The Junos stopped in Winnipeg in 2005. Tickets to the Sunday night awards show sold out quickly, but, they opened up another section of seats the weekend of the event. I casually mentioned to my family that I would like to go. My sister immediately piped up that she would be game for trying to get tickets, which were only going to be sold at the box office at the MTS Centre--no phone-ins, no Internet orders.
"But we'd have to go down early to get a good spot in line," she said.
"Like, how early? Nine? Eight?" I asked. Tickets were going on sale at noon on the Saturday. I had to wonder what our competition would really be like.
"I was thinking more like six."
"Six a.m.? You really think so?"
She was completely serious. "Hey, if we're going to do this, we have to go for the glory."
I thought for a moment about how much I really wanted to go and how much I really did not want to have to get up earlier on a Saturday morning than what I would for a regular work day.
"Okay, let's do it," I nodded. I figured, if anything else, it would be an interesting experience, and one that I would be really happy to share with my sister.
Neither Tracy or I had ever "camped out" for tickets to anything before. We had no idea what we would be up for. We decided to pack some camp chairs and dressed appropriately for the wait outside.
"I packed two peanut butter and jam sandwiches, water, my MP3 player, and some magazines for us to read" I told Tracy before we set off. She rolled her eyes, laughed and called me her "ridiculously over-prepared sister". It is still one of my favourite terms of endearment.
The weather was mild but I came prepared in case of rain. We arrived at the arena on scheduled time and found ourselves third in line. One guy had been there since 1:30 a.m. The other guy drove 10 hours from Saskatchewan to get there.
At ten to seven we were let inside the lobby, formed a line and settled in for the wait. Security came by and told us Ticketmaster would likely do a wristband draw (a random assignment of a numbered place in line), which would then mean that our early bird arrival was more or less in vain.
At 10, Tracy and I decided our best bet would be to split up to give ourselves two chances at getting a good placement. I went to the end behind about 84 other people, while Tracy ended up at the first position after the other two parties ahead of us adopted similar strategies. After the draw we didn't improve upon my position, but it was still better than what Tracy drew. We were nervous. Mom called us to see how we did and offer up $100 to our cause so we could go for the best seats and not have to worry about all the cheaper ones being gone by the time we got up there. By 12:30 we had the tickets in our hands and were giddy with excitement. We ended up sitting stage right, practically in the wings but right above the aisle the stars walked to get behind stage. Other than that, I don't remember much of the actual ceremony, but I will never forget how we got there.
If you ever have the chance to participate in Juno Awards week, I would highly recommend taking in the concerts and activities leading up to the awards show. I also went that year to the Song Writers Circle where artists like Dallas Green, Burton Cummings, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Gordie Sampson, Alan Doyle and Jully Black gave acoustic performances in an intimate venue and then discussed how they came to write their songs. I love to support Canadian music because it comes from people with whom I share a Canadian experience, and I believe that is reflected in their work.
Danny Greaves, frontman for the now disbanded Winnipeg group The Watchmen, once said the reason why the prairie city produces so many great musicians is that once the snow flies, there's nothing better to do than stay inside and write.
It sounds like bullshit but,
You ever notice?
This old town of ice and snow
It gets you running yeah
To chasing something
What it is I'll never know
I just hope one day that it shows
--Any Day Now, The Watchmen
2 comments:
Hey! Thanks for the post, I appreciate it!
Great story Jill! I am still bitter that I had to miss the Junos because we'd booked a trip away without realizing the yet-unannounced Junos were the same weekend... granted, I was watching Elton John in Vegas while the Junos were on here but I still wish I could have done both!
For sure, next time they're here in Wpg I'll plan ahead better!
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