09-06-2020, 09:55 PM
https://www.cultofmac.com/499746/apple-h...-festival/
September 3, 1982: The Us Festival, an extravagant music and technology event staged by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, kicks off in California. The fest costs $8 million to stage, and boasts appearances from some of the biggest musical acts of the day.
It’s a wild venture for Woz, who is on hiatus from Apple after surviving a serious plane crash in 1981.
With a personal fortune of $116 million, the Us Festival was an altogether bolder venture for Apple’s lovable geek. It was an attempt to stage his own version of Woodstock.
The name “Us Festival” was not short for United States, but rather the collective term for everyone. It was short for “Unite Us in Song.” It was supposed to celebrate the passing of the “Me” Decade that had been the 1970s. Whether purposely or not, it also referred to Wozniak as a new family man. His wife went into labor the night before the festival opened.
To bring his festival to life, Woz enlisted legendary rock promoter Bill Graham (whose name is used for San Francisco’s Bill Graham Auditorium, where Apple holds various events). Graham filled the Us Festival card with rock luminaries ranging from The Grateful Dead and The Ramones to The Kinks and Fleetwood Mac.
Because of the scale of the festival, many artists charged obscene amounts of money to perform.
“I would see the money going out — my God, so much more money than these bands have ever been paid!” recalled festival controller Carlos Harvey years later.
September 3, 1982: The Us Festival, an extravagant music and technology event staged by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, kicks off in California. The fest costs $8 million to stage, and boasts appearances from some of the biggest musical acts of the day.
It’s a wild venture for Woz, who is on hiatus from Apple after surviving a serious plane crash in 1981.
With a personal fortune of $116 million, the Us Festival was an altogether bolder venture for Apple’s lovable geek. It was an attempt to stage his own version of Woodstock.
The name “Us Festival” was not short for United States, but rather the collective term for everyone. It was short for “Unite Us in Song.” It was supposed to celebrate the passing of the “Me” Decade that had been the 1970s. Whether purposely or not, it also referred to Wozniak as a new family man. His wife went into labor the night before the festival opened.
To bring his festival to life, Woz enlisted legendary rock promoter Bill Graham (whose name is used for San Francisco’s Bill Graham Auditorium, where Apple holds various events). Graham filled the Us Festival card with rock luminaries ranging from The Grateful Dead and The Ramones to The Kinks and Fleetwood Mac.
Because of the scale of the festival, many artists charged obscene amounts of money to perform.
“I would see the money going out — my God, so much more money than these bands have ever been paid!” recalled festival controller Carlos Harvey years later.
