The tour was announced on May 25, 2016, a day after the band revealed Gord Downie's brain cancer diagnosis.

[6] In July 2018, guitarist Rob Baker declared that the Tragically Hip were now inactive and the members had no plans to perform under the name again without Downie.

[13] The newsmagazine Maclean's published interviews throughout the summer with other musicians and cultural figures who had been friends, fans, collaborators or tourmates of the band, including Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo,[14] Geoffrey Kelly of Spirit of the West,[15] John K. Samson of The Weakerthans,[16] Dave Bidini of Rheostatics,[17] Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil,[18] novelist Joseph Boyden,[19] singer-songwriters Joel Plaskett[20] and Sarah Harmer,[21] and record producer Steve Berlin.

[23][24] Due to the news of Downie's cancer diagnosis, demand for tickets was higher than for any of the band's concert tours since the 1990s.

[29] They responded by adding further shows to the tour,[26] and by redesigning the planned stage configuration in order to release additional seats.

[26] Ontario's provincial government announced plans to review its regulations around ticket sales,[30] and two scalpers were arrested in Winnipeg.

[32] Jesse Modz, a DJ for CHTZ-FM in St. Catharines, Ontario, aired a segment on his radio show in which he fooled a scalper in Mississauga into driving to St. Catharines by offering a $300 premium on top of the asking price; when the scalper arrived, Modz did not purchase the tickets, but rather confronted him about the ethics of scalping.

[34] In February 2017, the government of Ontario formally announced that it would introduce legislation to ban "scalper bots".

[35] The final show on the tour was held on August 20, 2016 at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in the band's hometown of Kingston.

[36][29] CBC broke away from its second-last night of primetime coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics to air the concert;[37] Ron Maclean hosted a short introduction from Rio de Janeiro,[38] where the Canadian Olympic athletes were themselves gathered for a viewing party at Canada House.

[39] At the end of the introduction, Maclean said: "We now go to this late breaking story on the CBC" referencing not only the concert itself but a lyric from the Tragically Hip song "Wheat Kings".

Public viewing was also set up in Kingston at the Springer Market Square[43] and attended by approximately 22,000 people.

[48] Longtime Blue Rodeo guitarist and mandolinist Bob Egan, who was retiring from music and performing his final show with the band that evening, had been a guest musician on the original Tragically Hip recording of the song.