Festival Express
The Trans Continental Pop Festival, better known as Festival Express, was a legendary 1970 tour across Canada by some of the world’s biggest rock bands, including The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and The Band. The tour was also the subject of a theatrical documentary film made with footage shot during the 1970 tour interspersed with interviews with tour participants who shared their recollections of the time.
Released in 2004, the film was produced by Gavin Poolman (son of the original 1970 film shoot’s producer, Willem Poolman) together with John Trapman, and directed by double Grammy Award-winner Bob Smeaton (The Beatles Anthology ) with music produced by Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin), and features original footage shot in 1970 by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Peter Biziou (Mississippi Burning, Pink Floyd: The Wall, The Truman Show). The film earned $1.2 million at the US Box Office, and the DVD went straight in at number 1 on the Music Video & Concert DVD top-sellers charts at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Tower Records, etc., and has had an average customer review rating of 4.5 stars out of 5. According to RottenTomatoes.com, the leading independent source of US film reviews, Festival Express was the second most critically acclaimed film released in 2004:
The tour was unique in that rather than flying to each city, many of the musicians traveled by chartered CN train, fostering an atmosphere of musical creativity and closeness between the performers. The trips between cities were a mix of jam sessions and partying. Among the memorable scenes depicted in the film was a drunken jam session with The Band’s Rick Danko, the Dead’s Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin.
By the time the festival started, there was a belief among some North American youth that large concerts like the Festival Express should be free. As at Woodstock, many young people showed up with no intention of paying the $14 admission. Despite the financial hardship this caused promoters Ken Walker, Thor Eaton, and Dave Williams, the train continued on, providing a rich environment in which the traveling bands could jam and interact. Musician Kenny Gradney, who performed with Delaney and Bonnie, said “It was better than Woodstock, as great as Woodstock was.”
