The idea for The Free Festival, The Paradise Festival
has gone through a lot of changes over the years.

After having made contact with "Mother Goose" up in
Arcata, California back in 1992, I started to see the
vision of a huge open-air festival such as the
Woodstock Music and Art Fair (The Woodstock Festival)
of 1969, only for the cause of restoring the Earth
to its Paradisial state by saving rainforest lands
by using the earnings of the Festival to buy title
to already fruited tropical rainforest lands and
allow us to get or even buy citizenship in
whatever country(ies) the lands would be in.

The idea here would be to create the first 'human'
nature sanctuary, where our own species could
live in its natural habitat instead of the artificial
world of cities and commerce.

It was then to be called the Paradise Festival, but somehow
the name never caught on, because there are more people
that simply believe in being Free and what is needed
is a great attraction to the greatest freedom there is,
living the the Garden of Eden.... today!!... so then
it was called the "Free Festival"..


"Mother Goose", Hector Morales and Michael Dimartino
worked out details for an alternatively-powered
festival (solar, wind, hydroelectric,...) with a
huge revolving stage, with all of our favourite
big-name performers, indigenous tribal music,
and world tribal and spiritual leaders attending as
a World Peace and Indigenous Rights concert and festival.
The festival was to last for an entire week, with an
additional week of sane partying and celebration on private
land to be used by all the indigenous tribes
(including displaced Europeans and Americans) which
would be purchased with the proceeds of the Festival.


The festival was to be globally televised, made into a movie,
albums sold, and vending would promote the vision
and the next festivals.


People such as Paul McCartney, Woody Harrelson, Wavy Gravy,
Michael Lang (producer of the Woodstock Festival in '1969',
and many others were planned to serve on the steering
committee, with D.A. Pennebaker, the Maysles Brothers,
the Family Dog, the Grateful Dead and many others all taking
central parts in the cast of millions.


Allegedly, Jerry Garcia, The Dalai Lama and some members
of Crosby, Stills and Nash said they'd appear.

We tried contacting some more key people
and found some pessimism and some enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, our 'office' budget was so low we couldn't
afford to continue trying to contact people.

Michael Lang, a visionary and director of most
of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair of '1969', has
said, "I always believed if you could think it
up you could make it happen". I've always believed
that too.

It was to become a movement of enlightenment and the dawning
of the true Age of Aquarius, the Age of Paradise once again.

After long discussions, and contacting many people involved
in the entertainment business, it became rather obvious that
the people we saw as visionaries with the "money" and "power"
to pull off such an event may all prove to have become
disappointed and disillusioned by previous events such as
Woodstock (getting stuck in the mud, insufficient facilities),
Festival at Rio (not enough money left over for the cause),
the Concert at BanglaDesh (not enough money left over to help
the poor starving in India), etc. and their own self-serving
needs and desires to likely ever make the "big-name" festival
a reality.

Now the vision is aimed primarily at making stars of Us all,
aimed at the Gathering of the Tribes with the central vision
of Free Life in Paradise, treading the most lightly on the
Earth on a true fruitarian diet (thousands of kinds of
healthy fruits including olives, tomatoes, peppers,
avocados, squashes, etc. for proteins),
in the best of health, together as men and women in
love with God, one another and the Earth equally,
always having the Elixir of Life available, the
Water of Life flowing freely.


There are still, however, many people in this list
and people we haven't thought of yet, who have
NOT yet been contacted and the big-name festival
(which may still be called the Paradise Festival)
may still occur!


The list of INVITED performers below is by
no means inclusive, and is given here to give a
small and initial idea of what our limited minds
have been able to conceive as a possibility
for the Festival...


In fact, it is drastically in need of revision...
some of the people on this list may not
even be still alive (please inform if you
know of any revisions or corrections to
this list!).

The list is also very unbalanced culturually,
and will also be revised soon to include the
names of all who would, should, and maybe
could become involved and would bring the
Paradise Restoration Project to fruition.


