Canada Jam was a rock music

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 festival concert held at Mosport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario

Bowmanville, Ontario

Bowmanville is the largest community in the Municipality of Clarington in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario about 75 km east of Toronto and 15 km east of Oshawa along Highway 2...

 Canada, about 100 kilometers east of Toronto, on August 26, 1978. The festival was produced by Sandy Feldman and Lenny Stogel who successfully produced California Jam

California Jam

California Jam, also known as Cal Jam, was a rock music festival concert held at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California on April 6, 1974. It was produced by ABC Entertainment, Sandy Feldman, Don Branker and Leonard Stogel...

 and California Jam II

California Jam II

California Jam II, also known as Cal Jam II, was a music festival held in Ontario, California, at the Ontario Motor Speedway on March 18, 1978 and produced by Leonard Stogel, Sandy Feldman, and Don E. Branker. More than 300,000 people attended...

. It attracted over 110,000 fans making it the largest paying rock event in Canadian history until that time. The Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto

Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto

Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto was a benefit rock concert that was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on July 30, 2003. It was also known as "Toronto Rocks", "Stars 4 SARS", "SARSStock", "SARSfest", "SARS-a-palooza", the "SARS concert", or, more descriptively, "The Rolling Stones SARS Benefit...

 aka "SARSfest" featuring the Rolling Stones and AC/DC

AC/DC

AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...

 eclipsed that mark with an audience of 450,000 people on July 30, 2003.

Canada Jam was the second of three major music festivals held at Mosport between 1970 and 1980. The other two were the Woodstock-esque Strawberry Fields Festival

Strawberry Fields Festival

The Strawberry Fields Festival was a rock music festival held at Mosport Park Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, about 100 kilometers east of Toronto, between August 7 and the early morning hours of August 10, 1970. Although accounts vary, the audience has been estimated at between 75,000...

 held August 7-9, 1970 and the punk

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 and new wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 themed, Heatwave Festival

Heatwave (festival)

Heatwave was a rock festival August 23, 1980, outside of Toronto at Mosport Park, Bowmanville, Ontario. The slogans used to promote the show were variously the "Punk Woodstock", the "New Wave Woodstock", or "The 1980s Big Beat Rock and Roll Party"....

 held August 23, 1980. Both these festivals were produced by Toronto promoter John Brower who facilitated the introduction to Mosport Park for Feldman and Stogel.

Performers

Canada Jam acts in order of appearance:

• Fun Zone
• Ozark Mountain Daredevils
  Ozark Mountain Daredevils
  The Ozark Mountain Daredevils are a Southern rock/country rock band formed in 1972 in Springfield, Missouri, USA. They are most widely known for their singles "If You Wanna Get To Heaven" in 1974 and "Jackie Blue" in 1975....
  
  
• Doobie Brothers
• Atlanta Rhythm Section
  Atlanta Rhythm Section
  The Atlanta Rhythm Section, sometimes abbreviated ARS, is an American southern rock band. In 1970 former members of the Candymen and the Classics IV joined together and became the session band for the newly opened Studio One in Doraville, Georgia....
  
  
• Village People
  Village People
  Village People is a concept disco group that formed in the United States in 1977, well known for their on-stage costumes depicting American cultural stereotypes, as well as their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics....
  
  
• Dave Mason
  Dave Mason
  David Thomas "Dave" Mason is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Worcester, who first found fame with the rock band Traffic...
  
  
• Wha-Koo
  Wha-Koo
  Wha-Koo was an American rock band best known for their 1978 single, "You're Such a Fabulous Dancer", an international hit from their critically acclaimed album, "Berkshire".-History:...
  
  
• Prism
  Prism (band)
  Prism is a Canadian rock band originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They were active from 1977 to 1984 and are active again from 1988 to present. The band's sound is a mix of Album-Oriented Rock and pop rock. They have released a total of 13 albums to date...
  
  
• Kansas
  Kansas (band)
  Kansas is an American rock band that became popular in the 1970s initially on Album-Oriented Rock charts, and later with hit singles such as "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind"...
  
  
• Commodores
  Commodores
  The Commodores are an American funk/soul band of the 1970s and 1980s. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute in 1968, and signed with Motown in November 1972, having first caught the public eye opening for The Jackson 5 while on tour...
  
  
• Triumph
  Triumph (band)
  Triumph is a Canadian hard rock power trio that was popular in the late 1970s through the 1980s. Eight of the band's albums were certified gold or higher, and Triumph was nominated for multiple Juno Awards, including Group of the Year Award in 1979, 1985, 1986 and 1987.Like their fellow Canadians...
  
  

The program ran for 18 hours (3 hours behind schedule) and ended with Triumph's encore at 3:35 AM.

Broadcast, telecast, and record releases

Four television specials were made from the event and broadcast across the CTV television network in Canada. Several performances from the show were eventually released on CD and video, both in bootleg

Bootleg recording

A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...

 and authorized form including performances by Kansas and Triumph. The event was hosted by CFTR-AM ( AM680) in Toronto.

Approximately 350 people were treated in the medical tent for fatigue, cuts and drug and alocohol related ailments but no major incidents or problems occurred. Tickets for the event sold for $20.00 in advance and $30.00 on the day of the event and the event grossed an estimated 2.5 million dollars.