“I organized a concert with Lizzo and Macaulay Culkin on a moving streetcar”

I work at the PR firm Edelman, and in 2014 we were working with a beverage company whose tag line at the time was “Make it original.” We wanted to put together something really fresh for the North by Northeast music festival, so we created a unique venue by taking over a streetcar and turning it into a moving performance space for 16 bands over four nights.

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The logistics of putting on a concert series in a moving streetcar were wild. We figured out an ideal route along Queen Street—from McCaul to the edge of Parkdale—with multiple stops to attract as many pass-holding audience members as possible. The vehicle was driven by a TTC employee—so no worries there—and decked out like a concert venue, with mood lighting and band posters. I worked more than 100 hours that week to make it happen.

Macaulay Culkin played with the Pizza Underground, his pizza-themed Velvet Underground cover band. Part of their set involves getting a pizza delivered to the band, so we had to figure out delivery to a moving vehicle while the musicians played and 50 spectators looked on. Lizzo belted out her songs while swinging on the streetcar’s poles and blew everyone away with her star power. Comedian and musician Reggie Watts gave an amazing set. He wanted to smoke a joint before his performance, and I had to tell this celebrity that he really shouldn’t light up on TTC property. But he was cool about it.

Renting a streetcar to use as a festival venue was extremely hard to organize, but the TTC does let people charter their vehicles for things like sightseeing, film shoots and bar crawls (a streetcar is roughly $2,500 for three hours). Despite the logistical challenges, every night was so incredible. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of.