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
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.