Local Rolling Stones fans got some satisfaction at the iconic British rock band's concert last night at Burl's Creek in Oro-Medonte.
“It was fantastic,” said Brian Gibb. “Those guys had so much energy. They definitely delivered a great show.
“Those guys have been playing since 1962, and they must have played those songs thousands of times but they still put fresh energy into it,” added the Orillia resident. “And, as a fan, that came through to the audience.”
It was Gibb’s fifth time seeing the Stones in concert and he noted it was probably one of the better ones.
“There was a good vibe,” he said. “It was a fantastic concert. We're going to the Mariposa Folk Festival next weekend, so this was a good start to the music festivals for this summer.”
Fellow Orillian and concert goer Liz Riley, who was attending a Stones concert for the first time, had similar praise for the performance.
“We were thrilled,” she said. “We really enjoyed it. We were happy with the performance. It was as we would have expected or even better.
“They're such incredible models for staying so active in their senior years,” added Riley. “The music and performance was perfect. The singing was great, the songs were great and the visual effects, for me, were amazing.”
Organizers had set up four multi-storey high screens, she said, noting, otherwise, people far behind in the crowd wouldn't have been able to see the performers.
“You could see there were people on the stage, but I couldn't have seen their faces without those big screens,” said Riley.
She added it was nice the Stones started off the concert with O' Canada.
“We were appreciative that they started off acknowledging that it's Canada Day weekend, and they also acknowledged the Raptors,” said Riley.
But that’s pretty much where the positive experience ended, she said. Riley said she observed that the logistics at the event grounds were a bit disappointing.
“The lineups for food and drink and, of course, you weren't allowed to bring anything in with you,” she said. “There were no refill stations, so that forced everybody to buy water bottles or cans. When you think of that many people over the course of time, that's a lot of containers. That could have been saved.”
Gibb agreed.
“Last night, when we were leaving (to go back to the campsite) there were cans and water bottles everywhere in front of the stage,” he said. “It was littered pretty bad. The rest of the place everybody was pretty mindful and it looked like they'd made an effort to throw away their garbage.”
For the most part, said Gibb, everybody was very clean and mindful of disposing their garbage.
Similarly, Riley said the food utensils and containers, unlike the Mariposa Folk Festival, weren’t compostable.
“The lineups were ridiculous,” said Riley. “I think we were about 45 minutes in line to get food.”
Gibb had had a similar experience where food lineups were concerned.
“There was no ATM on the grounds, and when I finally got to the food vendor, they were taking only cash,” he said. “Earlier in the day, I had a friend that was gone for an hour and 20 minutes to get food.”
Gibb also noted the long lineups for the washrooms, especially for women.
While Riley said she agreed the lineups were very long, they were moving along well enough so the wait times weren’t too long.
It's estimated that about 70,000 fans were expected at the Stones' lone Canadian date on their No Filter tour, but Riley said the grounds didn't look that packed.
“How do you estimate a crowd of that size?” said Riley. “It was certainly a huge crowd, but we weren’t packed like sardines, we had room to move around.”
Traffic problems are a given when such a large crowd converges on one spot, but she said getting in wasn't a problem. However, leaving the concert was a different story.
“The worst part was trying to get out,” said Riley. “We took about an hour to just get out onto the highway. There were huge, huge lineups.”
Gibb and his friends and family had camped out on the grounds and had no problem getting out Sunday morning.
Despite all the logistical problems, Riley said she would do it again.
“All those things are transient, but the memories of the concert are forever,” she said.
