Thursday, November 19, 2009

The festival that never was....



Bit of a frivolous post, this one.  All this talk about Field of Dreams got me thinking about the follow up party - "One" - which set its sights on being the biggest party in the whole history of the goddam universe.  Despite emulating fOd's massive gimmick-filled promotion strategy, ticket sales were poor and the party never happened.

The greatest gimmick of all was the audio-tape flyer.  I was given this tape at the South-east Queensland party Strawberry Fields at the tail-end of '96.  To be promoting a party so far afield (and so expensively) suggests they truly were expecting big things.  What let them down, I imagine, was the all Australian line-up that lacked the 'star power' to draw the big crowds, and perhaps the fact that it fell only half a year after the Field of Dreams juggernaut shipped out.  Off memory, the tickets were a great distance north of the $100 mark, unprecedented at the time.

Regardless, the tape paints a wonderful portrait of a party that might have been.  Think of this post as a tribute to all the parties that promised so much yet failed to deliver.  There are many.

Download One 'Audioscape' now (128 kbp encoded for quick download)



Share/Bookmark

2 comments:

  1. What a line up! Too much talking in the tape for me to truely appreciate it..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good post. i must say it was a fizzer this 'ONE'... THe author of this article pretty much summed it up.

    I personally had great times at FOD 1 and 2. Not sure if i went to 3, And i didnt goto 4.

    Went to stun on wednesday nights a few times at Neo Pharoh in the city.

    Good memories. That underground or lowered warehouse venue (not sure what kind of business was in there) for FOD 2 was the best memory for me. Paul Holden dropping a pill in his mouth mid set with the place going absolutely NUTS and sweat dripping from the low roof. Ahh so much fun.

    ReplyDelete