BBC News | Entertainment | Woodstock comes to Europe

The original 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, upstate New York, was one of the defining moments of flower power culture.

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Now 100 acts have been booked to appear at a 30th anniversary festival at Weiner-Neustadt, near Vienna, from 16-18 July. A week later the show will reopen in its original home in the US.

Organisers say both events will bring together acts from across the world with the idea of celebrating peace and music under the motto “one world”.

Production designer Mark Fisher – who has worked on shows for the Rolling Stones, U2 and Pink Floyd – has been commissioned to draw up plans for the Austrian site, which is expected to attract 250,000 fans.

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Organiser Michael Lang said: “Woodstock has always been more than just a rock concert, it’s a celebration of music and art which has come to symbolize freedom, individuality and independence of thought.

“We are not going back to the past but hope to re-energize the spirit of Woodstock as the millennium draws to a close.”

Lang was involved in the orginal 1969 event, as well as a 25th anniversary event in 1994.

Work will begin at Weiner-Neustadt in March on building the site, which organisers say will be “a temporary city the size of Bonn”.

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