So Just How Hot Was It at Live Aid in Philadelphia?
"Boiling hot," the lead singer of Judas Priest tells us.
A medical staffer sprays Live Aid fans with cool water at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia / Photograph by Amy Sancetta/Associated Press
This story is part of our continuing coverage in honor of Live Aid Week in Philadelphia. Check back daily for more Live Aid fun.
Over the years, I’ve interviewed countless people about Live Aid in Philadelphia. And when I’ve asked them to tell me what they remember from JFK Stadium that day, almost everyone starts with this: It was hot. Really hot.
So just how hot was it for Live Aid in Philadelphia? The short answer is simple. The historical temperature for Philadelphia on July 13, 1985 is 95 degrees. But you don’t have to be a scientist to understand that the “real feel” inside a giant concrete bowl with no shade packed with 100,000 or so people was higher.
Then there’s the temperature on the black, sun-absorbing stage. Rob Halford, lead singer of Judas Priest, described it to Philly Mag as “boiling hot,” noting: “We were all wearing leather.” Not the ideal wardrobe for this kind of melting heat, but you’ve got to respect the man’s dedication to heavy metal.
Rob Halford of Judas Priest sweats in the sun at JFK Stadium during Live Aid in Philadelphia (Getty Images)
Live Aid staffers at JFK Stadium did their best to hose people down, but not everyone was close to a fire hose. “I heard that they had opened up a pipe in the men’s room to be like a shower, so I went in to cool down,” now-retired court employee Bette Askins told us. “It wound up being like a wet T-shirt contest. I was in my 30s then. I got up and danced in my wet T-shirt.”
Eric Bazilian, of the Hooters, could have stuck around and hung out with the stars of the music world after his band’s 9:10 a.m. set. But it was so “unbearably hot and crowded,” as he put it, that he went home to watch from his air-conditioned living room in Old City. (He did return for the “We Are the World” finale. Couldn’t miss that. And by 10:55 p.m., when the opening chords to that iconic song rang out, things were a bit more tolerable.)
Despite the scorching heat for her afternoon performance and her usual penchant for wearing as little as possible, Madonna donned a shirt, a vest, and a blazer. And she informed the crowd, “I ain’t taking shit off today,” a nod to the scandal caused by Playboy three days before Live Aid, when the magazine published nude photos of her taken back when she was a struggling model in New York.
Philly DJ and WXPN personality Robert Drake, then a 22-year-old working in the publishing industry, recalls being shocked to stumble on a case of water. “Which was pretty weird,” he said. “Keep in mind that bottled water wasn’t really a thing back then. There was a definite issue of making sure that people didn’t pass out.”
Officials had set up three medical stations at the stadium, where overheated fans could go for relief. And the event also employed spotters to go through the crowd and look for people in distress. Inside the medical stations, doctors were able to give fans fluids and aspirin. It didn’t hurt that the medical stations were outfitted with air conditioners.
In all, about 400 people were treated for heat exhaustion that day at JFK, likely not helped by hours-long consumption of alcohol. But it could have been worse: What if the weather gods had treated Philly to soaking downpours all day? What would Live Aid have looked like then?
