Michael Lang Tragic Cause of Death Revealed: Woodstock Music Festival Co-Creator Dead At 77

Michael Lang
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Focus Features

Michael Lang, an organizer who helped the famous Woodstock music festival, has died. He was 77.

A spokesperson for the Lang's family first confirmed the heartbreaking news, saying that the promoter died after getting admitted at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. According to Michael Pagnotta, the music festival organizer died on Saturday.

"He was absolutely an historic figure, and also a great guy," Pagnotta said, as quoted by The Guardian. "Both of those things go hand in hand."

Meanwhile, he also confirmed that Michael Lang's cause of death was due to non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

The American Cancer Society describes the illness as an event when cells in any part of a patient's body grow out of control and become cancer. They eventually spread to other areas. For non-Hodgkin lymphoma, it usually starts in white blood cells.

NBC News also received the same confirmation from representative Maureen O'Connor, revealing that the music festival promoter suffered from the illness' complications.

People Honor Michael Lang; Remember His Legacy

After the news broke, people who once attended his music festivals paid tribute to him and said he was a great man who completed their concert experiences.

One said, "The man behind the greatest concert ever. RIP Michael Lang. Thank you for turning me onto Sly & The Family Stone, when I saw the doc, as a kid. I can't even put into words how much seeing Woodstock for the first time meant to me. It was a life changer."

"Rest In Peace, Michael Lang, visionary behind the Woodstock Festival. This impromptu pic was taken in front of Bread Alone on Tinker Street in the town of Woodstock just as Michael's plans for Woodstock 50 were falling apart. I like to think we lifted his spirits a bit that day," another added.

Aside from the 1969 Woodstock music festival, he also lent his abilities to organize the 1994 Woodstock and 1999 infamous festival. He, alongside John Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld, and John P. Roberts, worked together to conceptualize the concert in Woodstock, New York.

Before his death, Lang still planned on having a 50th anniversary Woodstock music festival. However, it never turned into a real-life concert.

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