Canterbury Park was on our event calendar for July 3. We had played this venue previously on 2 occasions, the second of which had us playing between races. This was setup similarly at the beginning, but promised a continuous hour of play at the end of the night preceeding the fireworks. We were told “this is our biggest attendance of the year – we get as many as 15,000 here”
It was a hot one, yet people streamed in for the first few races. We were told “it’s a light crowd to start with , but it fills up fast.” The crowd was steady all day, actually, but at about 8:30pm, we realized that 15,000 people was actually happening before our eyes.
Paul Allen, track announcer for the day and friend of the band, labeled race 2 “the Sugar Buzz Mile” . He stopped by the stage to wish us well after the races. Announcer Kevin Gorg gave a brief interview and sang along with Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin for the fans.
Sugar Buzz faithful donned their branded shirts (one with “Beth’s groupie” on the back of it) but many newcomers eyed the stage and crept closer to it as the night progressed.
Then the fever hit. Throngs of partygoers jumped with the beat of Metallica’s Enter Sandman – shouting over the powerful PA system.
HOT TO GO had the younger audience members miming the chorus in time and the energy swelled up through to the astonishing fireworks display at the end.
It was our largest show, it was 250 years of USA and it was amazing!