The final numbers have yet to be tallied but organizers said they raised about $2 million from Wednesday night’s Fire Aid concert in Edmonton to benefit Fort McMurray.
Over 30,000 people were expected to be at Commonwealth Stadium Wednesday in support of the event to help the recovery effort in Fort McMurray and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.
For more photos, check out CISN Country’s gallery here.
The crowd watched 17 musical acts perform at the Fort McMurray Fire Aid concert with all proceeds going to the Fort McMurray United Way to support the city’s and region’s efforts to rebuild.
“Every band is playing for free, every volunteer is here just on their time off or taken away from their office. It’s just been tremendous. The whole community has come together for this,” Leanne Smoliak, Stamp It Out organizer, said.
READ MORE: Fort McMurray Fire Aid concert set times released
The performers included Dustin Bentall, City and Colour, Corb Lund, Blue Rodeo, and Nickelback.
Watch below: Tens of thousands of people filled Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium Wednesday night for Fire Aid, a concert to benefit Fort McMurray. Here’s a look back at the show.
Corb Lund also co-hosted the concert alongside Great Big Sea frontman Alan Doyle.
Watch below: Originally from the Red Deer, Alta. area, Dear Rouge is one of the musical acts performing at the Fire Aid concert to benefit Fort McMurray. Gord Steinke caught up with Dear Rouge’s Drew and Danielle McTaggart at Commonwealth Stadium to talk about how the wildfire made them want to do something to give back.
Lund admitted he was a bit nervous ahead of the show but was determined to help in the one way he could.
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“Whenever these kinds of things happen, you sort of pitch in,” Lund said.
“If I drove a backhoe, I’d do that. But I play music.”
READ MORE: Fort McMurray wildfire Fire Aid concert days away
Musicians donated their time, while airlines arranged their flights for free and hotels gave them rooms, Lund said.
Watch below: Country singer Dallas Smith has a whole lot of Alberta roots and is one of the performers at Fire Aid, a concert to benefit Fort McMurray. Gord Steinke caught up with him at Commonwealth Stadium to talk about how he reacted to last month’s massive wildfire.
Global Edmonton’s Kendra Slugoski and Tony Craigen created three vignettes to remind people about the fire’s devastating effect on Fort McMurray, the upswell of support for evacuees and their return to begin rebuilding the community.
Watch Below: Vignettes show the Fort McMurray wildfire’s devastating impact on the city, the support for evacuees and their return home.
With files from The Canadian Press
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