11.7 Million Watched Once. Tragically Hip Screenings Return

Tragically Hip screenings are being set up in theatres, breweries, community halls and open-air market squares across Canada for Saturday, Aug. 22, when CBC puts the band's final concert back on the air in full. The show is The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration, first broadcast live on Aug. 20, 2016 from the band's hometown of Kingston, Ont. This time CBC is running it commercial-free again and waiving the licensing that would normally stop a bar or a town from projecting it in public.

Here's the number that explains the effort. In 2016, 11.7 million Canadians tuned in — close to one in three people in the country, watching the same three hours of music on a summer Saturday. The television broadcast on its own averaged four million viewers. CBC stepped away from its Rio Olympics coverage to carry the concert live, which is not a decision a public broadcaster makes twice in a decade.

The context behind that audience was hard. Frontman Gord Downie played the Man Machine Poem tour knowing he had terminal brain cancer, and Kingston was the last stop. He died on Oct. 17, 2017. Ten years on, the rebroadcast has been built out into something closer to a national event than a rerun — with a new live album, a new short film, and a hometown weekend around it.

The night one in three Canadians stopped

Nothing in Canadian broadcasting behaves like that anymore. Audiences fragmented years ago, and a four-million-viewer average for a single television programme is now the territory of a Grey Cup or an Olympic final, not a rock concert by a band that never really broke America. The Hip's reach came from the fact that everyone knew what the night meant, and knew it was the last chance to watch it happen.

Where the Tragically Hip screenings are happening

CBC put out an open call to venues willing to host, and the map filled in quickly. Confirmed locations span Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Yukon, plus a handful of international sites for Canadians abroad. Some are free and outdoors, some are ticketed indoor shows, so it's worth confirming before you drive anywhere.

Kingston runs a three-day weekend

The City of Kingston has programmed Forever Hip from Aug. 20 to 22. It opens with a free concert at Springer Market Square featuring Choir! Choir! Choir! alongside local musicians playing Hip songs, then a public screening of the documentary Long Time Running on the Friday, then the concert viewing party in the square on the Saturday. Music walking tours, a local makers' market and a downtown art installation run alongside it.

Forever Hip is our way of saying thank you to a band that means so much to Kingston residents and to Canadians across the country, said Danika Lochhead, the city's director of arts and culture services.

Free squares and ticketed theatres

The lineup is genuinely mixed. Cobourg, Ont. is running a free all-ages watch party at the marina. The Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre in Camrose, Alta. is selling tickets through a box office. Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton and Area 506 in Saint John, N.B. are both on the list. Outdoor sites cost nothing but fill up; indoor ones may sell out days ahead.

If you'd rather stay on your own couch

You don't need cable or a ticket. The concert airs on CBC TV, streams free on CBC Gem and on CBC Music's YouTube channel, and runs on CBC Radio and several SiriusXM channels, including The Tragically Hip Radio. Start time is 7 p.m. local in most of the country, with Newfoundland later — check CBC's listing for your zone rather than assuming.

A new live album lands the day before

Live July 22 – August 20, 2016 arrives Aug. 21 through Universal Music Canada, mixed and mastered in Dolby Atmos by longtime Hip engineer Mark Vreeken. Importantly, it isn't just the Kingston finale — it pulls from the whole farewell run. The two preview tracks make that clear: "Fifty-Mission Cap" was captured in Edmonton, while "Locked In The Trunk Of A Car" comes from the last night.

What's actually new in the broadcast

The evening opens with a short film called A Beautiful Thing, directed by Gord's brother Mike Downie. It mixes behind-the-scenes footage from the tour with well-known Canadians talking about what the band meant to them. That framing is the difference between an archive replay and a purpose-built anniversary programme, and it's the part nobody watching in 2016 has seen.

How to plan your Saturday night

Check CBC Music's venue list for a screening in your city and buy tickets now if it's an indoor one — the free outdoor sites in Kingston and Cobourg will be crowded, so bring a chair, dress for late-August evening cool, and arrive well before 7. If you're travelling to Kingston, book a room immediately; a three-day festival in a city of roughly 130,000 does not leave much room. And if none of that appeals, cue up the album on Aug. 21, then open Gem the next night and let it run.