The idea for the festival came to him while listening to the radio in his car.

What if you could hold a large-scale live show or concert featuring only your favorite musical artists?

It’s a fantasy that sounds fun enough even at the conversation level, but what if you actually spent your own money to make such a dream come true? That would be incredibly crazy and incredibly wonderful.

The crazy man’s name was Steve Wozniak.

He was a founding member of Apple, a company known to everyone around the world (employee number 1), and was the engineer who served as the company’s intellectual conscience from the company’s inception in 1977, as a close partner to the late Steve Jobs (employee number 2).

Due to his high level of technical skill and his gentle, humorous personality, he is nicknamed “The Wizard of Woz”, after a famous fairy tale.

It all began in 1981. 30-year-old Wozniak (hereafter referred to as Woz) had amassed a huge fortune of over $100 million (over 20 billion yen at the time) from Apple’s IPO the previous year. Inspired by the country music he often listened to on the radio in his car, he came up with the idea of ​​holding a large-scale concert.

“I wanted to have a huge party, so that everyone could have fun… I wanted to have the best concert in an unknown place.”

However, with no know-how in entertainment or show business, Woz “had no idea even about the most basic steps to go about,” so he decided to first consult with friends who had connections.

With the support of his collaborators, including Pete Ellis, this idea turned into a passion to make it happen no matter what. His wife, who he had just married, liked the idea, and he added, “We could make money from it.”