Here’s another story of a music festival gone horribly, horribly wrong.

I take you back to June 1970, for the Celebration of Life Festival, which was held on a farm in Louisiana. Promoters called it the South’s answer to Woodstock, which had happened a year earlier. The lineup included Pink Floyd, Ike & Tina Turner, the Beach Boys, and BB King. Local authorities wanted none of this, and two days before the show was supposed to start, cops moved in and shut everything down.

This left thousands of people with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Some sat in the field in the blistering heat and humidity. Others found abandoned farmhouses. There was no food, water, sanitary facilities, or medical care. Two people drowned while escaping the heat in the South Louisiana River, while others were injured in fights with police.

The Celebration of Life Festival of 1970 was a total disaster but has been largely forgotten. Good.

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Whenever you get a bunch of music fans into a field and introduce alcohol, drugs, and dodgy weather, things can and will go wrong. The Powder Ridge Rock Festival, held at a ski resort in Middlefield, Connecticut, was one such event.

Local authorities tried to stop it, but 30,000 people showed up anyway. There was no music because everything had been cancelled. The promoter, the owner of the ski resort, was arrested for allowing people onto the property. Meanwhile, everyone had to deal with no music, no food, no water, no sanitary facilities, and some very bad drugs, especially the cheap dollar-a-tab acid.

The only artist to show up was Melanie, the folksinger, who performed an impromptu set powered by a couple of ice cream trucks that had been commandeered.

One more horror show festival next time.

© 2026 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

We’ve evolved when it comes to being able to stage music festivals. In the 70s, though, people were still learning, often with disastrous results.

Let’s go back to Labour Day 1972 for the Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival in Illinois. There was a solid line-up: Black Sabbath, Allman Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, Joe Cocker, and more. About 50,000 people were expected, but the actual number of people who tried to get in might have been close to 300,000.

The result was a 30-kilometre traffic jam. Vendors ran out of food and water and you don’t want to know about the porta-potties. And then it started to rain. Hard. The crowd went crazy, burning a food truck. And get this: A cow from a nearby farm was stolen and butchered for its meat. By the end of the weekend, the main stage was set on fire and hundreds were injured.

The story of another disaster next time.

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Many of the worst musical festivals have been blissfully forgotten, which is not a good thing because promoters and fans should learn from past mistakes.

Take the Ozark Music Festival of 1974. Although it featured a killer line-up that included the Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd, the promoters had promised it would be a country music event that would attract 30,000 people. Instead, 160,000 people showed up, half of whom were not allowed in because there was no space.

But I’ll tell you who DID get in: Several biker gangs armed with long steel bars. The drugs were bad, with a thousand people requiring emergency treatment. Another 2,000 were treated for heat stroke. Three hundred people ended up in hospital, including a guy who had his face gouged by someone with a prosthetic hook for a hand. More horror stories next time.

© 2026 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Conservation officers are still searching for a bear that attacked a three-year-old girl in Maple Ridge, B.C., on Sunday morning.

Neighbours are being told to stay clear of the area around the 12300 block of 240 Street.

Anaiyah Lekei is now recovering after surgery. The bear clawed and bit her several times on the head, neck and back.

Her mother said she was on her patio when the bear attacked.

“Suddenly, she started screaming just the blood-curdling scream and my husband was able to get to the patio first,” Andrea Lekei said.

“He was able to get the bear off of her. She was under the bear and the bear had already attacked and was mauling her and was about to go down for another bite and he was able to get the bear off of her.”

Anaiyah’s mother and grandmother tried to stop the bleeding with towels while her father scared the bear off, eventually shooting it between the eyes with a bow and arrow.

The bear ran off. About 30 minutes later, RCMP shot a black bear in a neighbour’s yard, but a necropsy determined it was not the same bear from Sunday’s attack.

Neighbours say there are a number of bears in the area, some of whom have cubs with them.

Anaiyah was airlifted to BC Children’s Hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.

A GoFundMe has been set up to raise money for the family.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A downtown Edmonton property that has struggled to attract visitors for years is getting not just a new owner, but also a facelift.

On Monday night, Edmonton-based real estate developer Westrich Pacific announced the Alberta Court of King’s Bench approved its proposed purchase of Edmonton City Centre from Otera Capital Inc. on Aug. 7.

The property on 102 Avenue covers about 10 acres of downtown land, stretching from 100 Street to 103 Street.

The office component — including TD Tower, Oxford Tower and Centre Point Place — combined with the west and east sides of the mall represent nearly 1.4 million square feet of space.

There are four parking areas on the site, with a total of 2,500 stalls.

Westrich Pacific called the sale a significant milestone toward the “planned acquisition and redevelopment of one of downtown Edmonton’s most prominent properties.”

“This is the most exciting project of our careers,” said Westrich Pacific co-CEO David Sanche.

“Edmonton City Centre has incredible potential, and we believe its transformation can play a meaningful role in the continued revitalization of downtown.”

The developer said it plans to undertake a major, multi-phase redevelopment of City Centre mall — introducing new residential, retail, entertainment and wellness uses while improving the property’s connection to the surrounding downtown community.

