Did any of our TO GCers make it out to yesterday's concert??? It looked absolutely insane.
I would have to loved to have been there - unfortunately I couldn't get the time off work or afford the plane ticket out there
I hope that it accomplished all its goals and shows to the world that their fear of getting SARS in Toronto (or getting madcow disease) is totally unfounded.
A beer garden of 5000 people - now that's something
450,000 make rock history in Toronto
Rolling Stones come to city's emotional rescue
Francine Dube and Siri Agrell
CanWest News Service; with files from Canadian Press
Thursday, July 31, 2003
TORONTO -- It was billed as a Rolling Stones concert to revive a city wounded by SARS, but in the end, the estimated 450,000 people came for the music and the chance to be a part of rock 'n' roll history.
Even after a long day in the sun and crowds so thick it was at times difficult to move, nothing could keep the audience off its feet when The Guess Who broke into Taking Care of Business at 6:30 p.m.
The climax of the 11-hour show came when rock music's pre-eminent band, which calls Toronto a second home, broke into Start Me Up, as Mick Jagger, resplendent in a hot pink, jacket broke into his trademark dance.
He went on to command the crowd with a rendition of Brown Sugar, showing no signs that he had turned 60 earlier in the week in Prague.
"This is the biggest party in Toronto's history, right?" he bellowed. "You're here. We're here. Toronto is back and it's booming."
The Stones interrupted the European leg of their world tour to return to the city for the show, hastily pulled-together to restore Toronto's reputation as a world-class city, one free of SARS.
The humongous crowd was unlike any the Rolling Stones had ever seen, Jagger said from back stage Wednesday before his performance.
"I think it is the biggest crowd we've ever played to," said Jagger, who got a glimpse of the crowd -- which was about four times the population of metro Halifax.
"I don't think there's been a crowd this big at a one-day event ever and certainly never any that we've experienced. So it is a fantastic buzz.''
There was nudity and pot and at times the shoving at the front of the stage got a little hard to take, but as of 6 p.m., police had reported only a handful of arrests, for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.
"You'll find a worse situation, to be honest with you, on a Saturday night down in the entertainment district," said Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino at a press conference. "We're not in any way, shape or form surprised at anything that's happened here."
This concert sprawled across an expanse of grass and tarmac equivalent to 540 football fields called Downsview Park. Reminiscent of Woodstock, it was nonetheless a truly Canadian event, with maple leaves emblazoned on cheeks, chests, and hats -- and the occasional butt.
The crowd went wild when legendary AC/DC guitarist Angus Young turned to moon the audience, revealing a pair of boxers bearing a blushing mapleleaf.
Fourteen acts played at the concert, including AC/DC, Rush, Justin Timberlake, Blue Rodeo, The Flaming Lips and Montrealer Sam Roberts, whose hit Don't Walk Away Eileen, incited the first roar of the day from the crowd.
It was Justin Timberlake that reportedly drew Sir Mick to the side of the stage as a curious spectator.
Escorted by police, Jagger, his wife and children sneaked to the sidelines so his daughters could watch the teen idol perform three songs, say witnesses.
"I think I was kinda so into what I was doing at the time I didn't realize it," Timberlake said afterward, referring to reports of the Jagger clan showing up to watch part of his performance.
"I'm as big a fan as anyone in the crowd of the Stones and AC/DC as well."
Comparisons to Woodstock were everywhere: They were made by those who were there in 1969, those who claimed to have been there, and those who admitted they weren't.
"I didn't go to Woodstock and I just wanted to be part of an experience like this," said Barry Freud, 50, a real estate appraiser who attended the show with his wife, a cancer researcher.
At the front of the stage, Jacki Gilstrap, of Louisville, Ky., could not believe her luck at scoring cheap tickets to a Rolling Stones concert. She once paid $1,300 US for a front-row ticket in Chicago.
"We drove about 622 miles. It was a long drive, but well worth it. Canada is beautiful," said Gilstrap, who has been to nine Rolling Stones concerts.
The show began with Jann Arden singing O Canada at about 12:20 p.m. Diehard fans began arriving at the gates as early as Monday evening, two days ahead of time.
By 7 a.m. Wednesday, early birds were lined up for half-a-kilometre down city streets that were closed to traffic, and a torrent of humanity, in halter tops and shorts, in platform flipflops and sneakers, and bearing coolers and blankets and knapsacks, streamed towards the site.
Behind the gates, tempers began to fray at 11 a.m., when promised free-water refills proved impossible to find. Officials solved the problem by handing out four million free bottles of water.
At the quarter-mile barbecue at lunchtime, Canadian premiers served steak burgers and beef sausages beside Paul Martin, the man expected to become Canada's next prime minister. There to make the point that Canadian beef is safe, they fielded questions from the press ranging from gay marriage to their favourite bands.
Alberta Premier Ralph Klein admitted his favourite band is the Guess Who.
"What I want to hear is that no one's going to get mad cow disease. I'll bet everything I've got that no on gets it from Canadian beef," Klein said.
Federal Health Minister Anne McLellan was also on hand, as was Manitoba Premier Gary Doer and Ontario Premier Ernie Eves.
A loud cheer erupted when the 13 beer tents opened for business at 1 p.m. Overseeing security around the bar, Judy Bell worried that once the garden's capacity of 5,000 drinkers was met, things could get out of hand. "Everyone's so mellow now," she said as the gates opened. "But let's see what happens after everybody's had a couple of pints in this heat."
The music was inaudible from the area. Speakers set up throughout the back half of the grounds were not working, leaving the beer tents and food vendors in silence.
By mid-afternoon, the crowd was growing dense and difficult to move through. Ambulances inched like molasses through the crowd and were often stopped dead.
The longest lineups were for souvenirs -- the famous Rolling Stone lips fashioned into small flashing pins that operate on a watch battery were going for $15. Posters for $10. Rolaids were $1, Tylenol, $3.
People came to watch, to dance and to be a part of history, but the marks they left behind will likely remain as ephemeral as the music from the 14 bands that blared in 15-minute sets.
Four 21-year-old concert-goers from Cleveland used their chests as billboards. Each one bore one black letter spelling out the name of Canadian rock band Rush.
"There's just four of us, so we couldn't have spelled any other bands," said Chris Whitaker.
Never mind it was steaming and the site increasingly dirty as the day went on. Whitaker's friend, Sam Cordevo, summed up his impression of Toronto this way: "It's like a cleaner quieter New York," he said. "It's New York Lite."
The National Post
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