BARRIE -- Illegal vendors and sharp-eyed scalpers combed through thousands of fans outside Park Place yesterday in a bid to profit from a benefit concert to help poverty-stricken children in Africa.
Up and down the boulevard and in vast parking fields outside the Live 8 concert, vendors could be heard yelling "Get your ice cream!" or pop or hot dogs or bottled water while others sold colourful flags, bracelets, T-shirts and trinkets.
The interlopers were met with glaring eyes by vendors who paid the city of Barrie $300 permit fees to be allowed to sell their goodies, only to watch the illegal vendors smugly undercut their prices.
"I'm so upset," said Tammy Weeks, of J & T vending in Barrie, who paid $1,800 to set up six hotdog carts outside the concert. "We called the city at six this morning to complain and it's past noon and I just saw a municipal officer now --- that's a half-day of profits lost for us."
A short distance away, Julie Wilson, of Barrie's Jaws Kitchen, glowered at a vendor with no city permit next to her who sold his hotdogs for a dollar less than her $3 a dog.
"I have food going to waste because I can't sell it and the (bylaw) officers aren't even doing anything," she said.
"We are working as fast as we can," said a municipal officer, "but there are only three of us here and we have to check into all of this to confirm whether their permits are valid."
Validity
The officer went from vendor to vendor but ones with questionable-looking permits were still allowed to stay because the officer had no immediate way of confirming the permits' validity.
"We have to check," is all he would say.
By end of day, irate food vendors outside the gates were reporting huge losses and hundreds of hotdogs and buns had to be thrown away. The vendors say the losses were because of the numerous vendors who operated without permits.
Meanwhile, desperate fans who claimed they would cut off limbs to "get in there and get a glimpse of Neil Young" were paying scalpers an average of $50 per ticket.
"We scored!" cheered one woman and her boyfriend as they eagerly handed over the cash to a scalper with a pouch filled with $10 and $20 bills. The couple could hardly contain their excitement as they got their tickets and rushed through the gates.
Yet, there were some who came to the concert with the spirit of caring in mind.
Allowance
"This concert is good if it gets all the rich people to give some of their money to the poor people," said 9-year-old Dale O'Brien, wearing his bright orange "Make poverty history" T-shirt.
He and his sister, Kassandra, have been donating part of their allowance to a foster child World Vision program in Africa.
They won their concert tickets in a World Vision draw.
The lineup for the concert snaked 1.5 km, but it had a party-like atmosphere as those in line sang O Canada and cheered and laughed.
"We're here because it might make a difference, said Sarah Gardner of Montreal.
"You can't beat a free concert that does that."
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