How Music & The Rolling Stones Helped Save Toronto After SARS
At the moment, it may be hard to imagine a world after the Coronavirus mass quarantine. Undoubtedly, there will be a new normal once we emerge from it. We just don’t know what that new normal will look like, and what role live music will play in it. But there is a little precedent that could help shed some light on the matter, and give us shimmers of hope that not only will live music return, it will likely help us return to normal, and help make us whole after this unprecedented situation.
Before there was COVID-19, there was SARS, which is also a strain of Coronavirus, only not as contagious, and much more deadly if you got it. Though the United States and many other countries were spared the worst of the SARS outbreak between 2002 and 2004, the city of Toronto, Canada was not so lucky. SARS first began infecting humans in the Guangdong province in southern China in 2002. When a 78-year-old Canadian woman contracted the virus in Hong Kong while staying at the same hotel as a doctor who’d been treating patients in Guangdong before SARS was fully understood, the disease migrated to Canada.
The 78-year-old woman returned to Toronto and died at home on March 5, 2003. Then two days later, her 44-year-old son went to the hospital with a high fever and respiratory illness, and eventually died himself. Soon, the entire family started showing symptoms, as well as many of the hospital workers who treated the son as the disease soon began to spread throughout the city uncontrolled.
Eventually 438 people in Toronto tested positive for the virus, and 44 died. Though these numbers may pale in comparison to some localities facing concerns from COVID-19 at the moment, fear of SARS became a serious disruption in Toronto, costing the city and its businesses hundreds of millions of dollars. The World Health Organization imposed a travel ban on Toronto, severely eroding support of the entertainment, tourism, and hospitality in the city. Businesses were closed, and thousands of service industry workers lost their jobs. And for an extended period of time the city carried a stigma due to SARS.
However, by the time the summer came around, an “all clear” had been declared from the pandemic. To restart the Toronto economy, The Rolling Stones had the idea of throwing a massive concert involving many Canadian bands and artists, with The Rolling Stones headlining. For years the band had used Toronto as a starting off point for international tours, playing club shows and such before hitting the stadium circuit.
Along with the Rolling Stones, other performers included Kathleen Edwards, The Flaming Lips, The Guess Who, Rush, AC/DC, and Justin Timberlake, with Canadian Dan Aykroyd hosting. Stars and sponsors kept being added until it became a major international event by the time the July 30th date came around. The whole thing was thrown together in about a month, from initial planning to full production.
Nicknamed by many as “SARS-a-palooza,” “Stars 4 SARS,” “SARSStock” and such, the event’s real name was “The Rolling Stones SARS Benefit Concert,” and later “Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto.” With an estimated 450,000 people attending the concert at Downsview Park in Toronto, it was the largest outdoor ticketed event in Canadian history, and one of the biggest in North American history. Ticket proceeds went to healthcare and hospitality workers.
Along with helping to support music and tourism, all sorts of Toronto and Canadian industries go into the action, including the Alberta beef industry which sold food at the event, and who’d been hit by the Mad Cow Disease scare as well. Portions of the concert were broadcast live on CBC, and it became a big moment of solidarity for both Toronto and Canada.
The show wasn’t without a little controversy though. The mostly rock audience had little use for Justin Timberlake, throwing water bottles, muffins, and rolls of toilet paper taken from the bathrooms at the American, and did it again when he came out to perform with The Rolling Stones for their set. But otherwise, the concert was a rousing success.
Of course SARS-a-palooza was just one event, and the circumstances are not exactly the same now. Since the whole world has come grinding to a halt due to the Coronavirus, every country, state, and municipality will need to be made whole, not just an individual city. But it does show how music can be a catalyst for recovery and rebirth, as it often is after major catastrophes.
Obviously, there still much to be determined of what the post COVID-19 world will look like, especially when it comes to live events. But music events big and small could, should, and likely will be some of the first ways communities congregate once again, while becoming a catalyst for recovery after the pandemic.
