{"id":2436853,"date":"2026-05-29T12:21:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2436853"},"modified":"2026-05-29T12:21:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:21:33","slug":"a-tale-of-two-us-events-freedom-250-and-power-to-the-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/a-tale-of-two-us-events-freedom-250-and-power-to-the-people\/","title":{"rendered":"A tale of two US events: Freedom 250 and Power to the People"},"content":{"rendered":"<br><div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The devil may famously have the best tunes, but when it comes to big politically-leaning music events in the US in 2026, well, it seems the progressives have the bigger bookings. Or at least the ones less prone to chaotic withdrawals.\n\n\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is a tale of two high-profile events playing out against the ever-charged backdrop of US politics: Freedom 250 and Power to the People.\n\n\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The former is a series of concerts taking place this summer to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, including\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/freedom250.org\/celebration\/the-great-american-state-fair\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Great American State Fair<\/a>\u00a0on the National Mall in Washington, DC.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The organisation behind it is described as a \u2018bipartisan nonprofit\u2019, but it was also launched by the current US president, and that political link \u2013\u00a0and the backlash from some fans \u2013\u00a0has led a number of artists to pull out in recent days.\n\n\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Martina McBride, The Commodores, Young MC, Bret Michaels and Morris Day and The Time have all withdrawn from the concert, with several referencing their concerns in their announcements.\n\n\n<aside>\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/aside>\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI was presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading,\u201d\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DY5s4J5qPRj\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote McBride on Instagram<\/a>. \u201cOur music has always been our voice and we choose not to publicly affiliate with any single political party,\u201d\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DY5RWcpAXmm\/?hl=en\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">was the line from The Commodores<\/a>.\n\n\n\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe artists were never told about any political involvement with the event,\u201d\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DY3jC6gDZK8\/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote Young MC<\/a>. Michaels\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DY6M0UYlRXh\/?igsh=MTZtOXRxcnUxeXpuaw%3D%3D\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claimed<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cwhat was presented to us as a celebration of our country has evolved into something much more divisive than what I agreed to be part of\u201d.\n\n\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Who is left on the bill? Vanilla Ice, Milli Vanilli and C+C Music Factory, although the latter\u2019s Freedom Williams\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reels\/DY3WSXVRwYA\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expressed his own anger about the miscommunication<\/a>, while the group\u2019s original co-founder \u2013\u00a0who isn\u2019t involved \u2013\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DY6eWJ6B1mW\/?hl=en\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">is on the warpath against Williams<\/a>\u00a0in turn.\n\n\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Oh, and for an extra layer of spice\/confusion, the\u00a0<em>actual<\/em>\u00a0original singers for Milli Vanilli \u2013 the ones who infamously were not credited on the releases \u2013\u00a0have\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/05\/milli-vanilli-trump-great-american-state-fair\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">made it clear that they\u2019re not involved in the Great American State Fair booking<\/a>.)\n\n\n\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While all of this plays out, Rage Against The Machine\u2019s Tom Morello has\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/concerts\/tom-morello-power-to-the-people-festival-springsteen-lineup-1236257789\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced plans for his own \u2018Power to the People\u2019 festival in October<\/a>, describing it as \u201ca celebration of peace, justice, solidarity, music and community action\u201d.\n\n\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lineup already includes Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Joan Baez, Cypress Hill, The Linda Lindas and Dave Matthews, and the event will also be taking place in the DC area \u2013\u00a0with a portion of ticket sales going to pro-democracy organisations VoteRiders and HeadCount.\n\n\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The timing and partners is significant, coming shortly before mid-term elections in the US that are shaping up to be a hugely significant \u2013\u00a0but also polarising \u2013 moment for the country\u2019s political culture.\n\n\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Artists should stay out of politics,\u2019 is a familiar phrase, often deployed by people cross about musicians opposed to their political leaning having their say, but curiously relaxed about those who agree with them doing it.\n\n\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet the news around Freedom 250 and Power to the People shows two things. First, that there are plenty of artists who DO want to stay out of politics \u2013 and resent being pulled into it, especially if they feel misled into that.\n\n\n\n<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And second, that there are plenty of other artists brushing off stay-in-your-lane criticism in 2026 and upping their activism and advocacy even more in response to current events. It\u2019s going to be an interesting summer.\n\n\n<section id=\"block-35\" class=\"below-content widget widget_block\"><nav class=\"jp-relatedposts-i2 wp-block-jetpack-related-posts\" data-layout=\"grid\" aria-label=\"Related Stories\"><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Related Stories<\/h3><\/nav><\/section><section id=\"block-32\" class=\"below-content widget widget_block\"><aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<\/section><section id=\"block-25\" class=\"below-content widget widget_block\">\n\n<\/section><\/div><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script>\r\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\r\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source musically.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The devil may famously have the best tunes, but when it comes to big politically-leaning music events in the US in 2026, well, it seems the progressives have the bigger bookings. Or at least the ones less prone to chaotic withdrawals. This is a tale of two high-profile events playing out against the ever-charged backdrop [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2436854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[368918,22477,25423],"class_list":["post-2436853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-activism","tag-live-music","tag-us"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/A-tale-of-two-US-events-Freedom-250-and-Power.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2436853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2436855,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436853\/revisions\/2436855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2436854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2436853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2436853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2436853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}