Music fans who missed out on buying tickets for The Tragically Hip's final concert in Kingston this summer could still have a chance watch it in Chatham.
Local insurance broker Ryan Doyle has secured the broadcasting rights for the concert on August 20 and is organizing a viewing party in Tecumseh Park.
He's hoping to show it on a 24-foot wide LED screen that will be shipped in from Toronto.
"We're still working out the details, but it looks like the screen will be about half the cost of the event," says Doyle. "But we shouldn't cheap out on this, the Tragically Hip have given so much to us, let's give them something back -- pack a lot of people into the park and raise a lot of money for charity."
Organizers won't be charging any admission, but they will be accepting donations, which will be split between the Chatham-Kent Hospice and the Sunnybrook Foundation -- that's the charity The Tragically Hip lead singer Gord Downie, who was recently diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, is promoting for its brain cancer research.
In order to get the whole event going, though, Doyle still needs to raise a lot of money.
"It'll probably cost close to $25,000," says Doyle. "Based on the response I'm getting from people I have a feeling we're going to get the funding, but it would take a lot of stress off my mind if we could get some corporate backers on board soon who would want to be major sponsors of this event."
Before the concert starts, Doyle is also hoping to have some local bands take the stage from 4pm to 8pm. The Hip broadcast on the big screen would follow that from 8:30pm until 11:30pm.
Doyle has a GoFundMe page set up to help support the event. You can find that page here.
Anyone who wants to get in touch with Doyle to help support the event or to get more information can email him at r.doyle@jmhigroup.ca.
