Calm after the storm
Tech crew amazed at Lightfoot’s tenacity
By Colin McKim
Local News - Monday, July 09, 2007 Updated @ 11:28:22 PM [Orillia Packet & Times]
As the tech crew coiled up muddy cables and boxed up soggy stage equipment on a sunny Monday morning, they were still talking about folk legend Gordon Lightfoot and how the old trooper refused to play second fiddle to a spectacular rain and lightning storm the night before.
“We tried to get Gord to stop — he wouldn’t,” said sound engineer Matt Knischewsky.
“Water and electricity don’t mix.”
As flashing clouds, fanged with sheet lightning, scudded overhead like electric snake pits and the nervous in the crowd sought shelter, Lightfoot soldiered on, ignoring the pleas of his manager and the nervous looks of his band mates.
When the gnashing skies opened up about four songs into Lightfoot’s set, the rain was torrential, soaking thousands of people sitting on the sloping field and quickly forming muddy puddles around the stage.
“My shoes are still wet,” said sound and light technician Sean Gilhuly Monday morning.
Gilhuly was supposed to be on top of a metal tower in front of the stage, working a 1,000-watt spotlight.
But with lightning sizzling and snapping in whip cracks in the clouds above, Gilhuly wasn’t keen on being the single highest point on the landscape.
Instead, he spent his time adjusting the moveable canopy above the stage trying to drain curtains of water and shelter Lightfoot and his band as much as possible.
But Lightfoot still got pelted, said Knischewsky.
“The rain was blowing right into him. He was getting drenched.”
Ever a trooper, Lightfoot kept strumming and singing through the electric downpour, performing “If You Could Read My Mind,” “The Great Canadian Railway Trilogy” and “Sundown.”
“We’ve got a job to do and we’re going to finish it,” he told the rain-soaked crowd.
Many spectators made a dash at the first hint of lighting, while others under ponchos and umbrellas hung in during the light rain that only hinted at the deluge to come.
During “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” about the tragic sinking of a freighter in a Lake Superior gale, the Sunday night storm was like the song coming to life, said Knischewsky.
“It was spooky.”
“It was a great lighting show,” said Linda Goodall, who watched from a tent in the artisans village where she sold wool-and-felt fairies called Whimsical Creations.
Fortunately, the lightning, as if out of respect for Lightfoot, was shooting from cloud to cloud, not striking the ground.
But the rain showed no such respect, pounding down mercilessly.
It was impossible to stay dry, said Gilhuly.
“At the end of the night, I was barefoot with no shirt loading Gord’s truck.”
The rumours that Bob Dylan, playing Sunday night at Casino Rama, might slip over and join his old buddy on stage never panned out.
A white limo did roll in through the Tudhope Park gates during Lightfoot’s set and two festival volunteers raced through the rain to see if it was the famous American folk singer.
But the limo was gone before they got there.
“He’s that elusive figure,” said artistic director Mike Hill.
Amy Mangan, a member of the festival artistic committee, said the Dylan rumours created some suspense, but in the end his presence wasn’t required.
“We didn’t need him,” said Mangan.
“We had Gord and the great light show.”
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