John Abercrombie

Jan Akkerman Band

Mose Allison

Allman Brothers Band

Herb Alpert

The Animals

Ralphe Armstrong

The Association

Average White Band

Badfinger

Joan Baez

Ginger Baker

Moe Bandy

Syd Barrett

Gordon Beck

Jeff Beck

Harry Belafonte

Louie Bellson

Jeff Berlin

Chuck Berry

Big Brother and the Holding Company

The Black Crowes

Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew

Bobby Bloom

The Blues Image

Gary U.S. Bonds

Graham Bond Organisation

Booker T. and the M.G.'s

Boston

Patricia Bragg

Bread

Julian Bream

Brewer and Shipley

James Brown

Dave Brubeck

Jack Bruce

Bill Bruford

Bruddah Waltah

Rocky Burnette

Burning Spear

Charlie Byrd

The Byrds

J.J. Cale

Canned Heat

Mariah Carey

Paul Carmichael

The Chambers Brothers

The Champs

The Chantays

Emmett Chapman

Tracy Chapman

Charo

Cheap Trick

Eric Clapton

Stanley Clarke

Jimmy Cliff

Billy Cobham

Joe Cocker

The Coasters

Cold Blood

Judy Collins

Colosseum

(Bill Haley's) Comets

Bill Connors

Rita Coolidge

Stewart Copeland

Chick Corea

Bill Cosby

Cream

Bob Crewe Generation

Crosby, Stills and Nash

Dick Dale

His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet

Nicholas Danby

Jesse Dawn and The Kind

Paco DeLucia

Al DiMeola

Donovan

Bob Dylan

Jonathan Edwards

El Chicano

Hamsa El Din

Emerson, Lake and Palmer

En Vogue

Extended Vocal Techniques Choir

Everyman Band

Jose' Feliciano

The Fents

Maynard Ferguson

Ferrante and Teicher

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

Nasio Fontaine

June Foray

Lita Ford

Robben Ford

The Fortunes

Pete Fountain

Peter Frampton

Connie Francis

Aretha Franklin

Stan Freberg

Gong(zilla)

Al Green

Benny Green

David Grusin

The Guess Who

Arlo Guthrie

Steven Halpern

Stuart Hamm

Herbie Hancock

Randy Hansen

The Harlem Globetrotters

Richie Havens

Jeff Healy Band

Bill Henderson

Scott Henderson

Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks

Don Ho

Allan Holdsworth

The Hollies

Hootie and the Blowfish

Mary Hopkin

Thelma Houston

Steve Howe

Gary Husband

Janis Ian

Iron Butterfly

Isley Brothers

It's A Beautiful Day

The Itals

Joe Jackson

Ahmad Jamal

Etta James

Al Jarreau

Jefferson Airplane

Jimmy Rabbitt & Renegade

Billy Joel

Quincy Jones

Stanley Jordan

Winona Judd

Paul Kantner

Jorma Kaukonen

Chaka Khan

B.B. King

Carole King

The Kingston Trio

Gladys Knight

Al Kooper

Fela Anikulapo Kuti

Kronos Quartet

Patti Labelle

Greg Lake

Cleo Laine

K.D. Lang

Hubert Laws

Albert Lee

Peggy Lee

Sean Lennon

Ramsey Lewis

Gordon Lightfoot

Loggins and Messina

Sean Alan Lomax

Love

Jean Luc-Ponty

Barry Macguire

Scott Mackenzie

Don Maclean

Taj Mahal

Chuck Mangione

Ziggy Marley

Steve Martin

Hugh Masekela

Dave Mason

Les McCann

Paul McCartney

"Country" Joe McDonald

Bobby McFerrin

Maureen McGovern

Roger (Jim) McGuinn

Meat Loaf

Melanie

Sergio Mendes

Buddy Miles Band

Joni Mitchell

The Mocedades

The Monkees

James Moody

Gary Moore

Scotty Moore

Van Morrison

Steve Morse Band

Milton Nacimiento

R. Carlos Nakai

Nektar

The New Seekers

Maxine Nightingale

Jerome Tibbits' Oasis

Yoko Ono Lennon

Oregon with Ralph Towner

Original Dixieland Jazz Band

Cyril Pahinui

Christopher Parkening

Alan Pasqua

Les Paul

Luciano Pavarotti

Peter, Paul and Mary

Michel Petrucciani

Oscar Peterson

Phish

Mike Pinera

Don Preston

Question and Answer

Rare Earth

Ras Michael and Zion Train

The Rascals

The Raspberries

Return to Forever

Jeannie C. Riley

Johnny Rivers

Sonny Rollins

The Roustabouts

Todd Rundgren

Leon Russell

Ark Sano

Savoy Brown

Earl Scruggs

The Searchers

Seals and Crofts

John Sebastian

Pete Seeger

Brian Setzer Orchestra

Michael Shrieve

Carly Simon

Sister Sledge

The Skatalites

Yakov Smirnov

TCD

The Smothers Brothers

The Makaha Sons of Ni'ihau

SOS Band

Spanky and Our Gang

The Spinners

Spirit

Squeeze

Chris Squire

Mike Stern

Cat Stevens (Yusef Islam)

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Sly and the Family Stone

Darryl Stuermer

Sugarloaf

Supertramp

Sykus

James Taylor

The Temptations

Brad Terry

Three Dog Night

B.J. Thomas

Toots and the Maytals

Peter Tork Band

Robin Trower

U Roy

The Ventures

The Wailers Band

Roger Whittaker

Mason Williams (and Orchestra)

Johnny Winter

Bill Withers

Stevie Wonder

Ron Wood

Gary Wright

"Weird Al" Yankovic

Wild Cherry

Yes

Neil Young

The Youngbloods

Allan Zavod





Back to the top of this page