New West residents may be able to watch the Tragically Hip sing hits like New Orleans is Sinking and Courage while enjoying the Columbia StrEAT Food Truck Festival.
The Aug. 20 food truck festival happens to be the day of the Tragically Hip's final performance from their hometown of Kingston, Ont. After announcing that lead singer Gord Downie has terminal brain cancer, the band planned a farewell concert series, with the final concert airing on CBC-TV on the day of the food truck festival.
"The Tragically Hip is largely regarded as a national treasure and public desire to air the concert is strong," said a staff report to council. "Many public airings of the concert are planned all over the country. Screening the concert aligns with our tourism and branding strategy and could attract national attention."
The plan would see a huge TV screen hoisted on a crane on Columbia Street.
"It's the right ambiance. You get sort of an outdoor festival concert feel," said Kendra Johnston, executive director of the Downtown New Westminster Business Improvement Association. "We are proposing the east end of Columbia Street, near the SkyTrain bridge where there is plenty of room. It is a slower end of the street on event day. All the amenities are there - food trucks, beer gardens, the vibe so it made a lot of sense to us to incorporate it into the event."
The BIA has been in contact with the CBC and is on a list of potential places to view the concert. It expects to get more details from the CBC on how the proposal would work by next week.
New Westminster city council approved a funding request from the BIA to cover the costs associated with the live streaming of the Tragically Hip concert on a big screen during its food truck festival. The BIA requested $16,500 in cash and $5,000 in in-kind city services.
While he's a Tragically Hip fan, Coun. Chuck Puchmayr believes the BIA should be paying for the event as it collects a tax levy from downtown property owners to fund events.
"It's a unique situation. The fact that we already have a huge number of people downtown at our event it just seemed like a natural synergy to try and make this work," said Coun. Patrick Johhstone. "I would suggest we do search for sponsorship opportunities. The costs surprised me a little bit."
Johnstone said broadcasting of the final Tragically Hip concert wasn't something that had been planned out, but came about as the result of requests through social media.
"It's recognizing this is kind of a cultural moment for the country," he said. "The CBC realized they needed to take part in this."
In addition to approving a staff recommendation to support the BIA's funding request, council also passed a motion that would see the city work with the BIA to identify sponsors and a charitable cause relevant to the event.
"This is happening because of a cancer diagnosis," Johnstone said. "I think it would be a good opportunity for one of them to come to the event and raise awareness for their cause and hopefully raise some money while we have a captive audience of thousands downtown."
