The Flaming Lips, Imagine Dragons, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Tegan and Sara, The Fray, Cold War Kids, Colbie Caillat and Cake among confirmed acts
Contact: Carol Gregory, [email protected], 202-675-8759, @AIUSAmedia
(NEW YORK) – Amnesty International's iconic Human Rights Concert series will return February 5 with a Bringing Human Rights Home concert at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The evening will include performances by The Flaming Lips, Imagine Dragons, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Tegan and Sara, The Fray, Cold War Kids, Colbie Caillat, Cake and other special guests.
Twenty-five years after its initial concert series, which featured U2, Sting, Lou Reed and others, Amnesty International is bringing back the concert – with a digital twist – to raise awareness about human rights to a new generation. The Amnesty International Bringing Human Rights Home concert will use technology to connect the music and message in real time from the stage of the Barclays Center to activists across the globe.
"The fight for global human rights begins at home," said Steven W. Hawkins, executive director for Amnesty International USA. "This concert is part of an evolving conversation about human rights that grounds the universal struggle for dignity and freedom in the injustices we see every day in our own backyard in the United States. We're bringing back the concerts to show a new generation of activists how to stand up for justice at home and abroad – whether it is fighting for the right to voice dissent peacefully on social networks or in the streets, protecting the rights of women and girls, or standing in solidarity with individuals persecuted for who they are or what they believe."
"Amnesty's past concerts have featured some of the greatest artists of our generation and have been catalysts for real, measurable change," said Dan Reynolds, lead singer of Grammy-nominated rock band Imagine Dragons. "It's an honor to perform as part of this event and continue the cause of championing human rights around the world."
Between 1986 and 1998, Amnesty International held 28 concerts around the world with over 1.25 million attendees. The most high-profile component of the concert series was the six-week, five-continent, 20-concert "Human Rights Now!" world tour in 1988 – headlined by Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Tracy Chapman and Youssou N'Dour. Those concerts directly helped triple the movement's worldwide membership and mobilize a generation of human rights activists.
More information on the upcoming concert can be found at www.amnestyusa.org/Feb5concert. Tickets go on sale January 11th via Ticketmaster. Follow #AmnestyConcert for live updates.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million members in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.