The first phase is expected to include about 1,500 residential units on the west side of the mall where the now-shuttered Hudson’s Bay department store used to be.

The new owner is also looking at a completely redesigned exterior, new street-fronting retail and a rooftop Nordic spa.

 

“I have not been this excited about a project in a long time,” said Westrich Pacific’s other co-CEO, Richie Lam.

“It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last before bed; we are thrilled to be bringing this asset back to life.”

Westrich Pacific said it envisions future phases will include a broader transformation and beautification, including a new exterior treatment for the mall, LED displays, more new retail offerings and a “significant focus on entertainment, wellness and experiential destinations.”

The mall is currently home to a Landmark Cinemas theatre, a Delta hotel, a food court, the offices of CBC Edmonton and other retail and professional spaces.

Westrich Pacific said with the sale now approved by the courts, it will now advance development permit drawings and detailed planning for the redevelopment.

Subject to required approvals, major construction on the first phase is anticipated to begin in early 2027, with subsequent phases “proceeding as market conditions permit.”

In 2019, Oxford Properties sold several mixed-use buildings that span three city blocks in downtown, including Edmonton City Centre, TD Tower, Oxford Tower and Centre Point Place, to an investment consortium called LaSalle Canada Property Fund.

Then the pandemic hit, leading to an exodus from downtown as office workers stayed home for years and social disorder increased in the city’s core.

The mall went into receivership in July 2025, when creditor Otéra Capital Inc. was owed $140 million.

Westrich Pacific said the transaction is expected to close before the end of 2026. The cost of the sale was not disclosed.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Telecommunications company Rogers says an attempted copper theft was behind the widespread interruption that left some its Calgary customers without services on Monday morning.

A spokesperson for Rogers says the interruption happened just before 3 a.m., and is part of a “troubling rise” in vandalism and attempted theft it’s been seeing to its network infrastructure across the country.

“…causing service interruptions and affecting Canadians who rely on our networks to stay connected. Beyond being a significant inconvenience for our customers, these acts can have a serious impact on public safety,” the spokesperson said.

“Early this morning, thieves intentionally cut some of our fibre lines in an attempt to steal cooper, causing significant damage and interrupting internet, TV and home phone services for customers in some Calgary neighbourhoods.”

Calgary police say they were notified around 6:20 a.m. that the wires had been cut, but say it happened far earlier in the day in an alley in the 3300 block of Erlton Street Southwest.

Rogers says there are six crews in the area all day with over 20 technicians working to repair the “extensive damage” and restore services.

Its website showed many of their impacted customers live  in parts of Southeast and Southwest Calgary, including Elboya, Manchester Industrial, Burns Industrial, Erlton, Bonnybrook, Mills Estate, Inglewood, Dover, Erin Woods, Eastfield, Golden Triangle, Lynnwood, and Foothills.

The Edy Hair Planet Barber Shop is located in Manchester Industrial. Owner Edy Ukbakha said he considered closing for the day on Monday because of the outage with the internet being so crucial to run his business.

“(I) couldn’t take payments because the payment system is attached to the internet and after I took payments from two people and then realized that it didn’t go through.”

Carmi Levy, a technology analyst, says being connected is how most of us now live, but that many Canadians in some cases are too reliant on the internet and internet-based connectivity and technology. This includes keeping in contact with clients through phone and email, streaming on-screen entertainment, and even running a business.

Levy says before outages like Monday’s is when people should be asking themselves, what if we didn’t have email, social media or applications? How would we get our work done during an outage?

“I think this particular case is a really good exercise for us to ask ourselves those questions and have those hard conversations because we have become too dependent on the technology,” said Levy.

“We assume that it’s always going to be there, but we’re in trouble when it isn’t.”

Rogers says it will start to restore services to customers later Monday evening and that efforts to restore services will continue overnight, estimated to be resolved by 9 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Rogers is looking to the federal government to take actions against “these network tampering acts and welcome the changes in Bill C-14 to crack down on copper theft,” as well as acts of crime and vandalism that targets their infrastructure.

Its stats show these vandalism caused outage repairs can take up to three to four times longer  “due to the extent of damage and associated repairs,” and has seen the number of hours related to vandalism repairs increase by over 400 per cent since 2022.

Calgary police say it is investigating.

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The water woes continue for Calgary businesses along Bowness Road after a sinkhole opened up over the weekend due to a water main break below the street.

According to the City of Calgary, the water main ruptured around 10 a.m. Saturday, affecting water distribution to around 20 businesses in the area between 62nd and 63rd Street N.W.

One of those businesses, The Place restaurant, has been closed for three days.

Paul Sipos, who owns the restaurant, believes he’s lost $9,000 in revenue and food that’s had to be thrown out due to the temporary closure.

“My staff would like to come to work because they’ve got bills to pay,” he told Global News. “I have to call my suppliers and say, ‘Don’t process the payments this week because I don’t have any weekend money,’ so I’m going to ask them for another week’s grace.”

