The organizers of a canceled music festival scheduled for the 50th anniversary of Woodstock sued the Japan-based advertising agency Dentsu Wednesday, arguing that the company and its affiliates "sabotaged" the festival and caused tens of millions of dollars in losses.

Marc Kasowitz of Kasowitz Benson Torres, which is representing Woodstock 50, argued in court papers that Dentsu "secretly decided to abandon, and then sabotage," the festival just a few months before it was scheduled to occur.

One Dentsu affiliate, Amplifi Live, is not named as a defendant because Woodstock 50 is pursuing its claims in arbitration, though Kasowitz noted that New York County Supreme Court Justice Barry Ostrager previously ruled that Dentsu and its affiliates, including Amplifi, acted in concert with and as agents for one another.

After more than a year of planning for the scheduled August 2019 festival, and after major acts, including Jay-Z and Miley Cyrus, had been booked, Dentsu and its affiliates became concerned about profitability and embarked on a campaign to interfere in large and small ways with the final preparations, Kasowitz argued.

"The co-conspirators planned out their strategy to surprise Woodstock 50 with the public notice of cancellation, expecting to kill the Festival so Woodstock 50 could not even attempt to produce it on its own, as Woodstock 50 had a right to do under the Agreement," Kasowitz wrote.

On April 29, 2019, Amplifi issued a press release announcing that the festival was being canceled for safety reasons, according to the suit.

The alleged safety concerns were not real, Kasowitz wrote, and the press release violated a provision of the contract stating that Woodstock 50 had to agree, in writing, to any cancellation.

The same day, Dentsu withdrew the entire balance of the festival bank account without notice, totaling about $18 million, Kasowitz wrote.

The parties went to court in May, and Ostrager issued a ruling in favor of Woodstock 50, ordering Dentsu and Amplifi to refrain from canceling the festival or claiming it was being canceled.

"Despite Amplifi's and Dentsu's wrongful cancellation and ensuing sabotage, Woodstock 50 took every reasonable effort to stage the Festival and mitigate its losses, including by seeking new financing and production assistance," Kasowitz wrote. "But those efforts could not succeed in the face of Dentsu's continued onslaught, which was in flagrant violation of [Ostrager's order]."

Dentsu and its affiliates continued a campaign of false statements in the press, Kasowitz argued, and their campaign succeeded in turning public opinion against the festival.

Dentsu did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

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