• Two days of snow, dust, music and air at Snow Jam 2001 in Ottawa •

Snow Jam 2001 Ottawa Recap & Photos

Thousands of Ottawa music and extreme sports fans got a healthy dose of both at this year's Molson Canadian Snow Jam. The two-day festival took place in the downtown core at Lebreton Flats in scorching 30 degree heat.

Click here for many rockin' photos!

While Mountain Dew, Schick and Trojan kept the garbage collectors busy with their onslaught of landfill-bound promotional products, a non-stop array of music and mayhem ensued. Some musical highlights include:

• Tara Slone of Joydrop, after being assailed by a fan yelling “show us your tits” from the front of the mosh pit, put him in his place: “You’re disrespecting me, you’re disrespecting every woman in the crowd, you’re disrespecting the whole crowd, why don’t you get a fucking clue.” Or something like that. Joydrop went on to play a kick-ass set that gave Bif Naked a run for her money.
• Econoline Crush singer Trevor Hurst worked the crowd into a frenzy during most of their strong set then found an inflatable Coleman couch at the side of the stage. He launched the couch into the mosh pit then proceeded to follow it, trying to climb onto the couch while surfing atop the crowd. He eventually gave up and was returned unharmed to the stage to finish the set. As was the couch.
• Black Halos singer Billy Hopeless ventured down to the front of the crowd and got perhaps a little “too close for comfort” with a fan in the front row.
• Bif Naked bass player Gail Greenwood made their already-hard-rocking set rock that much harder with her incessant head-banging and rock poses. Apparently her history with L7 and Belly has done her good!

In between bands and DJ’s, there was some amazing stuff going on - with a massive quarter-pipe covered with man- made snow, a large half-pipe and a varied street-scape area with ramps, boxes and rails, there was plenty of snowboarding, skiing, inline skating, skateboarding and BMX riding to be seen. Massive air was plentiful while the BMX riders stole the day with such feats as ramp-to- ramp back-flips and 360 tail-whips on the street ramps. An occasional hard fall on a shoulder or head reminded everyone of the gravity of the situation but no one failed to get up from a tumble, as far as we know. Sunday was capped off by an amazing drop-in over the platform from the hand-rail high above the crowd by Chris Steggles (or was it Ariel Stagni? Either way they were both amazing.)

A healthy dose of irony was present as the "Snow" Jam was more of a dust-jam: huge clouds of dust billowed up from the crowd in scorching 30-degree heat and gusting winds, and fans donned bandido-style kerchiefs over their faces to the approval of Bif Naked. All that was missing was the tumbleweed. Meanwhile huge beer company banners and props preached to a crowd mostly too young to drink and therefore banned from the large beer-consuming areas of the event. Nonetheless, a good time appeared to be had by all who could last through the desert-like afternoons and cool off when the sun went down.

•Steve Donnelly Email WWW

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