An upstate New York town has denied a permit to stage the Woodstock 50 festival at a local horse track, saying the application is too late and incomplete.
Organizers can appeal the permit denial to the town's planning board within five days, Vernon town attorney Vincent Rossi said Tuesday. Organizers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The denial came a day after opponents of the three-day festival packed a Vernon town board meeting Monday night, voicing concerns about safety and traffic in the rural area. Oneida County Sheriff Rob Maciol told the crowd it would be impossible to ensure public safety on such short notice.
The Vernon Downs racetrack and casino emerged as a possible site for the Aug. 16-18 anniversary festival after the original venue, Watkins Glen International, pulled out last month.
A festival at Vernon Downs could host up to 65,000 people, as opposed to the 150,000 planned for Watkins Glen, and it would not feature camping.
Before the permit denial was announced, Woodstock 50 president Greg Peck said Tuesday that the group is working with law enforcement and public safety officials to address concerns.
"We are confident that this careful planning and consideration of community concerns will result in a safe, world-class festival," Peck said in a prepared release.
The festival has faced other setbacks, including the losses of a financial partner and a production company.
State health officials said last month they had received a mass gathering permit application for the festival. But they said Tuesday that type of permit was not required since there will be no camping.
The festival still needs to ensure it meets public health requirements for public gatherings of more than 5,000 people and must obtain a permit.
New York health officials say they are evaluating information submitted by Woodstock 50 in collaboration with local officials.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More