I had never met an Air Supply fan until I stood with more than 1,000 of the soggy souls in the pouring rain in front of the Gage Park bandshell this weekend.

Frankly, I had never imagined that they existed.

But they truly are diehards, these Air Supply fans (notice, how I resisted the temptation to call them Airheads).

Take Dawn Cook, for example, of Fenwick. She arrived Saturday afternoon in the midst of an epic downpour to wait until 9:30 p.m. for her greying idols to take the stage at the 33rd annual Festival of Friends.

"I've seen them, oh, about 150 times," Cook said, rain streaming down her face.

At first, I doubted her, but the nine friends and family she was standing with all attested to the veracity of her statement. A list of concerts beginning with Hamilton Place in 1981 mapped out dates throughout the eastern seaboard.

It seemed unlikely that the band would actually make an appearance Saturday night.

The festival had been virtually closed down since shortly after 3 p.m. when the heavens opened up in the middle of Toronto punk band SFH's "Yabadabadoo" chorus from Barney Rubble Is My Double. Only a couple of the 150 craft and concession stands remained operating.

Pockets of people huddled under tarps and trees in the beverage area, gripping tallboys of beer.

The dye in my new navy socks was turning my feet blue.

But the Airheads (I couldn't resist) remained faithful.

Cook had weathered torrents before. Air Supply, she noted, had even played through a hurricane in Cuba.

Shortly after 9 p.m., the rain slowed enough for the six members of Air Supply to risk the stage.

During their 33-year career they had cancelled only three times (including a show in Flamborough three years ago) and this one was not going to be the fourth.

With rain splashing down before them, frontmen Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock bravely soldiered on in their shiny black pants, performing a string of sentimental love songs including All Out Of Love and Making Love Out Of Nothing At All.

The Airheads sang along with each song without missing a beat.

But the bliss was cut short by the rain. After less than an hour, the band announced that water was shorting out its equipment. They had to wrap things up.

Festival director Loren Lieberman was impressed by the Air Supply turnout despite the fact that Saturday night festival numbers have sometimes exceeded 25,000.

"It's amazing this many people came out in this rain," Lieberman said. "Can you imagine if the weather had been good? The crowd would have been mind-blowingly humungous."

It was a different story on Friday, when blue skies brought out a larger than expected crowd for headliner Steve Earle, who dazzled festival goers with a rootsy, politically tinged 90-minute set.

Earle has a huge catalogue of great songs, including his encore Copperhead Road (was that a beer bottle some idiot threw at the stage?), but the best on Friday were from his latest album Washington Square Serenade, including Satellite Radio, and its nod to hip-hop.

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Yesterday, the rains returned in the afternoon, keeping crowds low. But by 6 p.m., patches of blue sky appeared, bringing out a strong crowd of a few thousand for the special Woodstock tribute, featuring Country Joe McDonald, ex-Lovin Spoonful singer John Sebastian and blues band Canned Heat -- three acts who had performed at Woodstock festival in 1969.

Last night's show was a nostalgic one for the over-50 set who grew up tie-dying their own T-shirts and worshipping at the altar of hippydom.

This year's Festival of Friends may not have had the numbers of Woodstock, but it certainly had the mud.

grockingham@thespec.com

905-526-3331

See a vivid slideshow from this weekend's Festival of Friends.