Bruce Springsteen Condemns White House, Announces Protest Festival Ahead of Midterms Bruce Springsteen, along with Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Brittany Howard, and Joan Baez, has announced a high-profile protest festival set for the Washington, D.C., area just weeks before the midterm elections. The event, titled Power to the People, will take place on October 3 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, and will feature a lineup of artists and activists united under themes of freedom, justice, equality, and rock ’n’ roll. A portion of ticket sales will support organizations like VoteRiders and HeadCount, which focus on voter access and civic engagement. The festival was unveiled during a joint performance by Springsteen and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello at Nationals Park in Washington, where Springsteen was concluding his Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour. During the concert, Springsteen performed several politically charged songs, including “American Skin (41 Shots),” which references the 2014 fatal police shooting of Amadou Diallo, and “Streets of Minneapolis,” a response to the 2017 killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents. Speaking to the audience, Springsteen denounced the administration’s “Gestapo tactics” and urged citizens to take direct action. “This American tragedy can only be stopped by the American people: you. There is no one coming to save us. We’ve got to do it ourselves,” he declared. Springsteen’s remarks emphasized the urgency of the moment, warning that “our democracy, our constitution, our rule of law are being challenged right now as never before by a reckless, racist, incompetent, treasonous president and his ship of fools administration.#bruce_springsteen #foo_fighters #dave_matthews #brittany_howard #joan_baez
