1983 Blizzard Strands Thousands at This Aerosmith Concert! Were You There?

As we prepare for the latest Capital Region snow storm I am reminded of a blizzard that blew through the Northeast nearly 40 years ago. The resulting storm left me stranded at an Aerosmith concert in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Where were you for the blizzard that hit New York and the Northeast on February 11, 1983?

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There were no indications of a storm as we drove to the show. Once we joined the 9,600 fans inside the Springfield Civic Center, which is now the MassMutual Center, we made our way through the crowd to get as close to the stage as possible on the general admission floor.

The opening act was the Pat Travers Band and following their set an announcement was made that, while we were watching Travers, a storm was raging outside and the weather conditions would cause a late arrival for Aerosmith.

In disbelief we found a window to see for ourselves and sure enough, it wasn't just snowing, we had a blizzard on our hands! There was literally nothing to do but wait. Aerosmith finally made it to the venue and hit the stage at 11pm ripping into "Back In the Saddle".

The show ended at 12:45am with "Train Kept a Rolling" and we headed toward the door but where the heck are we going to go? With the snow and the wind it was impossible to see anything. We set out on foot to find the Holiday Inn. We were praying they would take a couple of kids with no money or credit cards. I was 16 at the time and thankfully, they gave us a room!

Back at the Civic Center, the Operations Manager invited all to stay and approximately 400 took him up on that. Those fans that stayed were offered the floor of Civic Center Banquet Room. At approximately 3am food was served in the form of popcorn, soda, donuts and coffee.

MassLive reported that some forecasters had called this the worst storm in 40 years! By the time the storm passed through the region it ranked among the top snowfall totals of all time. This 24 hour storm had an official total of 21.0 inches!