The Free Festival -
the Gathering of the
Tribes of Paradise
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
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