Millions tune in to watch The Tragically Hip's final gig

A promotional photo of The Tragically Hip — The Tragically Hip (Image credit: Gordon Hawkins)

The Tragically Hip have thanked fans for coming together to make history on the night of their last ever gig.

The Canadian band performed their final show in their hometown on Kingston, Ontario, on Saturday night to a sold out audience at the Rogers K-Rock Centre.

It marks the end of the band’s Man Machine Poem tour, which they previously announced would be their last ever after frontman Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

Fans who couldn’t get tickets gathered in Kingston’s Springer Market Square to watch a live stream of the show, which was also broadcast across Canada and is said to have been watched by 11.3 million people – a third of Canada’s population.

In a statement posted on their Facebook page after the gig, The Tragically Hip simply say: “Thank you, thank you, thank you music lovers!”

Fans held viewing parties across Canada to celebrate the event.

The band played a 30-song set and Downie, 52, said to the Kingston audience: “Thank you, people, for keeping me pushing and keeping me pushing.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended the show and shared an embrace with Downie on the stage before the show.

The band’s 13th studio album Man Machine Poem was released in June.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.