Elton John to Headline ‘Life Festival’ in Auschwitz Town

Elton John will headline June’s Life Festival. Image by Getty Images
Elton John will headline the next Life Festival Oswiecim.
He will perform in the city of former Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, at the festival in June, organizers have announced.
“Like everyone, I am shocked by the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and elsewhere. In June, in Oswiecim, we’ll be celebrating life, peace and music,” said John in a statement published on the festival’s website.
In May, John reportedly will perform in Tel Aviv. It will be his fourth visit to Israel.
Life Festival Oswiecim was organized for the first time in 2010. It was the idea of Polish journalist Darek Maciborek, who was born in Oswiecim and wanted to “break the spell” of the city commonly associated solely with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp, which is now a museum and memorial site.
The festival says it stands for building peaceful relations beyond cultural and state borders, and protesting against anti-Semitism, racism, and other forms of xenophobia.
Pop stars who have performed at the festival in previous years are: James Blunt, Matisyahu, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Soundgarden, Eric Clapton, and Chris De Burgh.
Last year organizers canceled a concert of Serbian musician Goran Bregovic after he performed in Crimea, which was annexed by the Russian Federation. The artist declined to condemn Russia’s armed intervention in Ukraine.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO