1996 Molson Polar Ice Beach Party at the North Pole

In 1996, the Molson Ice beer brand ran a yearlong promotion along the lines of: We're the coldest beer giving our fans the hottest bands LIVE (Femmes & RHCP) in the coldest place on earth, i.e., The North Pole) The plan was to send 120 Molson contest winners on a four-day trip cruising the Arctic Sea from Resolute Bay in an icebreaker called "Kapitan Dranitsyn".
Both bands were supposed to play a show aboard the ship but the shipboard concert was cancelled at last minute due to bad weather. They held the performance instead in a local quonset hut warehouse.
GMR Marketing, organizers of the Molson Ice Polar Beach Party promotion, put together the Arctic cruise featuring the Violent Femmes and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Clearwing provided the stage, drapes, generators, PA and lights and landed the gear near the concert “venue” on a gravel runway and drove it across the ice on front-end loaders to the site.
It turned into a pretty hot show. All hundred and twenty winners, warm enough under their winter parkas, watched the Femmes and the Chili Peppers perform in a Quonset hut on an island within the Arctic Circle. Rubbing shoulders with them were crew members of the Russian icebreaker-turned-cruise ship that brought them to this remote spot and the local Inuits (Eskimos).
Headliner: Chili Peppers
Support: Violent Femmes
Event Mktg: GMR Marketing
Production: Clearwing