US Festival

The US Festivals ("US" pronounced like the pronoun, not as initials) were two early 1980s music and culture festivals sponsored by Steve Wozniak of, at the time, Apple, Inc., and broadcast live on cable television. The first was held Labor Day weekend in September 1982 and the second was Memorial Day weekend in May 1983. Wozniak paid for the bulldozing and construction of a new open-air field venue as well as the construction of an enormous state-of-the-art temporary stage at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, California. (This site was later to become home to Blockbuster Pavilion—now San Manuel Amphitheater—the largest amphitheatre in the United States as of 2007.)

History

In the years after the confusion of the Woodstock Festival and the crowd-control debacle of the Altamont Free Concert in 1969, most festivals attempted in the United States were small-scale affairs, usually centered around a humanitarian cause, such as the 1979 Concerts for the People of Kampuchea. The 1982 US Festival was the first major festival since that time that was "not" a charity concert—it was intended to be celebration of evolving technologies; a marriage of music, computers, television and people. It was the first large concert to include video screens to bring the action on stage closer to the audience at the rear of the amphitheater, as well as to cable-television viewers at home.

The two festivals also included large air-conditioned tents featuring the US Festival Technology Exposition—a dazzling display of then-cutting edge computers, software, and electronic music devices. (See the Softalk article linked below for a walk back in the history of computing.)

Each of the two festivals had hundreds of thousands of people in attendance, but were resounding commercial failures. It is estimated that sponsor Wozniak lost nearly $20 million over two years.

Van Halen received an upfront sum of $1,500,000 to headline the 1983 US Festival. In contrast, The Clash refused to play unless some donations were made to charities or other such noble causes by Wozniak and some of the other major bands. After The Clash performed the DJ began speaking right away and Clash guitarist Mick Jones attacked the DJ believing he was trying to prevent an encore.

This and The Clash's ironic criticism of the festival in the press conferences and in interviews prior to the event caused an argument backstage between Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth and The Clash singer Joe Strummer. This may have also been kickstarted by a comment guitarist Eddie Van Halen made in Rolling Stone magazine one month prior regarding the punk movement ("...that's like what I played in my garage when I was a kid, man."). A clearly intoxicated Roth compounded this rivalry by insulting The Clash onstage early during Van Halen's headlining set with his comment, "I wanna take this time to say that this is "real" whiskey here... the only people who put iced tea in Jack Daniel's bottles is The Clash, baby!" Roth's comment, however, was used on-stage at every Van Halen show as a challenge to that night's opening band, and in this case it was directed at The Clash. This was Roth's only mention of The Clash on stage that night.

"It was the day new wave died and rock n' roll took over" - Vince Neil, in a famous quote regarding the overwhelming attendance on Sunday, "Heavy Metal Day", at the '83 US Festival. It set the single day concert attendance record for the US with an estimated 375,000 people. Showtime recorded the event for a months long TV special airing 90 minute specials every day. It was all captured live and can be found at www.rockshowvideos.com

Lessons learned at the US Festival contributed to the much greater success of the enormous Live Aid charity benefit shows in 1985.

Labor Day Weekend, 1982

Three days, 105°F (40.5°C) weather; 36 arrests, 12 drug overdoses, $12.5 million lost. (Bands are listed in the order they appeared.)

Friday, September 3

* Gang of Four
* The Ramones
* The English Beat
* Oingo Boingo
* The B-52's
* Talking Heads
* The Police

aturday, September 4

* The Joe Sharino Band
* Dave Edmunds
* Eddie Money
* Santana
* The Cars
* The Kinks
* Pat Benatar
* Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

unday, September 5

* Breakfast with the Dead | Grateful Dead
* Jerry Jeff Walker
* Jimmy Buffett
* Jackson Browne
* Fleetwood Mac

Memorial Day Weekend, 1983

Three days (plus a fourth Country Day a week later), 670,000 in attendance, $7-8 million lost.

aturday, May 28 (New Wave Day)

* Divinyls
* INXS
* Wall of Voodoo - Stan Ridgway's last appearance with Wall of Voodoo
* Oingo Boingo
* The English Beat
* Flock of Seagulls
* Stray Cats
* Men at Work
* The Clash - Mick Jones' last appearance with The Clash.

unday, May 29 (Heavy Metal Day)

* Quiet Riot
* Mötley Crüe
* Ozzy Osbourne
* Judas Priest
* Triumph
* The Scorpions
* Van Halen

Monday, May 30 (Rock Day)

* Los Lobos (on a side stage only)
* Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul
* Berlin
* Quarterflash
* U2
* Missing Persons
* The Pretenders
* Joe Walsh
* Stevie Nicks
* David Bowie

aturday June 4th (Country Day)

* Riders In The Sky
* Thrasher Brothers
* Ricky Skaggs
* Hank Williams Jr.
* Emmylou Harris & The Hot Band
* Waylon Jennings
* Alabama
* Willie Nelson

Trivia

The US Festival stage has resided at the Disneyland theme park in California since 1985 and has operated under various names and functions as the Videopolis dance club, the Videopolis Theatre, and the Fantasyland Theatre.

References in popular culture

* The US Festival was mentioned in "The Simpsons" episode "Homerpalooza", where Homer says, "There can only be one truly great festival a lifetime and it's the US Festival!"

* The festival was also mentioned in a scene in the "Dharma & Greg" episode "Spring Forward, Fall Down" where Dharma's parent's are reminiscing over old photos of her when Larry says "Here's one of her dancing all alone in this big empty field.", to which his wife replies "No honey, that was the US Festival". She continues to lament by exclaiming "Oh... look how young Ozzy Osbourne looks..."

* The US festival is also mentioned in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle where Malcolm, Dewey and Reese find a swimming pool jumping board in an alley and drag it home. Hal, the father, has a recall of being at the US festival.

* In the comic strip "Bloom County", an US Festival was held in Milo's Meadow; according to Milo et al, the festival got its name "because all the dough goes to "us"!"

External links

* [http://www.woz.org/US/ Steve Wozniak's US Festivals site]
* [http://www.usfestivals.com/ US Festivals website]
* [http://sohodojo.com/us-festival-softalk-story.html Softalk magazine's 1982 article on the festival]