Friday August 20, 2021 “Save It For Later” The English Beat
The US Festival (US pronounced like the pronoun, not as initials) was the name of two early 1980s music and culture festivals in southern California, held sixty miles east of Los Angeles, near San Bernardino and funded primarily by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, remember him?
The events were to be the Woodstock of the 80s'' and in fact their attendance figures did exceed those given for Woodstock. Held over Labor Day Weekend 1982 the list of artists included the Ramones, the English Beat, Oingo Boingo, Talking Heads, the Police, Eddie Money, Santana, the Cars, the Kinks, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and many others.
The ticket price was $37.50 ($100 in today’s dollars) and it did not go well with 110 degree weather, thirty six arrests, twelve reported drug overdoses and one ‘related’ murder of a hitchiker going to the concert. The attendance was over 400,000 and the promoters claim to have lost $12 million.
Given all that they reprised the US Festival on Memorial Day 1983 with another all star lineup and attendance of over 600,000. No deaths but the promoters once again claimed to have lost $12 million. There was no third event.
There really were no ‘minor’ acts as with our previous festivals so let's go with The English Beat (in the U.S.) known as the Beat in the UK and the British Beat in Australia.