Roadside Attraction & Another Roadside Attraction was a travelling music-and-arts summer festival in Canada in the 1990s."Forget h.o.r.d.e., Lilith Fair and Lollapalooza, Another Roadside Attraction is the best touring festival on the continent". ''

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as ...

'', July 18, 1999. Headlined by The Tragically Hip with a different lineup of supporting bands for each of the three tours, the festival travelled across Canada for between eight and ten dates in each of 1993, 1995 and 1997. Each show usually lasted roughly eight hours. The name was taken from the Tom Robbins novel '' Another Roadside Attraction''. The Hip were originally thinking of calling it ''Heksenketel'', which is Dutch for "witches' cauldron"; although that name was not used for the concert festival, it was later used as the title of a concert video recorded on the 1993 tour. The first Roadside Attraction in 1993 included

Midnight Oil Midnight Oil (known informally as "The Oils") are an Australian rock band composed of Peter Garrett (vocals, harmonica), Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboard) and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 by ...

, Crash Vegas, Hothouse Flowers and Daniel Lanois. These five acts also collaborated on a one-off charity single, " Land", in 1993 to protest forest

clearcutting Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/ logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters to create certain types of fore ...

in British Columbia. Following the

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

performance at Lansdowne Stadium, the promoters faced charges under the city's bylaw for the sound exceeding the maximum permitted

decibel The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose levels differ by one decibel have a po ...

level for public events. The second tour in 1995 featured

Blues Traveler Blues Traveler (formerly known as "The Establishment" or "The Black Cat Jam" or "The Establishment Blues Band") is an American rock band that formed in Princeton, New Jersey in 1987. They are known for extensive use of segues in live performance ...

, Matthew Sweet, Eric's Trip, Rheostatics, Spirit of the West, Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers and The Inbreds, while the third and final tour in 1997 featured

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, pop, country, folk, and blues. She has released eleven studio albums, five compilations and three li ...

, Wilco,

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") are an American rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional music such as cumbia, ...

, Change of Heart, Ron Sexsmith,

Ashley MacIsaac Ashley Dwayne MacIsaac (born February 24, 1975) is a Canadian fiddler, singer and songwriter from Cape Breton Island. He has received three Juno Awards, winning for Best New Solo Artist and Best Roots & Traditional Album – Solo at the Juno A ...

, The Mutton Birds and Van Allen Belt. The 1997 tour included dates in Darien Lake,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and Highgate, Vermont, the only times the festival was ever staged outside Canada. Los Lobos' participation in the 1997 tour, in turn, led to Steve Berlin producing the Tragically Hip's next two albums '' Phantom Power'' and '' Music @ Work''. The festival was not mounted in 1999, as the band had only just completed touring behind ''Phantom Power'' a couple of months earlier, and were not prepared to organize another festival so soon afterward."Power of the hip: With 12 years and eight albums under their thirty- something belts, Tragically Hip is firmly ensconced as Canada's top rock band. But don't call them rock stars". ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...

'', February 6, 1999.

References

{{The Tragically Hip Rock festivals in Canada The Tragically Hip concert tours Music festivals established in 1993 Concert tours of Canada