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It’s a done deal. The Woody Creek Caucus met to hear plans for the private Hunter S. Thompson memorial service to be held on August 20, the six month anniversary of his death. Sponsors promised it would not be another Woodstock.
“This is not going to be Woodstock revisited. People are not going to be running around half-naked in the mud like screaming banshees,” said Jon Equis, an event producer whose résumé includes a bevy of Academy Award and Golden Globe after-parties. “This is a respectful, casual event for friends and family.”
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….the private Aug. 20 ceremony will include the likes of actors Johnny Depp, Sean Penn and Jack Nicholson, plus one gargantuan gonzo explosion.
Here’s what the caucus approved:
The necessity in question was a 150-foot-tall steel monument designed in the shape of the gonzo fist that decorates many of Thompson’s books and paraphernalia. Plans are for the dagger-like teel shaft to rise 135 feet tall before forming the gonzo fist, which will be 8 feet in diameter and hold a cannon that will blast Thompson’s ashes across his property. The explosion is scheduled for sunset.
500 invitations went out. I’m hoping mine is just lost in the mail. All is not lost though, I may be able to cover it as a journalist.
A media corral will be set up at the entrance to the ceremony to allow credential-holding photographers to snap pictures of attendees. Video footage and still images will be sent over the Internet to media outlets around the world directly after the send-off to minimize spying.