Before there was the Apple Music Festival, there was the US Festival: a sprawling, Woodstock-style music event hosted by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Boasting performances ranging from the Grateful Dead and the Ramones to The Kinks and Fleetwood Mac, the story behind the epic, money-losing concert is set to be told in a new documentary called The US Generation.
Apple Music before Apple Music was a thing
Part documentary, part concert movie, The US Generation will feature vintage footage of the event, along with new interviews with many of the folks involved — including Woz.
It’s a great story, and one that certainly deserves immortalizing on film. The movie’s producers are currently raising money on Kickstarter, so if you want to see it, chip in a few bucks.
The event took place in September 1982 on a 500-acre stretch of undeveloped land in Devore, California. Everything about it was grandiose, from the amazing lineup of artists to the $10 million amphitheater Woz commissioned for a stage.
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The US Festival represented an ahead-of-its-time combination of music and technology. Robert Moog was in attendance to give a demonstration of his famous synthesizer, while jazz legend Herbie Hancock led a discussion about the Apple II/Alpha Syntauri music system — and wowed the crowd with a few impromptu riffs.
The Macintosh team was also present, and at least one got accidentally ejected after going backstage.
Tons went wrong, of course, but a lot went right. Woz lost millions, although he’s always said he had so much fun that it was worth the expenditure. “If I do this for another 55 years, I’m in trouble,” he said at the time.
If you’d like to get involved with funding the documentary, head over to its Kickstarter page, where a pledge of $15 will secure you a preorder screening of the movie. Bigger pledges come with other rewards.
Forget about hip-hop documentaries — why can’t this be the kind of exclusive documentary Apple puts out?
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
2 responses to “Woz’s wacky music festival is the focus of new documentary”
“Forget about hip hop documentaries, why can’t this be the kind of exclusive documentary Apple puts out?”
THANK YOU.
Woz was asked about the investment and he called it a bargain because he saw a million smiles. Where are guys like him now? Instead of avoiding taxes, maybe others with means should do from the heart like woz did!