SARSTOCK - July 30, 2003. Toronto Ontario.

April 14 2011, I just checked the stats for my website and found that the number one search string that leads people here is "how many people were at sarstock?". I had taken this page down and only left the pictures but based on that serach string I've decided to put this page back up.

This is the story of my afternoon at Sarsstock (also possibly known as Toronto Rocks, I think), a giant concert held at Downsview park in north Toronto on July 30 2003. The year before we had been hit pretty hard by SARS and tourism had suffered greatly from it.

Actually, we weren't hit that hard at all. I think the final toll was about 33 dead. Some people will say "Ohhh that's a lot of people! How horrible that must have been!!" but if you do even the smallest amount of research you'll find that more people die every year from the flu.

The truth is the media made it a big deal. For most of us here in Toronto it was nothing. We went about our daily lives just like we had every other day before. Nothing changed. It was CNN who brought us down. Tourism sunk to all time lows and we were generally viewed as a dangerous place to go. Thanks news-folk.

So the powers that be decided a huge free concert might be just the thing to get people to come here again. As it turned out tickets ended up costing about $20 each but that didn't stop anyone. I don't know if it sold out but I think around 430,000 people showed up.

The entrance I used (north gates) was behind the stage so it was a long walk past hot dog venders with line-ups of about 50 people each just to get to the main "seating" (ie. the ground) area. When I got to the crowd off to the left side of the stage (which was still probably 500 feet or futher from the stage itself) all I could really do was just keep walking until I found a place to sorta fit in. So I kept walking.... and walking... and walking... and walking... You really cannot imagine what half a million people in one place looks like until you've seen it in person. Trust me, it's a LOT of people!!

One cool thing about it was the little streams of trickling people. If you wanted to go somewhere you just got into one of these streams and it would take you to another stream which would take you do yet another and so on until you got where you were going. It worked very well considering there were no predefined paths to walk through.

Anyway, I just wanted to write this brief introduction to expand a bit on the story and pictures below. I have decided to just leave all of that exactly the way I wrote it just a few days after the concert. It was an incredible experience that probably wont get duplicated here in my lifetime. I was sitting at home watching the concert on TV, only planning on leaving later in the afternoon to see the better bands at the end, and it was scary! The helicopter shots were amazing and showed a daunting crowd. But I got on the subway and went there anyway and I am really glad I did! What a great day!






I have reduced the size of the pictures a little bit. The full pictures are on my Flickr account right here.

The big concert! The Guess Who, Rush, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones. What a night it was! Me and about 430,000 other people showed up and it was quite a party!! Unfortunately, we could only bring in a disposable camera so these pictures dont look that great, but whaddayagonnado?


Walking in to the north gate. Just a steady stream of people. Long, hot, dusty walk from the subway!




Looking back toward the gate after entering. A few thousand people are stealthily sneaking up behind me. Fortunately there was a wee crowd of about half a million just ahead to lose them in!




First thing I saw on the way in was a lineup for hotdogs. Its tough to really see in this picture, but there were about 80 people in line! Every line in the place was LONG. Except for water. I walked up to one and was walking away with a bottle in 30 seconds.




Look! My first glimpse of the stage! And this is as close as I ever got! And that didnt bother me for a second. I never had any desire to be at the front of 450,000 drunken AC/DC fans!




And heres another look out towards the back. A sea of people everywhere you looked.




I ended up near the very last screen to see the end of The Guess Who. Here's Randy Bachman on the screen.




Here's a look towards the stage from that location.




Then I wandered back to the big half-kilometer long BBQ, which also included a half-kilometer of long lines.









I wandered back towards the spot I had picked out earlier and for the only time during the concert was on the right side of the center divider. (the screen is at the end of the divider) This still doesnt really give you the idea how many people were there, but you start to see it. From here all the way up to that stage is a solid shag carpet of people. They also go a long way out to each side, far beyond whats in the picture.




I got back just in time for the highlight of the day, RUSH!! Here's a few pics of Geddy and Alex on the big screen. You can see that a lot of people were still sitting for their set, but lots of people were right into it and cheered and clapped along with Spirit of Radio etc. They were reasonably well received considering it wasnt a Rush conert. Musically, they were by FAR the most talented band on stage that day!














The Water cannon helped keep people cool. Although I heard that some MORON was throwing big chunks of ice into the crowd too. He could have caused serious injury doing that. A few people were none too pleased.




Here's a look towards the stage from that spot, where I ended up spending the rest of the evening.




Several times ambulances came through the crowd to get to people who got a little baked in the hot sun. This guy came down a path that happened to exist, but then decided he had to actually come right into the crowd (directly towards me), forcing people to pick up their blankets and crap and move out of the way. About a dozen people decided to use this to their advantage and followed between the ambulance and the car following it till they got to a nicer spot!




Then came AC/DC. Amazing set. Got everyone on their feet and singing along! Angus' strip show brought the house down!




And thats it. No pics of the Stones 'cause they came on after dark. And we were all too tired to stand up by then! But we did anyway, and MAN were my legs/feet tired by the time I finally got a seat on the subway! Great day though!