Surrealismia; Villi Pohjola meets MTV? Kesällä 1995 Molson-panimo ratsasti uudella extreme-buumilla (X Games, anyone?) ja järjesti kilpailun promotoidakseen Molson Ice -oluttaan. 500 (amerikkalaista ja kanadalaista) voittajaa lennätettäisiin all-inclusive –matkalle 1000 asukkaan Tuktoyaktukiin (joka sijaitsee suunnilleen samoilla leveysasteilla kuin Inari) Pohjois-Kanadaan Molson Ice Polar Beach Party -festivaaleille. Esiintyjälista: Hole, Metallica, Moist, Cake ja Veruca Salt.



Molson Icen silloinen brändimanageri muistelee kosteaa kokousmatkaansa Tuktoyaktukiin kesällä 1995 seuraavasti:

Our task was to meet with the Mayor and convince him that it was a great idea for hundreds of drunken American sweepstakes winners to invade his village on Labor Day. I was the Brand Manager for Molson Ice and I had convinced my boss that a million dollar Metallica concert on the beach of the Arctic Ocean (the Molson Ice Polar Beach Party) was a good idea.

Sitting in Robert’s office on Prince Arthur Ave, while cracking a fifth of Jack Daniels, I learned for the first time that Tuktoyaktuk is a dry town and, even worse, that the Inuits have one of the worst alcohol problems in the world. Yikes. There was no turning back. I had already signed the contract. Pour me a bigger glass please. Robert and I finished the entire fifth there in his office. I’m pretty sure I drank most of it.

(For context, I had spent the previous three days at a beer convention in Chicago where, basically, all you do is drink beer. I must have had 50 beers in three days, maybe 75, and a grand total of 4 hours of sleep. Not kidding.)

Itse festivaali on jäänyt ainakin James Hetfieldin mieleen (The Metal Hammer Magazine, 1999):

The weirdest venue would have to be the Molson Ice Beach Party in the tundra in Canada. It was the show where 500 contest winners got flown to this little Eskimo village and it was us, Hole and Veruca Salt, and we played this tent in an area that was the last camp before the North Pole. We played for a bunch of contest winners and Eskimos who were huffing gasoline. It was all of 20 degrees in this tent.

Netistä löytyy myös Moistin Jeff Pearcen muistelmat aiheesta, ja koko projektista tehtiin myös dokumenttielokuva Invasion Of The Beer People (joka on pakko kaivaa jostain!) Ja (tietysti) voittajien kokemuksille on olemassa FB-ryhmä I Attended the Molson Ice Polar Beach Party (joka sisältää kiitettävän määrän WTF-tyyppistä kuvamateriaalia)!

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