Rock Tour for Political Change Announced

The Vote for Change Tour will be featuring many popular acts in support of political change. The MoveOn PAC Vote for Change Tour is set to begin October 1st featuring such stadium-filling acts as Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M.. The agenda of the concerts is to galvanize voters in swing states in the November elections. THis is the latest event of MoveOn.org who has been aggressively campaigning against President Bush in a variety of ways over the past year.

Between October 1 and October 8, the musicians perform in various groupings with the acts spanning a wide variety of styles. Other performers include John Mellencamp, James Taylor, Death Cab for Cutie and the Dave Matthews Band. The artists themselves are taking a bold step by performing on a tour that hopes to encourage people to unseat the incumbent president. USA Today has reported R.E.M bassist Mike Mills as saying, “The purpose of this tour is to make John Kerry the next president of the United States, and in doing so we will unseat the guy who’s got to go down as the worst president in the history of this country.” Not all of the performers are as much for Kerry as they are against Bush. Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt who both supported Ralph Nader in the last presidential election, decided to join the tour more because they are against Bush than for Kerry. Bush-bashers The Dixie Chicks have also decided to play the concerts. The level of star wattage and the scope of this tour may make it the largest event of its kind in political history. The concerts will mainly feature music although the artists have indicated that they will most likely make political statements while performing. The main goal is to get people to focus on the political process and to get out and vote. The tour will begin October 1st and features as many as six concerts in various cities in one day. There may also be one group concert featuring all or most of the performers on October 10. Ticket prices have not been announced but all proceeds will go toward election campaigning in swing states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania.