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For Immediate Release Public Service Announcement

Contact: Yvonne Hendrix at 707.223.2889 ~ press@earthdance.org

EARTHDANCE: THE GLOBAL FESTIVAL FOR PEACE OFFICIALLY HOLDS THE GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS' TITLE FOR THE
"LARGEST DRUM ENSEMBLE"

THE DRUM CIRCLE WAS CONDUCTED BY VENERABLE
GRATEFUL DEAD DRUMMER/WORLD MUSIC PERCUSSIONIST EXTRAORDINAIRE MICKEY HART

[San Francisco, CA, June 10, 2005]: Earthdance: The Global Festival For Peace with conductor Mickey Hart officially holds the Guinness Book of World Records title for the "Largest Drum Ensemble," consisting of 4,374 participants, exceeding the former record by over 1000 for the largest drumming circle in history. On September 18th, 2004 at the Festival's 'Mother Ship' location at Mendocino County's Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville, CA, Earthdance hosted "Drums Of Peace," in an attempt to break the world record. Remo Drums donated 3,500 drums, which were given to registrants and additionally almost 1000 more drums were brought in by festival participants.

The drum circle was led by venerable Grateful Dead drummer/world music percussionist extraordinaire Mickey Hart and friends. Mr. Hart brought along a host of world class drummers which included Zakir Hussain, Sikuru Adepoju, Airto Moreira, Karl Perazzo (Santana), Kim Atkinson, Chalo Edwardo, Gregg Ellis, and Jorge Burmudez to help lead the participants. They performed the song "Not Fade Away" for the required 5 minutes and continued on for another hour playing with the entire ensemble, each drummer taking a section to lead in their own style.

The pilot of an airplane, flying overhead capturing the drums on video from the air commented " The only thing pilots have ever felt while flying that was manmade was the bombs they had just dropped. Today I felt the air moving my airplanes wings to the Drums of Peace."

Since 1997, Earthdance has become the largest synchronized music & dance festival in the world. Earthdance 2005, The United Beats of Peace Festival, will take place September 16th, 17th, and 18th at the renowned Black Oak Ranch, HWY 101, Laytonville, California. A highlight of this years festival will be a synchronized global link up, taking place on Saturday the 17th, at 4pm (PDT), Earthdance California will join over 150 cities across the world. At this precise moment, a specially created song called the "prayer for peace" will be played in every location at the same time.

Earthdance Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The annual Earthdance event is the primary funding source for Earthdance Foundation and the many charities it supports. For more information, log on to www.earthdance.org.

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Yvonne Hendrix at 707.223.2889 ~ press@earthdance.org

EARTHDANCE®: THE GLOBAL FESTIVAL FOR PEACE—THE WORLD'S LARGEST SYNCHRONIZED MUSIC & LIFESTYLE EVENT—WILL PRESENT KITARO WITH THEIR FIRST ANNUAL "ARTIST OF PEACE AWARD"

THE INSTRUMENTAL MASTER, LONG ASSOCIATED WITH MESSAGES OF PEACE & SPIRITUALITY, WILL LEAD A KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA ARENA AUDIENCE IN "THE PRAYER FOR PEACE" AT EARTHDANCE 2004

Earthdance Founder, Chris Deckker (left) with KITARO (right)

[Planet Earth, July 13, 2004]: Earthdance: The Global Festival For Peace, has been called "the Live Aid for the new millenium." Uniting world communities in support of non-profit humanitarian, environmental, and peace-related causes, EarthDance is the largest synchronized music, dance and lifestyle event in existence. Solely through massive grass roots momentum, it has grown more than ten-fold in size since its 1997 inception, and the 8th annual occurrence of this 24-hour international phenomenon on September 18, 2004 will bring together 200,000+ people in over 130 cities and 50 nations. This week, Earthdance founder Chris Deckker announced a major new addition to the Festival—the establishment of the to-be-annual "Artist Of Peace Award," which will honor celebrated Japanese-born composer and musician Kitaro in this, its inaugural year.

Bestowed by the Earthdance Foundation, the Artist Of Peace Award was conceived to recognize a creative force in the global community whose artistic expression inherently fosters a spirit of harmony and peace, the overarching mission of Earthdance. "At this point in our evolution, it seemed the right thing to do, to pay tribute to those working towards the same goals, and there was no one more perfect than Kitaro to honor in launching the award. Not just because his work has always communicated themes of peace, but also because he is such a pioneer in electronic and ambient music, the art form with which Earthdance is so closely aligned. We couldn't be more excited."

GRAMMY® and Golden Globe-winning Kitaro, who is renowned globally for his Silk Road series and other instrumental masterpieces, will receive the award at an official presentation in Los Angeles in late July. The groundbreaking artist will then embark on his 2004 tour of Asia, during which he'll further spread the Earthdance message to concert audiences across the region.

For as long as Kitaro has won worldwide acclaim for his "age old/space age" blend of traditional eastern musical forms and contemporary Western idioms, he has also been known for his visionary infusion of themes of peace, spirituality, and harmony into his work. Kitaro's latest CD, 2003's GRAMMY-nominated Sacred Journey Of Ku-Kai, began an extended cycle of overtly peace-themed albums to be released by the artist's longtime label Domo Records. And, forthcoming on August 24, less than a month prior to EarthDance 2004, is Reinterpretations, a compilation spotlighting remixes of Kitaro tracks by high-profile and hot underground producers, all of whom were given the directive of putting their unique spin on timeless music that "unites, heals, and soothes the human spirit."

That sentiment will underlie the Prayer For Peace, a globally simultaneous moment of music and meditation that caps every Earthdance, timed for 12:00AM Greenwich Mean Time in London, England, the Festival's original location. At this year's Earthdance on September 18, Kitaro will lead an arena audience in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia through a live concert version of the Prayer For Peace, whose words and music will be accompanied by a brand-new Earthdance-produced video presentation.

Earthdance first emerged from the synergy that producer, promoter and musician Chris Deckker experienced introducing spiritual concepts into mainstream U.K. clubs. "The blueprint for Earthdance was simple," he says. "Here's a day when we can join together, have a cool party, and take a moment to focus our combined energy towards planetary peace. I believed we could translate an underground sense of community into festival-style hugeness, and build an international portal for peace."

Earthdance Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The annual Earthdance event is the primary funding source for Earthdance Foundation and the many charities it supports. For more information, log on to www.earthdance.org, which registered over 1,200,000 page views in 2003 alone.

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Shanghai

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Contact: Yvonne Hendrix at 707.223.2889 ~ press@earthdance.org

ON 9/18/04, LEGENDARY GRATEFUL DEAD DRUMMER MICKEY HART TO BREAK THE GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS' STATISTIC FOR THE LARGEST-EVER DRUMMING CIRCLE

HISTORIC "DRUMS OF PEACE" EVENT TO UNITE OVER 3,500 DRUMMERS AT EARTHDANCE 2004'S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA 'MOTHER SHIP' SITE AT RENOWNED BLACK OAK RANCH

JOINING HART ARE FAMED PERCUSSIONISTS AND 'PLANET DRUM' COMPATRIOTS INCLUDING AIRTO MOREIRA, ZAKIR HUSSAIN, KARL PERAZZO (SANTANA) & FELLOW DEAD DRUMMER BILL KREUTZMANN

[Planet Earth, June20, 2004]: Breaking records is second nature to Earthdance: The Global Festival For Peace which, ever since its planetary groove kicked off in 1997, has become by far the largest synchronized music and dance festival in the world. This year's 8th annual Earthdance on September 18 will unite over 200,000 people at events in 120 cities and 50 countries. And, at the Festival's 'Mother Ship' location at Mendocino County's Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville, CA, venerable Grateful Dead drummer/world music percussionist extraordinaire Mickey Hart will help Earthdance set another world record by conducting "Drums Of Peace," the largest drumming circle in history.

Drums Of Peace is part of Earthdance 2004's United Beats Of Peace Festival, September 17-19, a 3-day conscious music and culture event anchored by the 24-hour international Earthdance celebration on the 18th. The current Guiness Book Of World Records statistic for the largest drum circle is 3,140. With drum maker Remo donating 3,500 drums for the occasion—with far more attendees than that expected—Hart is destined to lead a huge cadre of players in a record-breaking beat session.

In addition to those convened at Black Oak Ranch—the site of '60s icon Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm's Pignic festival—Drums Of Peace will go global via Internet link-up to Earthdance happenings in Brazil, Africa, Japan, Australia, Holland, and many more locales. This massive musical collaboration will immediately follow Earthdance's defining experience, the "Prayer For Peace," a globally simultaneous moment of music and meditation synchronized to 12:00AM Greenwich Mean time in London, England, the Festival's original source location.

Earthdance founder Chris Deckker commented, "Drums Of Peace is an incredible addition to Earthdance, and we are thrilled with Mickey Hart's participation. And Black Oak Ranch has such a rich history of conscious festivals, the space really holds the magic of everything that's happened there. I think that by joining forces, we can produce the most conscious festival of our time."

As part of this historic rhythmic convergence, Hart is organizing a reunion, after almost a decade, of many of the world-famous percussionists who made up his Planet Drum ensemble--Airto Moreira and Zakir Hussain have already signed on, as has the Santana Band's Karl Perazzo. Also on board is fellow Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, the other half of that legendary band's "Rhythm Devils." Currently, Hart and Kreutzmann are on the road with the Dead's major "Wave That Flag Summer Tour 2004."

Hart is also renowned as a global ethnomusicologist and world music drummer. His '91 album Planet Drum hit #1 on Billboard's World Music chart, and won the first-ever GRAMMY® for Best World Music Album. He's written four books on the history and mythology of music, and launched the culturally diverse WORLD album series through Rykodisc. In affiliation with the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function at NYC's Beth Abraham Hospital, Hart is exploring the connection between healing and rhythm. No one on the planet is better suited to conjuring up largest drumming circle of all time than Mickey Hart.

In addition to Drums Of Peace, the Laytonville-based United Beats Of Peace Festival features a diverse roster of artists on 5 stages, including Ozomatli, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Blackalicious and New Monsoon, as well as the educational "Activist Alley" and an array of healthy/green vendors. Earthdance's alliance with Black Oak Ranch was forged with the help of Bob Barsotti, former longtime producer for Bill Graham Presents (and current Bill Graham Foundation Advisory Board member), with hopes that a festival there will coincide annually with the Earthdance global event.

Earthdance Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The annual Earthdance event is the primary funding source for Earthdance Foundation and the many charities it supports. For more information, log on to www.earthdance.org, which registered over 1,200,000 page views in 2003 alone.

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Drums of Peace generously sponsored by Remo Drums.