More top bands drop out of 'sinking' Woodstock 50 concert

Update, Wednesday July 31, 4:30 p.m. ET: Organizers announced Wednesday that the Woodstock 50 festival won't take place next month. Original story below.

The original Woodstock may be one of the most legendary concerts of all time, but an attempt to recapture that magic at a 50th anniversary event seems to be falling apart.

This week Jack White's band the Raconteurs, as well as original Woodstock performers John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful and Country Joe McDonald have added their names to the growing list of artists who are officially pulling out of the troubled fest.

"I have no airfare booked. I have no hotels. I have nothing planned," McDonald said in an interview with the Baltimore Sun. "I'm not interested in getting on a ship that's sinking, and I don't see any indication that this ship is not sinking."

On Tuesday, the Raconteurs also told Variety they were dropping out. "Unfortunately, the Raconteurs will no longer be playing Woodstock 50," a rep for the band said. "In lieu, they are heading to Niagara Falls to headline The Rapids Theatre on August 16th!"

Later in the day, headliners Miley Cyrus, the Lumineers and Santana also confirmed they would no longer perform at the festival, according to Variety.

The Woodstock 50 lineup had included the Killers, Imagine Dragons, Robert Plant, Miley Cyrus, The Raconteurs, Halsey, Cage the Elephant and Janelle Monáe. It also featured several artists who appeared at the original fest, among them members of the Grateful Dead, John Fogerty, Santana, David Crosby, Melanie, John Sebastian, Hot Tuna, Canned Heat and Country Joe.

But for months the festival, which was supposed to take place at Watkins Glen International Racetrack, has been plagued by permitting problems, funding issues and legal woes, and when tickets were supposed to go on sale April 22, organizers hadn't even received approvals for the event. Soon after, the financial backers dropped out, but organizers — among them Michael Lang, co-creator of the original Woodstock — vowed to soldier on and seek new investors.

"They postponed announcing the tickets, and I remember reading a while ago that they didn't have some of the permits," John Fogerty said in an interview with Rolling Stone, where he promised to donate his advance payment to military veterans if the concert doesn't go ahead.

"That just blew my mind. You'd think it would be the first thing you'd do and not the last thing. You got the sense there was some shakiness to this whole thing," said Fogerty. "But the first Woodstock happened more by people wishing for it to happen than any effort of great organization."

For his Woodstock 50 set, Fogerty had planned to recreate his 11-song performance from 1969 using the same Rickenbacker guitar he had played 50 years earlier.

The show has since been moved to a site in Maryland, and will be free, but even the organizers seem unclear about who is playing. The lineup page on the Woodstock 50 website doesn't list any artist names at all, and instead reads, "As our celebration evolves, we are committed to bringing unique voices to the stage. Stay tuned for updates as we strive to create an event rooted in peace, love and music that can be a force for positive change in the world."

However the Zombies confirmed that, at least for now, they're still on board.

"I've always believed it would happen, which might sound kooky, but we're at a messed-up moment in time right now and the spirit of Woodstock is something that we need," manager Cindy da Silva told Variety. "And also, the tenacity of that team has been incredible.

"If this was any other festival I'd say 'Give it up already, but maybe the way it's happening is right: It shouldn't be for profit, it should be about peace and love and music and charity and people coming together. If it turns out the way it looks like it should, I do believe it'll be a powerful event that could be a moment of change. Maybe there's a reason it hasn't gone away yet."

For many, the apparent collapse of the festival is reminiscent of the ill-fated Fyre Festival, which also promised big names and an unforgettable experience, then scrambled to pull it off, but failed spectacularly. That failure later became the subject of multiple lawsuits as well as two popular documentaries, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened and Fyre Fraud, which aired on Netflix and Hulu respectively.

Woodstock 50 was scheduled to take place August 16-18 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.