US Festival to try again

Features

Briefly

The Globe and Mail

May 17, 1983

Last year's US Festival in San Bernardino, Calif., was far from the success that was expected, but that hasn't deterred Apple computer designer Steve Wozniak from trying once again to stage the biggest rock concert since Woodstock.

"This year we've constructed the largest stage in the world ever, we're using diamond-vision video screens, lasers, and a 400,000-watt sound system," said Wozniak at a press conference in Toronto yesterday. "We've even got Soviet central committee approval to send a signal to Russia."

Last September, acts such as Tom Petty, the Cars, and Pat Benetar brought out just over 200,000 people to the three-day event 100 kilometres east of Los Angeles. This year, on May 29-30 and on June 4, the festival - called Today, Tomorrow, Together - will be divided into different sounds, with rock, heavy metal, and country bands playing together on the same days.

The hard rock trio, Triumph, will be the only Canadian group at the festival, joining other bands such as Van Halen, Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne on May 29, for the heavy metal day. David Bowie, Men at Work, Flock of Seagulls, U2, and the Pretenders are among the rock acts performing on May 28 and 30. And on June 4, Willie Nelson and Alabama will head a roster of country acts.

Wozniak said the lineup selection was arrived at from "several interviews with high school students."