Care to share your dream music festival?

Question

It's been asked before, but I thought it's a good enough question to have another go.

If you were a promoter and could have any artist or band, from any time period, who would you choose?

List as many as you care to and please make a brief comment on your choices, if you like.

Thanks!

Answer 1

What a great question. First of all I would make it a small outdoor festival. I wouldn't want it to be another Woodstock (1 or 2). It would start late Friday afternoon with Richie Havens, one of the best living song writers whose work promotes peace and love. The MC for the night would be Che Guevera. After the first act I would have on the Cranberries for a five song set that would set the stage for the rest of the night. Delores would be at her rockin' best with "Salvation", "I Just Shot John Lennon" and "Free To Decide". We would then have a longer set with The Who and they would rock for two hours. If anyone still has their hearing and is not too tired we would end with Billie Holiday singing the blues to calm us down and get us ready for bed. Which by the way is in our sleeping bag under a cloudless summer night.

Saturday would be mingle time. There would be 500 people at this festival. The entire population of our town The sun would be out. Alcoholic beverages would be available. One drink per hour limit. Marijuana would be readily available. No limit on that indulgence. Our first act would be a jam session with Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and The Police. This afternoon session would see them all on stage some of the time and as individuals and single bands for the rest of the time. Marley, Cliff and Sting would end their set with "Redemption Song." After a meal of rice, black beans and loads of ice cream the Stones would come on for a short set: "Gimme Shelter", "Street Fighting Man" and "Dead Flowers" would be all. Elvis and Chuck Berry would join them for a final tune: "Round and Round". After this comes Bruce Cockburn and his anti-war set, followed by a ten minute presentation by Nelson Mandela entitled "If I Could Change the World". Tens Years After, who wrote a song by the same name as Nelson's presentation, would play it as a background instrumental. Oh! I almost forgot. There would be a dunk tank off to the side and for two cents you could have a chance to soak Dick Cheney or Paris Hilton. Your choice!

The final musical acts for the Saturday night? The Beatles of 1965 would come on. Bang, bang, bang. A half a dozen of their best known numbers. John Lennon would end this portion with "Imagine" and "Do They Know It's Christmas". Mark D. Chapman would be in the audience and he would go up on stage. The audience would then get to vote on whether Lennon should forgive him or if he should be banished to an alterative universe.

The final acts of the festival would be Warren Zevon, The Pretenders and Linda Ronstadt. Linda would look just like she did as a hippie chick in 1970. Like the Friday jam all would take part in several songs together then split up to do some of their individual classics; Zevon doing "Werewolves of London"; The Pretenders "Middle of the Road" and Linda crooning "Tumbling Dice" (which by the way has Mick Jagger onstage for a duet). At midnight, because of local anti noise bylaws the festival winds down. Martin Luther King Jr. and Tommy Douglas thank everyone for comiing and with the Dalai Lama, Jesus, Mohammed, and George W. Bush announce adequate food and shelter will be made available for everyone on the planet and a world wide ban on guns, bombs and pornography. NRA protesters at the gates put down their placards and see the light. As the festival ends we all go home. We all live in the same town (somewhere in rural western Canada of course), so we can walk. Dalai Lama, Jesus, Mohammed and Bush meet in a local fair trade tavern where they iron out the details of their agreement and how next year's festival will be organized. They will be inviting Anne Frank and John Steinbeck to co host the festivities.

Answer 2

Jimmy Buffett - I'm a longtime Parrothead and have seen the Mayor of Margaritaville 40 times

Eric Clapton - Is God!

The Stones - Still cool after all these years

Muddy Waters - One of the great Bluesmen

The Beatles - Well, they are the Fab Four

AC/DC - Gotta have some metal

Bob Marley - Always enjoyed him and it would be a chance to wear my dreadlocked wig

The Doors - just really cool

Jimi Hendrix - love to see his guitar work in person

Answer 3

The original (East Coast) line up from the very first Lollapalooza, minus Nine Inch Nails of course. It was fantastic.

Answer 4

I will be blunt and honest: the entire world has been Americanized by the "pop music industry" status quo. Simply becoming part of the mainstream will feed the corporate beasts of the RIAA and the IFPI.