PERRY FARRELL ANNOUNCES KIDZAPALOOZA 2008, THEN JAMZ WITH KIDS

The legendary Perry Farrell announced the 2008 Kidzapalooza lineup, then took some time to jam with the School of Rock All Stars

The legendary Perry Farrell announced the 2008 Kidzapalooza lineup on May 10th at The Paul Frank store in Los Angeles, California and after the BBQ and contest giveaways, he took some time to jam with the School of Rock All Stars. Kidzapalooza, which will coincide with Lollapalooza and take place Aug 1st-3rd in Chicago’s Grant Park from 11:30am-4:30pm each day, is turning into the concert event of the Summer for rock friendly families. From getting temporary tatz or a punk rock hair do to jamming out rock band style and learning a new riff to even throwing down a hip hop rhyme, kidz will party down with their parents for an amazing interactive 3 day musical experience! 2008’s Kidzapalooza lineup will feature performances from Tiny Masters of Today, Homemade Jamz, Suzy Brack and the New Del Lords, The Terrible Two’s, The Jimmies, Peter DiStefano & Tor, The Q Brothers, Paul Green’s School of Rock All Stars, The Dream Jam Band and Perry Farrell.

We caught up with Perry, just after announcing the 2008 Kidzapalooza lineup to get his thoughts on the idea behind Kidzapalooza and how it’s a great way for families to bond over music.

“What I saw was all the people that went to the first Lollapalooza have children since it’s been 17 years. Some of these people have kids that might have even graduated high school by now. But a lot of them have children in the five to fifteen year old range and when Etty and I look for things to do in L.A. usually you find something maybe to do with your kid that they might enjoy but you’re sitting there you know just waiting to go home. But this was an idea where everybody would have a good time and it would be bringing people together and families together over music so that parents would enjoy the music as well as the kids and I just think that I was really looking to build something that I would enjoy going to myself with my children.”

We also caught up with Tor Hyams, who originally approached Perry about the idea, to get his thoughts on the success Kidzapalooza has seen in just a few short years.

“Perry and I started this on the set of a music video for a song I wrote and produced where I put him with Debbie Harry on this music video and in the middle of the video I turned to him when we had a break and I said ‘Hey Perry, what about Kidzapalooza?’ And he said ‘What’s that?’ And I said ‘I don’t know, but everyone who’s grown up with your festival now is of the age to have kids. It would be cool to have an area for families where they could really bond together over music in a Rock kind of way.’ And now here we are in our fourth year and it’s just become this monster.”

Just some of the events kids can look forward to at Kidzapalooza is the ‘School of Rock Jam Tent’ where members of Paul Green’s School of Rock All Stars will be on site for workshops and to assist kids in handling different types of instruments. There will be a full rock band set up that includes drums, mics, guitars, amps, bass and keyboards and kids are free to jam all day long. Workshops include ‘Learning to Rock 101 with Paul Green,’ ‘The Shred Seminar’ where kids will learn how to play, look and pose like a rocker and ‘The Guitar God Seminar with Peter DiStefano.’ Kids will also have the opportunity to take place in breakdancing, double dutch and Hip Hop workshops as well as record their own music at The Inferno Mobile Recording Studio.