On this day in music history: September 3, 1982 - The first US Festival is held at Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore near San Bernadino, CA. The massive three day concert is sponsored by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak and produced by Bill Graham Presents, the event intended to be a celebration of evolving technologies; a marriage of music, computers, television and people. Twenty major acts will play over the three day Labor Day weekend including The Police, Talking Heads, The B-52s, Pat Benatar, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The English Beat, Santana, The Grateful Dead, Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, Oingo Boingo, The Cars, The Ramones, The Kinks, and Fleetwood Mac among them. The festival will attract over 300,000 people, over the three days that it is held. In spite of the sweltering heat (reaching as high as 110°F), 35 drug overdoses, and a $12 million financial loss by Wozniak on the first festival, it will be deemed successful enough that a second and even bigger festival (lasting four days) will take place over the Memorial Day Weekend in May of 1983.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 00:00:09 +0000
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