Perry Farrell originally conceived the festival in 1990 as a farewell tour for Jane’s Addiction. The word–originally meaning “remarkable or wonderful person or thing”, dates from the American idiom of the early twentieth-century. The festival attempted to encapsulate American youth culture for the 1990s much as Woodstock did for the 1960s. In addition, it was the first large scale festival that actually took the music to the people, traveling across North America and featuring such diverse acts as Rage Against the Machine and Waylon Jennings. It also encapsulated the grunge era more than any other show featuring Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and Alice in Chains. After 1997, the concept had run out of steam and it remained dormant until Farrell revived it in 2003 with a reunited Jane’s Addiction. These days it is no longer a travelling festival, occuring only one weekend a year in Chicago’s Grant Park.

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