Plant a Tree, Split an Eardrum

While Lollapalooza courts the head-bangers, Perry Farrell is looking for some tree-huggers.

That’s the latest development as the rift between Farrell and the festival he founded six years ago widens into an irreconcilable division. Lollapalooza, which has signed mega-star hard-rock band Metallica as its ’96 headliner, is losing counterculture guru Farrell, who has left the operation and is negotiating an arrangement regarding his ownership of the name.

Farrell, who gained prominence as the leader of Jane’s Addiction and now leads Porno for Pyros, says that he feels disconnected from the direction Lollapalooza has taken and is ready to try something new.

“I’m going to be trying to do reforestation, go to places that have beautiful land and have people plant trees, put oxygen back into the air,” says Farrell, talking for the first time about the details of the new series of festivals he plans for later this year.

“Where Lollapalooza is going, they’re excited about it and it definitely generates a lot of money and kids go and have a great time,” he says. “But my interests have evolved.”

Don’t worry--Farrell’s plans for his new venture, called ENIT, aren’t all about tree-planting. He’s also planning plenty of music, with an all-night bill of rock, world music and techno, topped by Porno for Pyros, whose second album, “Good God’s Urge,” is due May 28.

But there will be no mistaking the new festival for Lollapalooza--or just about any other rock event. Where Lollapalooza is hoping to draw as many as 50,000 people for each show, Farrell--long known for his ambitious cultural visions--wants to keep each of his events at fewer than 10,000. And he wants them to be “people who are up for enhancing the Earth.”

Ideally, he says, each ENIT will start at sunrise, with participants camping on site. Daytime activities, would include music, art installations and, of course, tree planting.

Then the gathering would eat a health-conscious meal together--”I don’t want the pizza vendor poisoning people and the beer vendor making everyone sick and barfing”--before the start of the musical all-nighter.

Farrell has talked to some landowners about sites for the events, which he hopes to launch in September. He’s also talking with environmental and social issue organizations about their involvement.

Is Farrell--who gave ENIT a hasty test run tied to some 1995 Lollapalooza dates--just being a dreamer, or can he really pull off another groundbreaking festival vision?

“This has potential if it’s done properly,” says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert trade magazine Pollstar. “What he’s doing is creating a lifestyle concert, a socialization attraction that’s larger than just a concert, and there may be a market for that.”

There is one past event that many people will draw on as a precedent, should it succeed: Woodstock.

“I never really considered Woodstock in planning this,” Farrell says. “I have a feeling that was a very beautiful, happy accident. It wasn’t ahead of its time, but of its time. If this works, it will be because people are ready for it.”