Woodstock ‘99 Plans Taking Shape

The Woodstock festival is returning - again.

Although its promoters are said to have lost millions (as they did with the original festival) when they celebrated the event’s 25th anniversary with Woodstock ‘94, that has not deterred them from reconceiving the concert as an event that will take place every five years.

Planning is under way for Woodstock ‘99, according to Performance, a concert-industry magazine.

John Scher, the head of Metropolitan Entertainment, a promotions company, confirmed that a 1999 festival was in the works.

“What’s happened over the last year is that we’ve gotten a number of significant inquiries from artists wondering if there will be another one,” he said.

“And also some very interesting proposals have come in from major corporate people - electronics, Internet, software - about taking the next step and bringing the festival into the home over the Internet. It would be a good way to kick off the millennium.”

Scher said several sites were being considered, including Saugerties, N.Y., where the festival was held in 1994, and Bethel, N.Y., the 1969 site. Michael Lang, one of Woodstock’s founders, has also been looking into a European version of Woodstock ‘99, possibly in Belgium.

The overdue film documentary of Woodstock ‘94, directed by Barbara Kopple, is scheduled for release next year, giving the promoters another way to recoup their losses.

Bob Grossweiner, a senior editor at Performance, said if festival organizers found the right groups, “they would get many, many more people than they had last time.”

Scher said he had asked only one artist to perform so far.

“I was so blown away by John Fogerty,” he said, referring to a performance in New York in early June by Creedence Clearwater Revival’s former leader. “I said, ‘If we’re doing Woodstock ‘99, I want you to be there.”’