Twenty eight years ago today, the first of what would turn out to be two giant multi-day US Festivals — envisioned by their organizer, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, as “Woodstock West” — opened in blistering 110-degree heat at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernadino County, Calif.
That first day featured a classic punk/New Wave lineup that included Gang of Four, Ramones, The English Beat, Oingo Boingo, The B-52s, Talking Heads and The Police. Over the next two days things skewed a bit more mainstream, as fans caught The Cars, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Fleetwood Mac and the Grateful Dead.
Wozniak would reprise the US Festival to even greater success over Memorial Day weekend in 1983 — particularly with its “Heavy Metal Sunday,” which drew more than 300,000 people. The four-day festival featured sets by U2, The Clash, INXS, Van Halen, Judas Priest, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings among many others.
To commemorate today’s anniversary, we present — in the playlist embedded above — the Ramones’ full nine-song set, which they tore through in just over 20 minutes. As a bonus, we’ve gathered, below, some highlights of both the ’82 and ’83 fests, with clips from the Clash, U2, INXS, Oingo Boingo, B-52s, English Beat, Wall of Voodoo and Divinyls.
See more US Festival video after the jump…
Fabulous clips…thanks for posting. I remember these shows from afar (Massachusetts), shocked and a bit saddened that they were so long ago now.
I love watching people boogie to songs about heroin addiction! Gabba Gabba Hey.