VERNON, NY (CelebrityAccess) — Organizers of the beleaguered Woodstock 50 Festival have filed another permit application with the Town of Vernon to hold the festival at Vernon Downs next month.
Town Attorney Vincent Rossi confirmed the filing to the Utica Observer-Dispatch on Wednesday. The latest application is the festival’s third such bid to secure a permit.
“Our codes office told me a new application was filed yesterday,” Rossi told the newspaper. “I have not seen it yet but will help our codes officers analyze it as soon as possible.”
Two previous applications have been denied over concerns about public safety and insufficient planning for an event of the proposed festival’s scope. An appeal of the second application was also roundly rejected by the town on Tuesday after senior officials expressed grave reservations about the ability of organizers to stage a safe event.
“I’m not surprised by their last attempt to hold this event,” Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol told the Observer-Dispatch. “The serious concerns I had yesterday are the same ones I have today, nothing has changed that would make me feel otherwise. It’s logistically impossible that this event could occur without significant risk to public safety.”
In a statement released after the town rejected the permit appeal on Tuesday, festival organizers said: “Woodstock 50 is disappointed that the Town of Vernon has passed up the opportunity to hold the historic 50th Anniversary Festival by denying our robust and thoughtful proposal. We regret that those in Vernon who supported Woodstock have been deprived of the once-in-a-lifetime chance to be part of the rebirth of a cultural peace movement that changed the world in 1969 and is what the world needs now. We want to thank the artists who stood by us. We are grateful for the support of Vernon Downs and its generous owner Jeffrey Gural.”
