Staging an International Rock Festival in Alberta: A Documentary Reconstruction of Edmonton’s Rock Cirkus

Authors

  • Brock Silversides

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/1708-6701.40294

Abstract

This paper, delivered in a shortened form at the CAML Conference in Calgary in June 2016, details the lead up to and production of the Edmonton Rock Cirkus in August 1979. It was the largest outdoor rock festival held in the Alberta capital up to that time, and was successfully staged in Commonwealth Stadium with a combination of top name international and Canadian acts, such as Peter Frampton, Heart, Streetheart, and Trooper. Using a combination of archival documents (primarily from the Martin Melhuish Fonds, held by Media Commons at the University of Toronto), contemporary press accounts, and reminiscences by organizers and performers, the groundbreaking festival's background, organization, logistics, economics, and physical production are reconstructed and discussed.

Downloads

Published

2017-06-12

How to Cite

Silversides, B. (2017). Staging an International Rock Festival in Alberta: A Documentary Reconstruction of Edmonton’s Rock Cirkus. CAML Review Revue De l’ACBM, 45(1). https://doi.org/10.25071/1708-6701.40294

Issue

Vol. 45 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Reports, News, Essays / Rapports, nouvelles, essais

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.