DJ and producer, Tiesto Tiesto will headline a one-day electronic music festival near Washington to build support for US aid to end global poverty, organizers said Monday. The superstar Dutch DJ voiced hope in a statement that the June 26 show will benefit organizations that help "the millions of kids who are battling abuse and even dying from diseases that have known cures."
The "Thank You Festival" at the Merriweather Post Pavilion between Washington and Baltimore will also feature electronic artists Above & Beyond, Krewella and Alvin Risk.
The event is a spinoff of the Global Citizen Festival, which has taken place annually since 2012 at New York's Central Park and was headlined last year by Stevie Wonder.
The Global Citizen Festival is largely free of monetary charge, with 54,000 tickets distributed last year in exchange for advocacy activities such as signing petitions. The Thank You Festival will give out 100 tickets for advocacy with the rest for sale.
Festival organizers said it was critical to ensure support for foreign aid, crediting US assistance with reducing new polio cases from 1,000 a day in 1990 to one a day last year. But some 29,000 children under age five still die every day, mostly from preventable diseases, according to UNICEF.
Tiesto last month suffered a concussion when he hit his head on a screen during a performance in Calfornia. He has since resumed touring, joking on Twitter that he "took the American expression 'go knock yourself out' too literally."
Source: AFP