To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. Steczewski also remembers more legitimate offerings. “We drank Boone’s Farm Apple Wine. They used to allow you to take wine skins in. You could bring your own booze in wine skins. There were no concessions. There weren’t even T-shirt sales. You just went to the concert, had fun, had a little bit of wine.” When asked what made The Aud different from other concert venues, nearly everyone agrees: it was the intimacy. “For a place that held 16,000 people, it was tight,” explains Anderson. “It was kind of straight up, all the levels. If you go to a show at HSBC Arena, everything is spread out, and if it weren’t for the big video screen, the performers would be ants on the stage. You’re just not there. In The Aud there were no video screens. You were watching the guy on stage. There were no seats that seemed that far away. Even if you were up in the Oranges, it was still possible to see.” Anderson’s favorite seats for a concert were in the even sections, a couple of sections from the stage, a few rows up. “If you wanted to, you could head down to the f loor and dance, but you had a home base to go back to. And the lead singer would be looking you in the eye.” JOHN BOUTET COLLECTION Jerry Nathan, the promoter behind “Festival East,” came up with an unusual seating arrangement designed to adjust to ticket sales. It involved closing off The Aud with a curtain, creating a seating area limited to, say, 8,000 seats instead of 16,000. If those seats sold out, the divider could be moved back and more tickets could be opened up for sale. The promoter’s risk was limited, and every band played to a full house. A drumstick souvenir from a Tragically Hip concert in 1995. 2 9