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HistoryIn 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 MTV viewers at home.
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 $1,000,000 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 one of his fairly common and often-used on-stage lines, and in this case it was directed at The Clash. This was Roth's only mention of The Clash on stage that night.
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, 1982Three days, 34 hours of music, 400,000 in attendance, 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 3Saturday, September 4
Sunday, September 5
Memorial Day Weekend, 1983Three days (plus a fourth Country Day a week later), 670,000 in attendance, $7-8 million lost. Saturday, May 28
Sunday, May 29 (Heavy Metal Day)Monday, May 30
Saturday June 4th (Country Day)
TriviaThe 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. The US Festival was mentioned in episode 3F21 of The Simpsons, where Homer says, "There can only be one truly great festival a lifetime and it's the US Festival!"
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