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ABE WON’T BE SILENT - That’s right, word on the street is Coachella was bummed about the ticket sales of the second weekend and were not about to cancel the antisemitic idiot band they booked (knowing full well the band’s plan to cause trouble) because they figured the event would go viral, get plenty of media coverage — and like Donald Trump, believe any press is good press. Look, when your brand loses its soul and relevance, things tend to go to shit. Case in point, Easter Sunday at Coachella.
Let’s not kid ourselves: Coachella is no longer about the music, the community, discovery, or freedom — a utopia in the desert where art and creativity once collided under the Indio sun. I remember when, once upon a time ago, it was considered cool. Now it’s a corporate influencer hag-fest where the influencer culture are dressed up in designer skivvies and what was once considered fabulous has no character whatsoever.
And how lame was it when they trotted out 83-year-old Bernie Sanders — bless his ridiculous soul — barking about the oligarchy to a crowd of tweaking nepo-babies who most likely didn’t even vote? In fact, they’re probably guilty of putting us in this current political malaise. The cringe quotient of Coachella was at an all-time high. Or was it low? Crowd high — Bernie low.
SIDEBAR: Now that Bernie Sanders is a millionaire, notice how he has stopped haranguing them and has taken to only bashing “the billionaire class”? In case any of you wannabe peaceniks are still confused, that’s the truth. Sorry to be a buzzkill.
This year, with hate speech being blasted from the stage and no official response from Coachella organizers, the silence is deafening — and damaging. By choosing not to take a stand, they’ve made one. And it reeks of cowardice, complicity, and desperation.
What I won’t do here is spew the name of the so-called “artists” responsible for this PR nightmare. These opportunistic douchebags masquerading as musicians aren’t worth the extra algorithm clicks — which is all they’re chasing anyway. These clowns are pointless, as are their rabid fans who cheer them on. Let them all rot in obscurity — or better yet, in the tunnels of Gaza where innocent American and Israeli hostages are still being held and brutalized.
Coachella is burning its candle at both ends — and although people need to feel important, it won’t go away without a fight. But the question is, will the producers be willing to fight the good fight and demand politics be kept out of what is supposed to be a weekend of peace, love, and (wanna-be) Woodstock? When your message includes hate speech against A MINORITY, aka JEWS it’s not cool or edgy — it’s dangerous. Coachella desperately needs to air out the stink that stunk up the airwaves this weekend.
SIDEBAR: At this past summer’s Burning Man, something real happened. The Nova Festival — the Israeli peace and music festival that became the site of unspeakable horror on October 7 — was honored with a powerful installation. It wasn’t performative. It was art. An expression of loss and resilience. Nova’s spirit lives on: love, music, people together as one.
If this sort of crap continues, music festivals aren’t just at risk of losing their vibe. They’re about to lose their cash flow. Sponsors are watching. Audiences are voting with their feet. And I will keep doing what I can to make sure sponsors know exactly what kind of grim cultural desert their dollars are drying up in when a festival trades its mission for mute complicity and allows for hate speech to take center stage.
So when people say music is love — prove it.
If you’re not going to stand for something, then you stand for nothing. There’s an expression from the 80’s that applies here: Silence = Death.
And if you know me... I WON’T BE SILENT.
(ABE GURKO is the executive producer of a documentary “LOUDER: The Soundtrack of Change,” about the extraordinary Women of Protest Music streaming on MAX. He's an Opinionator who hosts a podcast, "Won't Be Silent," engaging in conversations from the edge of democracy. Abe is a contributor to CityWatchLA.com. [email protected].)
