It was huge news for local music fans when Canadian icon Neil Young announced in late 2017 he would be returning to his childhood hometown of Omemee, Ontario to perform a solo acoustic concert.
Taking place at Omemee’s Coronation Hall, Young’s by-invitation-only “Home Town” concert was livestreamed to fans both in Canada and around the world on December 1, 2017.
Now you can own an authentic memento of that memorable concert, thanks to Creating Space Community Arts Studio in Peterborough.
The non-profit organization will be auctioning off four fully lined, hand-crafted bags that have been expertly stitched and embroidered by Creating Space volunteers using recycled burlap from the concert stage and decorated with the image from the stage backdrop.
The silent auction takes place from noon to 6 p.m. on Friday, November 4th and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, November 5th in the space that Creating Space shares with the Artisan Centre Peterborough in the lower level of Peterborough Square in downtown Peterborough. Work from other artists will also be available in the silent auction.
According to Creating Space, Young himself has endorsed the auction of the bags in support of the organization’s local arts initiative.
Omemee is the “town in north Ontario” in Neil Young’s 1967 song “Helpless” and it’s where he spent the formative years of his childhood. The Young family moved to Omemee at the end of August 1949, when Neil was almost four years old. He lived in Omemee for four years (it was where he contracted polio, during the 1951 epidemic) until 1953, when his family moved to Winnipeg.
In late 2020, Young and his wife Darryl Hannah moved from Colorado to a 116-year-old cottage on a lake near Omemee, which they renovated and winterized and where they stayed for six months during the pandemic.
It’s unknown if Young and Hannah are still living there but, on the Thanksgiving long weekend, the couple was spotted at the Norwood Fair and then later in Peterborough.
Posted by Johnny Livingrich on Monday, October 10, 2022
