Remembering SARSfest, the concert that revived Toronto, 20 years later | 24CA News

Twenty years in the past, Toronto was reeling from the lethal SARS epidemic that severely impacted the native financial system.

As the World Health Organization declared the worldwide outbreak contained and journey advisories for Canada’s largest metropolis have been lifted, efforts instantly started to convey individuals again to Toronto — and one of many nation’s greatest music occasions was born.

On July 30, 2003, an estimated 450,000 to 500,000 individuals descended on Downsview Park for what was formally referred to as the Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto live performance, however extra generally often known as SARSstock or SARSfest.

With that attendance, it was the most important live performance in Canadian historical past.

The live performance was a fundraiser for health-care and hospitality employees and featured an all-star lineup with The Rolling Stones because the headline act together with AC/DC, Justin Timberlake and Canadian acts reminiscent of Rush, The Guess Who, Kathleen Edwards and Blue Rodeo. The tickets have been bought for as little as $21.50.

With the gates opening at 8 a.m. and the live performance lasting by means of the early hours of the subsequent morning, attendees of all ages braved the recent climate and crowds. The present was additionally broadcast countrywide.

Canadian actor Dan Aykroyd hosted the occasion, with actors Jim Belushi and Catherine O’Hara additionally making appearances.

SARSfest snowballed into one of the vital vital occasions in Toronto’s historical past, giving residents and vacationers assurance that standard life within the metropolis was again.

The Canadian Press spoke to an organizer, a performer and attendees about their reflections on the occasion 20 years later.

Dennis Mills

The concept for SARSfest was conceived by then-Toronto MP Dennis Mills, who had been brainstorming with town on the right way to revive Toronto’s financial system following SARS — extreme acute respiratory syndrome.

After Mills spoke with Toronto live performance promoter and former Rolling Stones supervisor Michael Cohl, The Rolling Stones shortly agreed to reschedule their European tour to play the present.

But SARSfest was not a simple occasion to drag off by any means. Mills, who partnered with then-Sen.Jerry Grafstein to arrange the live performance, says it was profitable by means of co-operation by many ranges of presidency and a sequence of “lucky breaks.”

Initially, the live performance was pitched as a government-funded occasion, which was closely criticized on the time.

“Initially, most people in the city wanted to stone me,” Mills mentioned.

“They wanted no part of me because I was suggesting that we the government step up. And then finally when we got Molson’s involved, everybody came on side.”

Once non-public funding was secured to pay the artists, Mills nonetheless needed to persuade the Toronto police chief, town and the provincial and federal governments to again the concept of an enormous pageant being organized in 10 weeks.

“But what happened was the will of our entire community came together and held each other’s hands,” Mills mentioned.

Mills remembers many individuals pitching in to assist with numerous logistical challenges in organizing the occasion.

This included convincing Bombardier, which owned the airstrip on the live performance grounds, to carry off on delivery their planes out as a result of organizers required an additional day to construct the sound infrastructure.

Mills mentioned it was this spirit of collaboration that made the occasion so profitable.

“Here it is 20 years later, and people come up to me and say: `I was there, I had a great time,”’ he mentioned.

“The people that went to that event by and large had a lasting memory.”

Jim Cuddy

One of the performers at SARSfest was Toronto-based nation rockband Blue Rodeo. The band’s frontman Jim Cuddy remembers getting the cellphone name asking them to carry out 5 days earlier than the live performance.

After a efficiency in Vancouver the night earlier than, they needed to be escorted from the venue in rickshaws, with police working alongside them, so they might make their red-eye flight to Toronto.

Once they arrived, he remembers The Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards and members of AC/DC strolling round backstage, the place all of them took photos collectively.

“A remarkable thing was just the camaraderie among all the bands,” he mentioned.

When Blue Rodeo took to the stage within the late afternoon, Cuddy mentioned he had by no means seen such a giant crowd in his life.

“It was just people as far as you could see,” he mentioned. “Sometimes across a large crowd you feel like there’s whole other satellites of interest, but this felt like everybody was attuned to the stage.”

Cuddy has since appeared again at broadcasts of the occasion and has vivid reminiscences of searching on the crowd and the power the band acquired throughout their roughly 20-minute set.

“There’s so many moments in my work life that I’ve just had to just open my eyes and just absorb where I am and that was certainly one of them,” he mentioned.

Cuddy mentioned he would have appreciated to see one thing related for the nation to unite round — particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think to celebrate our country, our city, to celebrate music and to give people a thrill, especially now that they’ve had really tough times for two or three years — I think it would be great,” he mentioned.

Dara Avenius and Ashley Castle

Dara Avenius and her buddy Ashley Castle have fond reminiscences of the live performance. The pair, who have been of their early 20s on the time, drove eight hours with Castle’s mother from Upstate New York — their first journey to Canada.

They had heard concerning the live performance solely days earlier than and felt they needed to go due to a budget ticket costs and the prospect of seeing AC/DC and The Rolling Stones.

“They were fantastic” Castle mentioned, recalling The Rolling Stones’ efficiency. “It was incredible. We made our way down as close to the front as we could get and got fairly close to the stage actually.”

Avenius was a fan of AC/DC and remembers the warmth of prop flames coming from the stage.

“It was in the centre of summer, so it was really hot,” Avenius mentioned, “I don’t think I’ve ever been to a festival that big ever before.”

The two keep in mind Justin Timberlake’s efficiency, the place an in any other case calm and well mannered crowd booed him and threw bottles of urine on stage throughout each his personal efficiency and when he was invited on stage by The Rolling Stones.

“It was like one massive wave of people booing him,” Castle mentioned.

Timberlake advised a U.Okay. discuss present in 2020 that he nonetheless had numerous “trauma” from the efficiency.

But total, each Castle and Avenius mentioned it was a comparatively peaceable surroundings for a crowd of that dimension.

Their solely criticism was the issue they’d to find water all through the day as they weren’t allowed to convey a water bottle with them.

“I think for the most part people were, you know, very civilized,” Castle mentioned. “There wasn’t like a lot of, pushing and shoving. I mean, hey, you guys are Canadian. That’s not really your thing.”

Allison Dube

Allison Dube from Hamilton, Ont., was 17 years outdated when she went to SARSfest together with her father and brother. She remembers taking a crowded GO prepare early within the morning to get to the live performance. She remembers the day as an exhausting one however not like something she has skilled since with the power of the group and performers.

“We grew up listening to classic rock,” she mentioned, including that she was excited for the “once-in-a-lifetime lineup” of that music style.

“And that was really cool.”

She mentioned SARS had been a tense expertise, particularly for her mother who was a nurse on the time. For her, the live performance marked the closing of a chapter within the SARS epidemic.

“It really seemed to put Toronto on the map,” she mentioned.

“Looking at the star power of the people we got to see in one place, like, we’ll never match that again, especially for the price. I think the tickets were like 20 bucks. You can’t buy a beer at a concert anywhere for 20 bucks,” she mentioned.

She has held onto a black T-shirt that she received from the occasion with a Molson emblem and the artist lineup on the again, which serves as a memento from an period when many individuals didn’t have cameras with them.

“I think that’s been a big change in concert going. Like with phones and recording – there wasn’t any so you really had to be there.”