Crews have been working on the pipe since Saturday, a city spokesperson said, and a minor repair was completed on the 250 mm water distribution main Sunday.

However, the city confirmed a second leak developed near the original repair location after water pressure was restored.

“Crews are currently back on site and are replacing a small section of the watermain,” a city spokesperson said in a statement.

“We anticipate completing that repair today and are currently expecting water service to be fully restored by the end of the day.”

It’s a concerning situation for the Mainstreet Bowness Business Improvement Area, after the street held its annual Tour de Bowness bike race and street festival just days before the sinkhole appeared.

The break is another water-related issue that’s impacted Bowness residents and businesses in the last number of months, with the rupture of a similar pipe under Bowness Road back in April.

“It’s been deja vu all over again,” said Kellie Freeman, the BIA’s executive director. “It seems every couple of months businesses are dealing with water main breaks here.”

Despite not requiring water to keep its doors open, shops like Awaken The Gems said the construction in the area has impacted foot traffic, and access for potential customers.

According to Jesse Bain, who opened the store with his wife four months ago, they’ve had to shut down for at least one weekend each month due to impacts from crews working in the area.

“To be a brand new store and be shut down on weekends, which is supposed to be our busiest time, is beyond frustrating,” he told Global News.

A city spokesperson said the break is unrelated to the Bearspaw feeder main, the critical artery which carries 60 per cent of the city’s drinking water.

That pipe ruptured twice in the last two years, most recently in late December, plunging the city into weeks of restrictions on water use and, in some cases, boil-water advisories.

Work is underway to replace the pipe, with construction crews working along 34 Avenue N.W. in Bowness. The goal is to have the project complete by December.

That project is part of more than $1 billion in investments in the city’s water infrastructure since the feeder main’s original break in June 2024.

Ward 1 Coun. Kim Tyers said her hope is more funding is on the way for the “basics” in the upcoming four-year budget, set to be debated in November.

“It just shows us that we need to put more effort and more funding into our water infrastructure,” she told reporters. “I think we should really focus on making sure that residents aren’t getting used to water main breaks.”

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

When the Bald Range fire exploded in size Friday night, many nearby residents scrambled to get out.

But for many, it wasn’t just human lives they had to think about.

Faith Affleck runs Stars Piggly Wigglys Sanctuary in Summerland, B.C., and is currently staying in Okanagan Falls with two of her rescues.

She told Global News that the last 72 hours have been “torture” for them.

“We got seven out,” she said.

“My fiancé, Trevor, he stayed to protect the farm. He’s done an amazing job. He still has no power, but people have been giving him water and stuff. And he does have a little power box to run his coffee maker,” she continued.

“But there’s been no fires on our property in 24 hours. So that’s amazing. And lack of sleep is a really bad one right now.”

Affleck said they communicate via text, but the first night was the worst because they didn’t know what was going on.

“But he sent me pictures; everything is fine on our property, the fire came down the back of our hill, and nothing has ever happened,” she said.

“Like, there’s nothing wrong with anything. No structures have been burnt. Our house is closer to the road. So the only structure at the back is one of the pig pens and I have that pig, but his house is fine. The fence is fine. There are no spot fires on the property at all and if there was, Trevor’s been on there diligently putting them out.”

Stars Piggly Wigglys Sanctuary is a safe haven for rescue pigs and Affleck said she has slept maybe one hour in the last few days as she’s so worried.

But she knew Trevor wasn’t going to leave the pigs by themselves.

“He put his foot down,” she said.

“He said he wasn’t leaving at all. He told me that even before it got really bad; he said that he’s not leaving.”

Affleck said there is a farm down the road from hers, which is fine, except a few chickens passed away, but other homes on their road did burn down.

“I’m hoping that we can go back soon,” she said.

“But I just don’t know if that’s feasible yet, because it is still going, right?”

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A small rec centre at Rollie Miles Park beside Strathcona High School remains stalled, after a City of Edmonton council committee received a project update on Monday.

The approved model, set to be located at 10450 72 Ave. in the Queen Alexandra neighbourhood, includes a new swimming pool, gym and fitness space.

Finding the money to build it, however, is the issue.

“If we look a the budget that’s been suggested — around $130 million — that would eat up 10 per cent of our entire capital budget over the next four years,” said Mayor Andrew Knack.

“Realistically, that’s not going to be possible.”

The report presented to committee on Monday said there is long-term support for a rec centre in the south-central neighbourhood but immediate priorities are elsewhere.

“I look at it as a ‘when’ not an ‘if’ conversation —  and the ‘when conversation’ is very hard,” Knack said.

The rec centre is intended to replace Scona Pool, which closed in 2022.

While the preliminary design work was completed in 2023, delivery of the new rec centre and indoor pool is not currently funded.

The southside facility has, as a result, been stuck in the design phase for years now and will remain so into the foreseeable future.

The city report said in the meantime, the Kinsmen Sports Centre to the north and Confederation Leisure Centre to the south currently meet the needs of the area neighbourhoods.

Erik Bay explains more in the video above.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.