It is going to be a “rocking ol’ good time,” according to organizer Bianca Peters.
A community get-together on Aug. 20 to collectively watch a live stream of the Tragically Hip’s last concert of the band’s Man Machine Poem Tour will shut down Cleveland Avenue, according to Peters, executive director of the Downtown Squamish Business Improvement Association, which is organizing the event.
“We are in the planning stages,” said Peters. “We would like to put a video wall at the corner of Cleveland and Victoria avenues, right where the rainbow crosswalk is.”
Peters said the hope is to have beer gardens and food trucks set up and the street shut down so people can bring out their chairs or blow up mattresses to watch the final concert of the Hip’s tour in Kingston, Ont., which has been billed as a farewell tour, given that lead singer Gord Downie has incurable brain cancer (glioblastoma). Donations will be collected at the event for the Canadian Cancer Society, according to Peters.
“It is 2016, and with technology and medicine the way it is going, let’s hope there is a cure for cancer in the foreseeable future,” said Peters, whose mother suffered from the disease. “I think cancer touches most everybody’s life.”
The first time she saw the Hip in concert, Peters was about 22 years old.
“I have grown up with them,” she said. “They started out as a grassroots Canadian band and now they are international.”
The Hip started out in Kingston in 1984.
“This is obviously a huge iconic Canadian event where people, in 20 years, are going to say to themselves, ‘Where were you when the last performance of the Tragically Hip happened?’” Peters said.
The business association will fund half of the cost of the event and the District of Squamish is paying the other, she added.
Council voted at its special meeting on July 26 to contribute up to $3,750 from council’s contingency fund toward the party.
“I love it,” said Councillor Peter Kent simply before voting.
Councillor Susan Chapelle also enthusiastically supported the proposal.
“It is such an iconic situation all around, for Canada and for that band. I think it would be a real bonding experience.”
The live stream of the concert will start at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 20. Anyone interested in volunteering or sponsoring the event, can email [email protected].
