Festival Express 1970 was a wild, rolling celebration of rock music and counterculture—part concert tour, part mythic jam session—staged across Canada aboard a chartered train. Instead of flying between cities, legendary acts like Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, The Band, Buddy Guy, and Delaney & Bonnie rode together in a 14-car Canadian National Railways train, turning the journey itself into a nonstop party and musical experiment2.
The tour hit Toronto, Winnipeg, and Calgary, with each stop featuring marathon concerts. But the real magic happened between shows: impromptu jam sessions fueled by booze, camaraderie, and a touch of psychedelia. One infamous moment saw the train stop in Chapleau, Ontario, just to restock alcohol after the musicians drank the bar dry. Though plagued by protests over ticket prices and financial losses, the tour captured some of Janis Joplin’s final performances before her untimely death later that year3. The entire saga was immortalized in the 2003 documentary Festival Express, which unearthed long-lost footage and gave fans a backstage pass to one of rock history’s most surreal road trips.
