On August 19, 1980 Alice Cooper indirectly caused one of Toronto’s biggest riots when he cancelled a show at Toronto’s Canadian National Exhibition.
What started out as a normal concert with the rock band Zon opening the show, turned into a night of rioting with the arrest of more than 30 attendees, 18 injuries and an estimated $175,000 worth of damages.
At first the crowd had been informed that Cooper was running late. But after 90 minutes of waiting, Cooper’s guitarist Dick Wagner came out to break the news to the 13,000 concert-goers that Cooper wouldn’t be playing the show. Before he could even finish, chairs began to be thrown at the stage and 200 Toronto police officers descended upon the venue.