By Rob Shostak

As you may already know, Toronto is hosting the 2006 International AIDS Conference in August. While you may want to take a vacation during this important conference… those of you still in the city can enjoy a star studded concert with a veritable cornucopia of CanCon to keep your interest.

The Time To Deliver benefit concert is part of the opening ceremonies for the conference, and is bringing big swimmers in the mainstream of Canadiana. The Barenaked Ladies, Our Lady Peace, the lovely Chantal Kreviazuk, Amanda Marshall (who has completely disappeared over the past many years), The Blue Man Group (is that still CanCon?) along with Massari, the Red Spirit Singers And Dancers, DJ Tiesto and Alicia Keys will perform. On the celebrity side, be prepared for Richard Gere, Sandra Oh and philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates.
The August 13th concert starts at 7pm, with the concert starting a few hours later at 9pm. 20,000 of the 45,000 tickets are available on Ticketmaster for $30 and up. Proceeds from the sale will be going to the Canadian Foundation For AIDS Research, the AIDS Committee Of Toronto’s Community Partners Fund the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund Canada and the 2008 International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.