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In this special series of guest columns called Voices of the Flood, community leaders are sharing their memories a decade after the disaster.
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Venerable McMahon stadium shook and shuddered, as more than 33,000 people thundered along to Randy Bachman’s Taking Care of Business. Bachman, accompanied by The Sadies pounded out the familiar riffs of BTO’s most famous working man’s anthem.
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McMahon Stadium has hosted surprisingly few concerts in its 53 years. Only 19. Yet not even the likes of the Eagles, Supertramp, Janis Joplin, Alice Cooper or Aerosmith ever managed to attract a crowd as big as that at Alberta Flood Aid on Aug. 15, 2013.
The massive crowd was there to raise funds for the Calgary Foundation Flood Relief fund, but mostly to celebrate how people and businesses came together in the cleanup and recovery after the great flood.
I was sitting in front of my computer on the morning of June 19, 2013, aghast at what I was seeing. There was massive flooding along the shores of the Elbow and Bow rivers. Neighbourhoods and commercial sectors were inundated. The Stampede Grounds were under water. The historic swinging bridges over the Elbow River were destroyed. Thousands of homes were immediately uninhabitable. 75,000 people in Calgary evacuated, and all 13,000 residents of High River evacuated!
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I immediately thought “We need a benefit concert.”
Jumping on GoDaddy, I bought the URL albertafloodaid.ca and started contacting people. I didn’t know anything about putting on a concert but certainly there were plenty of people who did.
A scant few days later, I’m in the bowels of the Jubilee Auditorium at a very large gathering of people who wanted to be involved in putting on a benefit concert for Southern Alberta. I wasn’t the only one who thought this was a good idea.
In the early stages of this concert ideation, there were disagreements. That’s to be expected with so many people involved and such little time. Some music industry peeps thought an outdoor concert was too risky and that the Jubilee Auditorium was the best venue. The outdoor proponents wanted an event of scale to raise as much money as possible. Others wanted a televised-only event. I remember saying to one of the TV proponents “Who’s going to buy a T-shirt for a concert on TV?”
The differing promoters claimed certain artists were already committed to one event or the other. Back and forth it went for an hour. As an outsider watching the debate, I thought, “Why not do both?”
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I quietly went to the individual chairing the meeting and said, “I think we need a break.” She concurred. As the recess was called, I walked over to the outdoor faction and then the indoor faction introducing myself. They were all passionate but reasonable people. I said “Why not have two concerts? After a short discussion with furrowed brows, and many glances exchanged, heads started to nod. It only took a brief follow-up meeting and everyone agreed it was all in the best interest of those who needed it most. Two concerts it would be and one of them would be Alberta Flood Aid.
Then it began. The sheer wonderment of watching people working together in only six weeks: build a brand, and a website, find and manage sponsors, arrange dozens of flights, book hotel rooms, get a stadium floor from BC Place to McMahon Stadium, find the volunteers to lay the floor, sell tickets, get artist commitments, arrange for food for all the volunteers, produce a national TV production, manage logistics, print and sell T-shirts and so much more.
Without the help of hundreds of volunteers, the support of dozens of organizations like the National Music Centre, WestJet, Postmedia, Jeff Parry Promotions, Ticketmaster, Telus, Union Events, BC Place, Dome Productions, The City of Calgary and the McMahon Stadium Society (to mention just a few), we wouldn’t have been able to pull off the largest outdoor concert in Calgary’s history, raise $2.2 million, help a lot of people and have a heck of a good time. Come hell or high water.
Peter Jurisic is the founder and CEO of Budee Solutions, Inc. He was chairman of Alberta Flood Aid in 2013.
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