Trigger
April 6, 2020 @ 8:48 am
Hey folks,
I appreciate everyone’s passion and perspective on the matter of COVID-19. But I please ask that you keep your tinfoil conspiracy theories and political bashing to yourself in this matter, and keep your comments focused on music and the matters broached in this article. There’s plenty of negativity out there you can engage in with this matter if you want. This particular article is just not the right place. This is about looking forward. Thanks!
sbach66
April 6, 2020 @ 9:30 am
Good call. I hope it’s heeded. But I fear the worst, this is the interwebs.
KGD
April 6, 2020 @ 9:26 am
I love the Stones in concert, but their fans are notoriously boorish to the openers. Booing Prince? That didn’t age well. And if Mick and Keith will share the stage with someone, JT, Sheryl Crow, Eddie Money, well then STFU and listen.
Di Harris
April 6, 2020 @ 10:13 am
Great article Trigger!
Hope musicians & a lot of businesses/corporations will come together and do this very type of thing as soon as we are allowed to congregate again
Jake Cutter
April 6, 2020 @ 11:33 am
Didn’t know about this. Couldn’t help think Timberlake being on that roster is like a certain person hosting the Opry.
Interesting to think about this in terms of promoting tourism to a select, localized area where people could come in from other relatively nearby areas to support the tourist economy. Kind of apples to oranges in that sense…
KGD
April 6, 2020 @ 12:14 pm
“Since the whole world has come grinding to a halt due to the Coronavirus, every country, state, and municipality will need to be made whole, not just an individual city.”
Pretty much what Trigger says.
Jake Cutter
April 6, 2020 @ 1:21 pm
Yes, that’s why I said it interesting to think about along those lines. Your point?
Paddy
April 6, 2020 @ 1:17 pm
Hey all look at the original bad boys of rock and roll. Not a fucking tattoo in sight. Way to go RS.
Ian
April 6, 2020 @ 1:39 pm
I’m still mad about missing The Stones playing outdoors in St Petersburg by one day in 2007! It was pretty cool to see the crew setting up though! This is a great story which I totally missed when it happened. Thanks for the great work!
Hey Arnold
April 6, 2020 @ 5:42 pm
Are you waiting to post your review on Sam Hunt’s album until Grady Smith uploads his review on YouTube? You guys have a symbiotic relationship to how you post similar posts on the same day as each other. It’s like you guys wait to see how harsh the other will be, and make adjustments to your own reviews in return…
Trigger
April 6, 2020 @ 6:39 pm
Dumb question, and a bit insulting to both myself and Grady Smith. I don’t read or listen to anyone else’s opinions before coming to my own. There were some other albums released last Friday that I prioritized over Sam Hunt. I will post a Sam Hunt review when a Sam Hunt review is written. At this point I haven’t committed to reviewing it at all.
hoptowntiger94
April 6, 2020 @ 7:52 pm
meow
Hey Arnold
April 6, 2020 @ 8:13 pm
Wasn’t meant to be an insult… Just an honest question if you and Grady exchange notes from time to time. Just coincidences I guess..
KGD
April 6, 2020 @ 7:37 pm
Damn, I deactivated Twitter to avoid trolls. There’s no escape.
Penn Central
April 6, 2020 @ 8:59 pm
Amazing how times have changed…The Stones had their intentions in the right place at that time, by trying to bring some insight or understanding to a crisis…. Now, in this day, we have Madonna saying how Covid 19 is the great equalizer, affecting all people’s…as she indulges in a luxurious milk bath with rose petals…do much for
insights of “stars” today 😒..meh…
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/06/politics/coronavirus-equalizer-myth-race-income/index.html
Daniele
April 7, 2020 @ 9:41 am
I bet that nowdays nobody would waste toilet paper toward the stage! Anyway i was listening to exile on main st. Just today. Man…that’ s r’n’r