Fabulous!!!

Kickstarter Campaign Started For New Documentary on the 1982 US Festival

On a blistering hot, Labor Day weekend in 1982, about an hour's drive from Los Angeles, The Ramones, B52's, Talking Heads, and The Police all took the stage in front of over 100,000 fans. The Police were in mid-tour for Ghosts in the Machine and as Stewart Copeland recollects: "we were whip-cracking hot - and we scorched Southern California". The next day, Eddie Money, Santana, The Cars, The Kinks, Pat Benatar, and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers rocked to an even larger crowd. Sunday morning, The Grateful Dead took the stage bright and early - billed as "Breakfast in Bed with the Grateful Dead", and they were followed by a lineup that included Jimmy Buffet and the Coral Reefer Band and Jackson Browne. Fleetwood Mac closed the show. This was The 1982 US Festival.

"The US Festival was financed by Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple," says Glenn Aveni, of Icon Music TV, an indie filmmaker who has produced and directed music documentaries on John Entwistle, The Clash, and Les Paul. "It was produced by Bill Graham. The 350,000 fans that were there still consider it a highlight of their concert-going lives. Yet for all its talent, and for all its influence and innovation, the US Festival is not so readily remembered, because there never was a film about it... Until now."

Woz felt the 1970's were The 'Me' Generation and that it was time for the world to embrace a less selfish credo, one of unity and togetherness," explains Aveni, Director of the documentary. "He created UNUSON - short for 'Unite Us In Song' to produce a huge 3-day outdoor state-of-the-art concert that married music and technology. I have entitled this documentary The US Generation in tribute to Woz and his message of unity. It's not lost on me that a message of unity should resonate with all of us today."

"Wozniak had the vision and the money and the determination to get it done. The opportunity arose, and he took it," adds Mickey Hart, in an interview for the film.

Aveni has worked on the film since 2012 and says it is mostly done. To help clear and remaster additional music for it, he has launched a campaign on Kickstarter. In an unusual concession from his distribution partner, he has arranged for the "rewards" from Kickstarter - including copies the film - to be immediately available after the film's completion, before any festival screenings, theatrical releases, or TV premier. "My distributor agreed that the people who were there have already waited 30+ years," he explains.

The innovations of the 1982 US Festival were as legendary as its performances. The venue was built from scratch in San Bernardino, on the site of a former prison farm, in a matter of a few months. It is still the largest outdoor amphitheater in America today. The US Festival invented misting stations, pioneered water cannons to cool the crowd, unveiled the debut of Diamond Vision - a huge screen actually visible during the day, and helped pioneer digital sound delay, so that fans in the back could hear sound in real time.

"The 1982 US Festival executed. They did it right, and showed it could be done right, setting the stage for future mega-shows from Live Aid to Bonnaroo and Coachella," says Gregg Perloff of Another Planet, who was with Bill Graham Presents at the time and was interviewed for the film.

"Prior to The US Festival in 1982", adds Aveni "No multi-day outdoor permit had been issued by any municipality since 1969 - the year of Woodstock and Altamont, both of which had serious operational difficulties and safety issues. If not for this event, who knows if and when other events would have occurred."

Free water and shade tents were everywhere. The stage was the largest yet seen, and the sound was powered by 400,000 watts. There was a tech pavilion under 5 air-conditioned tents, stocked by Woz and his friends with the latest gadgets and some prototypes of what was yet to come. They even piped music over satellite feed into the USSR - crossing The Iron Curtain.

"It's a great untold story full of awesome music, amazing anecdotes and larger than life personalities," adds Aveni. The US Generation documentary is a blend of music, archival footage, and interviews with the crowd and with performers. Besides Perloff and Hart, there are insightful present-day interviews with Stewart Copeland (The Police), Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac), Eddie Money, Marky Ramone, Kate Pierson (B-52's), and Wozniak himself, all speaking fondly and candidly about the event. Among those interviewed archivally are Sting, Pat Benatar, David Byrne, Ric Ocasek, Carlos Santana, and DaveDavies, along with Woz and Graham. The film also covers how the event was conceived, and regales with the on-site hijinks, challenges, and lively battles between Graham and Woz.

The Kickstarter campaign is offering the first copies of the film, in digital download, DVD, and Blu Ray, with options for extra music, and added celeb commentary. "We've gone to town on these Rewards," says Aveni. "If you love classic rock and have pined for something new, here you go."



http://www.vintagevinylnews.com/2016...d-for-new.html

A picture of Stevie and Lindsey at the Us fest posted by a fan in the comments:

https://s11.postimg.org/vin9ami0h/15...81339440_n.jpg

Nice and crisp FM footage after 2:00 (or -1:00):

That's so beautiful! Thank you, SisterNightRoad.

No problem Danielle, thanks for appreciating.
Have you seen the other videos on the KickStarter page? They're awesome too, I made this gifset some time ago from them:

Yes, I did. Equallly wonderful. :)

New Documentary on the 1982 US Festival in the Works

Next to computers, Steve Wozniak’s greatest love was music. In 1982, he took some of the fortune he made as a co-founder of Apple and staged a massive money-losing music event called the US Festival. The lineup included The Ramones, B52s, Talking Heads, the Police, The Cards, Sanatana, The Kings, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac and more.

“The US Festival was financed by Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple,” says Glenn Aveni, of Icon Music TV, an indie filmmaker who has produced and directed music documentaries on John Entwistle, The Clash, and Les Paul. “It was produced by Bill Graham. The 350,000 fans that were there still consider it a highlight of their concert-going lives. Yet for all its talent, and for all its influence and innovation, the US Festival is not so readily remembered, because there never was a film about it… Until now.”

