It was 44 years ago on June 27, 1970, that the Transcontinental Pop Festival began in Toronto, Canada. This festival was part of a series of concerts in Canada that became known as The Festival Express. Instead of the artists flying between show, they all got on a train. There is a movie about it called Festival Express. The Toronto festival, which was held at the CNE Grandstand, had about 2500 protestors who objected to what they viewed as exploitation by price-gouging promoters. They attempted to crash the gates and scale the barbed wire fence and clashed with police, resulting in several injuries. To help calm the crowd, Metro Police tried to get the promoter, Ken Walker, to lower ticket prices, but he refused. Subsequently, Jerry Garcia, was instrumental in calming the unruly crowd by arranging a spontaneous free rehearsal concert in nearby Coronation Park upon a flatbed truck, while the scheduled show continued at the stadium. Once the free concert was announced, most of the ticketless fans dispersed to Coronation Park, with an initial attendance of about 6,000, thereby resolving the protest. Once the show at the CNE Grandstand ended at 12:30am, another 6,000 fans went to the park for the remainder of the free concert, which lasted until about 4:00am on June 28. Playing at Coronation Park were The Grateful Dead, Ian & Sylvia and the Great Speckled Bird, James and the Good Brothers, the New Riders of the Purple Sage (all from the original scheduled concert). Other local Toronto bands also played. Some of the bands taking place in this wonderous tour were: Ten Years After, Traffic, THE BAND, Janis Joplin, Eddie Kramer, Tom Rush, Buddy Guy, Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead and Delaney & Bonnie. I( would have loved to just be on the train! All Aboard with Approval by @prof
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 23:09:40 +0000
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