Real Highway to Hell to close for rolling AC/DC Tribute Concert

In March of next year, Canning Highway in Australia will be shut down for the possibly most epic tribute concert a band has ever received. Ten slow-moving trucks with AC/DC cover bands will roll down the 'Highway to Hell' to pay tribute to the late Bon Scott who died in 1980.

Serving as the world's longest festival stage, a 10km stretch between Canning Bridge and Fremantle will be closed to host 8 bands playing AC/DC songs, including Amyl and the Sniffers and Shonen Knife. The event will take place on March 1, 2020, 40 years after Bon Scott's ashes arrived at the Fremantle cemetery.

It could possibly look like this:

During his youth, Bon Scott often used to travel down Canning Highway as it led to his favourite pub. The highway received the nickname 'Highway to Hell' due to a series of fatal crashes, ultimately inspiring AC/DC's most famous song.

The tribute concert will be part of the 2020 Perth arts Festival. Speaking to the Guardian about the epic event, artistic director Iain Grandage said, "It was like, 'We just have to do this', despite the ridiculous size of it."

According to him, the covers that the bands will play are going to be "more like creative responses".

"There's something really powerful in [the image of] reclaiming a highway for a day, and bringing it back to the people," he adds. "Turning it into a 10km high street for one day, which links every community along the way? People warm to that idea."