In early May, ProMedica’s 2020 Summer Concert Series at Promenade Park was canceled for the year, followed in short succession by the Centennial Terrace Concert Series 2020 in Sylvania, The Blade’s Northwest Ohio Rib Off, and the Toledo Zoo’s Amphitheater concert series, with the exception of the Matchbox Twenty show, which for now remains scheduled for Sept. 2.
Some summer traditions, including the crowded outdoor concert, are not yet part of our “new normal.”
And perhaps that’s why this 30-year-old concert festival photo, taken by Dave Zapotosky, The Blade’s director of photography, is so striking: It’s a nostalgic, perhaps even wistful reminder of the way things used to be.
The photo captures throngs of raucous REO Speedwagon fans and fans of classic rock packed into downtown’s Promenade Park for the band’s Rally by the River performance on Aug. 31, 1990. Some fans, presumably those up front against the stage barricade and with their fists raised ,arrived as early as 11 a.m. — more than 7 hours before the concert — to stake out their spot. Also worth noting: the gentleman on the bottom left, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Queen’s Freddie Mercury.
Once an annual downtown Toledo tradition, Rally by the River was born as “Friday Night Alive,” in late May, 1983, at Levis Square. This first in a series of “after-work parties” drew an estimated 2,000 party-goers, including Jan Carrico, a teacher at Arbor Hills Junior High School, who was happy for the temporary escape.
“After dealing with kids all day long, I wanted to be with big people,” she told The Blade. “This is sure better than all those stuffy graduations.”
“Friday Night Alive” was always meant to be a temporary name (though it certainly would have been a great title for a zombie disco film), and the event was christened Rally by the River the following year.
The Rally by the River concert series was a popular summer tradition through 2007. In 2008, CitiFest, the organization that put together Rally by the River and other events, disbanded because of its financial collapse.
And thus it’s the Gin Blossoms, who headlined the final Rally by the River concert on July 20, 2007, as the forever answer to this Toledo trivia question: “What was the last Rally by the River concert performer?”
Go to thebladevault.com/memories to purchase more historical photos taken by our award-winning staff of photographers, past and present, or to purchase combinations of stories and photos.
First Published June 8, 2020, 11:00 a.m.
