Writer and festival executive Simon Rust Lamb recalls his effort to bring EDC NY to the site of Woodstock ’94.
Michael was a natural as the documentary’s main protagonist and visionary with a job title — music festival producer — that instantly inspired many future dreamers. Michael booked the world’s greatest bands and called the shots from his BSA motorcycle, wearing a smile that only comes from getting away with something no one should ever have let happen. He had that smile, perfect, curly, long locks of hair and faith that things would work out.
Typically I would wait to close a deal with the venue first but things were going well and we were going to need the town’s blessing. One of the lesser known legacies of the first Woodstock is the changes that the state implemented to the New York Sanitary Code, creating the U.S.’s most demanding code for music festivals that to this day takes a special kind of crazy to navigate. Early on, I scheduled a meeting with city leaders and public health and safety officials.