25 years ago : The US Festival

Dear Bro,

It was twenty five years ago this summer that I jumped into a white Chevy Vega hatchback with a couple of friends from work and and attended the US Festival in Devore, California. It was Labor day weekend in 1982 and as a 19 year old with too much cash in my pocket I decided to go and spend a weekend with over 200,000 other music fans in a small park in San Bernardino county just outside LA to see what this extravaganza was all about. It all came about because one of Apple Computer's founders, Steve Wozniack had a brainwave in 1981 that it would be "cool" to have a big Woodstock style festival in Southern California and since, at the time, he had more money then sense, that he was the man to make it happen.

So my adventure began on Thursday night, when Brian, John and his wife Cheryl, and I crammed into John's Vega with all our gear for the three days. As we knew there would be limited access to purchase food or water, we packed up plenty of food, water, and beer. (Well, okay, John, Brian, and I filled a large cooler full of beer, Cheryl made sure of everything else.) We drove from John & Cheryl's house in Pomona to Interstate 10, then north on Interstate 15 to the concert site. We were within five miles of Devore when the traffic on I-15 came to a complete stop. And there we sat for several hours waiting for the camp grounds to open up so we could park. It was a fun time as everyone was social and basically sitting around drinking beer.

The four of us sat on the car staring at the Thursday night sky, chatting with other people around us and sipping beers. Then disaster struck... It appears Brian got the bright idea of borrowing some dry ice from work to pack with the beer, thus when we reached for a second beer all that were availabe was beer-cicles. In case you are unaware, when you freeze beer it becomes flat after it thaws, and thus pretty much undrinkable. So for the rest of the weekend, we were teetotalers.

The campground was basically a parking lot, with the organizers just allowing extra room between the rows of cars for people to be able to pitch their tents. It was rather ominous that the first night the temperature was over 80 degrees, thus letting us know that it was going to be a rather warm weekend.

All I can say is thank goodness John's wife came along. Cheryl made us haul a two plastic milk containers full of water which proved to be the most valuable commodity in the crowd. The stage was set up in front of a lake with a natural bowl "field" in front of it with room for several hundred thousand people. We set up our blanket about half way back in the bowl, thus we were about 200 yards from the stage near a large relay tower. In general people were friendly, with only a few weirdos passing through. We pretty much spent all three days setting up in the same spot.

And now for the lineup:
Friday: Gang of Four, The Ramones, The English Beat, Oingo Boingo, The B-52's, Talking Heads, The Police This was a great day for music. Gang of Four was pretty much ignored as the crowd was still filtering in, but the Ramones rocked as did the English Beat. The B-52's did a great show, but were choked by dust because by the time they came on stage the "mosh pit" had killed off all the grass in front of the stage and was kicking up something you are very familar with: a dust storm. Best act of the day was the Talking Heads, complete with a Latin rhythm section, with some great renditions of Psycho Killer, Once in a Lifetime, and Crosseyed and Painless.

Saturday: The Joe Sharino Band, Dave Edmunds, Eddie Money, Santana, The Cars, The Kinks, Pat Benatar, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - A good day of music but no one band stood out as spectacular. By now the biggest issue for the concert was the heat. It was averaging over 100 each day. On this day John and Cheryl brought a watermelon with us to eat. This proved to be quite tempting for fellow concert goers as we had several offers ranging from beer, other food items, money, pot, and even a gentleman in a tyedye t-shirt offering LSD. The water "milk" jugs proved to be the most useful item, as there was water pumps next to the stage that we could use to refill them and keep ourselves hydrated. Another tactic that was useful was to take off your shirt, pour water over it, and then put it back on... instant air conditioning.... At this point we were not longer worried about the lost cache of beer, as it was entirely too hot to drink it and we were all to worn out by the heat at night to party.

Sunday: Grateful Dead, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac We stayed through Jackson Browne but the heat finally beat us by then so we skipped Fleetwood Mac. The best part of the Grateful Dead was their following, as Deadheads appeared en masse to dance in front of the stage for 1 1/2 hours only to fade into the noon day sun once they were finished.

At the time we were living on Kelly Ave in Upland and as you remember I had the bedroom downstairs.

After the show I had put my ticket stub in the draw next to my bed. Our sister Michelle, who was 5 at the time, decided to play in my room and found the stub, which she decided to tear in half. Realizing what she had done, she decided she should tape it back together so I would not notice what she had done.....