The Rolling Stones will play “SARS-stock” to try and help boost the city’s ailing economy.
By Ray Quintanilla
Chicago Tribune

TORONTO – These are hard times in Canada’s largest city. Tourism is in the dumps. The economy is sputtering, unemployment is up and a memorial service was held this week for two more victims of SARS.

The mood just does not seem right for a major outdoor rock music festival.

But Toronto leaders suggest it’s exactly what is needed to help the region turn the corner on a tough time: the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has claimed 40 lives since March and injected an element of fear across the city, spurring thousands to wear surgical masks. Those images, shown around the world, have devastated the tourism industry here to the tune of $4 billion and thousands of lost jobs.

If the city bounces back, officials will have Mick Jagger and the rest of the Rolling Stones to thank. The band will headline a concert dubbed “SARS-stock,” which organizers say is on pace to eclipse Woodstock and other concerts as North America’s biggest outdoor music festival.

Wednesday’s show, which is expected to draw more than 430,000 people, also is scheduled to feature AC/DC, The Guess Who, Rush, The Flaming Lips and The Isley Brothers.

“They (the public) are not going to see anybody wearing masks,” Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman insisted. “They’re going to see people having a great time!”

Toronto’s Department of Public Health has given the all-clear for the concert to proceed because there have been no new cases of SARS in more than a month. Measures including the quarantine of those infected after the spring outbreak, appear to be paying off, they said. The World Health Organization has lifted its warning against travel to Toronto.

“We are looking at SARS in the rearview mirror,” said Denzil Minnan-Wong, chairman of the Toronto Economic Development and Tourism Committee. “This is something we can ride out. We need to get the message out that we are not all walking around with surgeon’s masks on and living in fear.”

Minnan-Wong acknowledged that Wednesday’s show might mark the first time that business leaders have turned to a music festival as a means of reviving a local economy. But they needed a boost because Toronto hotels are empty, restaurants are struggling and other attractions are suffering.

According to Statistics Canada, a government agency that tracks unemployment, about 11,000 jobs were lost in the tourism sector in May. Those who did not lose their jobs saw wages decline nearly 6 percent, officials said. Occupancy rates at hotels fell about 30 percent.

SARS is a severe form of pneumonia and is accompanied by a high fever. Once infected, symptoms such as shortness of breath and a dry cough usually begin within 10 days. About 800 people have died from SARS worldwide, with most of the deaths in China, according to the WHO.

Toronto has seen the largest outbreak of the SARS outside of Asia, health officials said.

Concert organizers said the bulk of the money raised Wednesday will go toward additional research on the disease and to those in need of treatment. With tickets costing about $16, much of the nearly $7 million raised will go to local causes, said Ray Heard, one of the festival’s organizers.


Dr. Mark Berber, a psychiatrist at Toronto’s Markham Stouffville Hospital, site of a half-dozen SARS cases, said the city needs “a diversion” such as a concert to alleviate a collective sense of anxiety that set in.

“It’s normal for all of us to feel this way, because in the early days there were a lot of questions about this thing and how it spread,” Berber said. “Maybe the best thing to do right now is just cut loose a little bit now that it appears to be under control.”


Dr. Bonnie Henry, associate medical officer of the Toronto Department of Public Health, said there have been no new cases of SARS since June 12. And there have been no reported cases of someone transmitting the virus to another person since April 8.

But concerns about SARS are not completely over. Health department officials say about two dozen people are hospitalized with symptoms consistent with the virus.

Many of the hundreds outside Downsview Park, site of the concert, said Tuesday they were not fearful of catching SARS or any other disease.

“I’m here for the music,” said Celeste Greenberg, who works at a Toronto advertising agency. “I’ll be pretty loose. So will all these people around here. Maybe we can bring a little excitement back to Toronto.”

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(c) 2003, Chicago Tribune.

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AP-NY-07-29-03 1954EDT

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