Neil Young Will Play a Rare Solo Concert Near His Hometown in Lakefield, Ontario
Held in the region in which the rock icon grew up and maintains a residence, the May 23 show will raise funds for the restoration of a historic farmhouse on the Northcote Campus property. Tickets went onsale today (April 7).
Neil Young
Neil Young's status as a hometown hero in the Peterborough/Lakefield region in Ontario just took another giant leap forward.
On Friday, May 23, the Canadian rock icon will play an outdoor benefit concert at Lakefield College School’s Northcote Campus to raise funds for the restoration of the historic farmhouse on the Northcote property. Proceeds will support the restoration of the Northcote farmhouse, a project that clearly fits in with Young’s commitment to the values of preserving history and community.
Young's roots in this area run deep, as he spent formative childhood years (from four to eleven) in the small community of Omemee, 20 kilometers west of Peterborough and close to Lakefield. “There is a town in north Ontario," the famous Young penned line featured in the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young classic “Helpless," was inspired by Omemee.
His famed journalist/novelist father, Scott Young, bought a family farm there, one that was kept until the late 1980s. The Ptbotoday website reports that "Neil’s connection to the area deepened in recent years when he and his wife, actress Daryl Hannah, relocated to a 116-year-old cottage near Lakefield in September 2020. According to updates on his Neil Young Archives website, the couple winterized the property and spent nearly six months there during the pandemic, embracing the solitude of the Kawarthas."
This is not the first Neil Young benefit concert in the area. In 2017, he played a solo acoustic show at Omemee’s Coronation that was live-streamed worldwide and raised $18,000 for that town's Scott Young Public School’s music program. He will also perform solo at this upcoming one.
The Lakefield concert, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., will have a restricted capacity of approx 2,000 concertgoers and is guaranteed to sell out immediately. General public ticket sales, via Live Nation, started today (Monday April 7) at 10:00 a.m. here, while VIP packages will remain available from until May 23.
Neil Young will certainly feel more comfortable performing on home turf that in the U.S. right now. As was reported in Billboard last week, he fears the possibility of being blacklisted there in light of his vocal opposition to the Trump administration. “When I go to play music in Europe, if I talk about Donald J. Trump, I may be one of those returning to America who is barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor with an aluminum blanket,” Young wrote on April 1 on his Neil Young Archives site.
