The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration will be broadcast on a massive screen at this year’s Columbia StrEAT Food Truck Festival.
The Downtown New Westminster Business Improvement Area is expecting more than 100,000 people to attend this year’s food truck festival on Saturday, Aug. 20 and is using the festival as a way for the community to leave a lasting legacy towards cancer research by screening CBC’s coverage of the concert. Donations will be accepted in honour of Gord Downie throughout the day.
“We are pretty thrilled. We have secured a partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society to get the rights. The really exciting part for us is we are adding a fundraising element to the event now,” said Angie Whitfield, the BIA’s programs and events manager. “We have an opportunity as a community to pull together and make a big impact.”
In May, the Tragically Hip announced that lead singer Gord Downie has an incurable form of brain cancer and the band would perform at a series of concerts this summer, with its final show being in the band’s hometown of Kingston, Ont. on Aug. 20.
“Gord Downie, lead singer of The Tragically Hip, is one of 3,000 Canadians who will face a brain cancer diagnosis this year and we need to do something about that,” Greg Douglas, annual giving director for the Canadian Cancer Society, B.C. and Yukon, said in a press release. “By partnering with the Columbia StrEAT Food Truck Fest we can call on thousands of people to join us in the fight against brain cancer.”
The Tragically Hip’s final concert coincides with the 2016 Columbia StrEAT Food Truck Festival, which features more than 90 food trucks and six beer gardens. The concert will be shown on a 27-foot screen at the far east end of Columbia Street.
“Our vision is to replicate an outdoor concert as best as possible. We have some lighting, we have a great sound system, so it’s going to feel like a concert down at that part of Columbia Street,” Whitfield said. “There is a hill that leads up to that spot. People all the way down Columbia will be able to see that screen.”
The food truck festival runs from 4 to 10 p.m., and the concert will be aired on CBC from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. City council recently approved $16,500 in cash and $5,000 in city services towards the screening of the concert.
“The live screening of this concert by one of Canada’s best-loved bands combined with the largest food truck festival in North America makes New Westminster the place to be on Aug. 20,” Mayor Jonathan Cote said in a press release. “We’re excited to welcome residents and visitors alike to our downtown for this event and very proud to be partnering in support of such an important cause.”