A documentary has been in the works since 2012 and is almost done. The final stage–clearing and remastering all the additional music–needs some financial help, hence this Kickstarter campaign.

Here’s more from the pitch.

The innovations of the 1982 US Festival were as legendary as its performances. The venue was built from scratch in San Bernardino, on the site of a former prison farm, in a matter of a few months. It is still the largest outdoor amphitheater in America today. The US Festival invented misting stations, pioneered water cannons to cool the crowd, unveiled the debut of Diamond Vision – a huge screen actually visible during the day, and helped pioneer digital sound delay, so that fans in the back could hear sound in real time.

“The 1982 US Festival executed. They did it right, and showed it could be done right, setting the stage for future mega-shows from Live Aid to Bonnaroo and Coachella,” says Gregg Perloff of Another Planet, who was with Bill Graham Presents at the time and was interviewed for the film.

“Prior to The US Festival in 1982”, adds Aveni “No multi-day outdoor permit had been issued by any municipality since 1969 – the year of Woodstock and Altamont, both of which had serious operational difficulties and safety issues. If not for this event, who knows if and when other events would have occurred.”

Free water and shade tents were everywhere. The stage was the largest yet seen, and the sound was powered by 400,000 watts. There was a tech pavilion under 5 air-conditioned tents, stocked by Woz and his friends with the latest gadgets and some prototypes of what was yet to come. They even piped music over satellite feed into the USSR – crossing The Iron Curtain.

If you’re interested, kick in some money here.



http://ajournalofmusicalthings.com/n...estival-works/

Nice story
 

For those who didn't understand:




BASICS: Kickstarter is a crowd funding site. It is used by artists to raise $ for projects. People “back” a project they like by making a “pledge”. They get a “reward”, usually something pretty cool.

Here are the 6 main points to remember:

1) Backing a Kickstarter project is NOT making a donation! When you "back" or financially support a Kickstarter project, you are purchasing a “reward”. You are also helping the project at the ground floor, but you always get to choose a "reward" of fair or comparable value. The more you pledge, the nicer the Reward, and there are many possible levels of support.

2) Most important thing to remember: When you back a Kickstarter project, it is a "pledge". No money is charged to your card. NONE! You can increase, decrease, or cancel the pledge at any time. You do not even need a present available balance, and there is ZERO RISK.

3) The card is ONLY charged AFTER the campaign, and ONLY IF the campaign is successful to reach its target. (The US Festival target is $60K, and the campaign ends Dec 19. If it doesn’t reach the target by then, no money is transacted and no pledges are EVER charged. A Kickstarter campaign is all or nothing – that’s why we’re counting on you to help get there.)

4) The earliest pledges are the most important. It helps the project get seen by more people. If you know the Project Creators, the sooner you back the better, and again - the card is not charged until the end.

5)The only things needed to set up a Kickstarter account are a name and email. You can even use a fake name. It takes less than a minute. You go to Kickstarter.com, click Sign Up, enter a name and email, pick a password, and you have an account. Boom. Done.

6) Once you have an account, you can make a pledge. CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR PAGE


That’s it! When you go to our page, please plan to spend a few minutes. Watch the video. Read the copy. Scroll down and watch the music video in the MUSIC section – featuring B-52’s, Talking Heads, and Tom Petty. Then choose any Reward, and follow the prompts from there. If questions, email me/us or click Contact Me on the page, upper right.

Thanks Sister for all the homework and research on this project .I hope it get off the ground soon.They can release the complete thing on DVD.That will make everybody happy.

I've already pledged last Saturday so I commented this post with my reason for wanting this movie to be available to the public: being the closest I will ever get to experience my favourite artists in one of their best moments.
Those of you who have pledged comment for Glenn too, I actually had the chance to talk to him on Facebook and he's a very genuine person, he deserves it:

P.S. You're welcome Skip, I hope they are successful too, it is a very important DVD.

So close:

Just pledged! It's really strange that we're not talking about this more??? This is one of the most exciting things we've had access to in a long time? I guess the board is just slow these days.

Thanks for pledging too, I think this is one of the most exciting things that happened since I became a member but sadly the interest is been lukewarm.

I just want to say that the project is right now at 99% completion circa and it will end in 5 hours, only 886 $ are missing.
If this projects gets all the 60'000$ we will see this very important documentary in a few days instead of a year from now and directly at our home, and we can also choose which full performances to have as a bonus rewards, on top of Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks there are a lot more great artists and bands like Greatful Dead, David Bowie, The Police, U2 and more. If someone is interested but still hesitant, this is the moment.

I'm about to donate. How do we get to chose that we want to see Fleetwood Mac's full performance?

You choose from the options at the side, however since Fleetwood Mac is from the 1982 edition you just have to choose one of the options that includes the music bonus from 21$ and beyond if I remember well.
The options in which you have to choose the day are only the ones regarding the 1983 footage. For anything you can message the director from both KickStarter or Facebook.

I just want to say that tonight the projects reached its target and a little above, congratulations to everyone who have contributed because thanks to you (us) we have all won in a way.
Soon we will have information about our rewards, so stay tuned.

Can you send the link to the official Facebook page?

You just have to click on the "f" on the top right of each embed facebook post. Howevere here it is: https://www.facebook.com/usfestmovie/?fref=ts

No problem, however there are good news for those who decided to back a little too late: