepreneur Lang is best-known as the mastermind and creative genius who brought the legendary 1969 Woodstock Festival to life.
In a time of hippies, Vietnam War protests, and social unrest, Woodstock peacefully brought 400,000 people together for the sake peace, love, and music. Woodstock featured some of the most influential artists of the era, including The Who, Santana, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. In this 40th anniversary year, Lang will tell the story of Woodstock, a tale that includes vast challenges and impossible odds, hippies dropping out and dropping acid, great music, a rainy downpour and an ocean of mud, Wavy Gravy and Abbie Hoffman, lawsuits, financial disaster, threats from the governor and National Guard, and the massive post-festival clean up of Max Yasgur’s farm in upstate New York.
Beyond these stories, Lang will provide context for what the 1960s meant then, and how we can benefit today from the spirit of this fabled time in America. His presentation, with audio and visuals, is a glimpse inside a time capsule and rare opportunity to hear first-hand accounts from Woodstock and how it was pulled off.
Lang’s recently published, best-selling book is called The Road to Woodstock. In 2009, Woodstock Ventures, owned in part by Lang, joined with Sony Music Entertainment to launch a new website that celebrates the history of the original Woodstock Festival and serves as a live music social network.
Written by Katie Noland. Noland, a senior from Berryville, Va., is majoring in English in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.