In 1985, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure called upon the biggest musical acts of the era – the likes of Queen, David Bowie, U2 and Paul McCartney – to put on a pair of concerts to raise money for desperately needed famine relief in Ethiopian. The game-changing gig, Live Aid, has gone down in history as a moment when pop culture and social conscience resonated in perfect sync, raising the equivalent of an estimated $285 million.
As Australia faces its own humanitarian disaster, a similarly scaled fundraising gig is set to light up the ANZ stadium next month. One of the country’s largest promoters, TEG Live, has announced the Fire Fight Australia benefit concert, due to take place on February 16. It’s shaping up to be a truly gargantuan event, running from 3-10pm.
The line-up of acts is yet to be confirmed, but TEG Live had said that “this major musical event will feature globally renowned artists from Australia and around the world”. While this is mere speculation, given that both Pink and Kylie Minogue have pledged huge sums to bushfire relief funds, we can't help but wonder if the pair will be involved. And it hasn't gone unnoticed that Queen and Adam Lambert are playing at ANZ Stadium the night before, presented by TEG, and have no concert planned for the night of the 16th. We’ll have to wait and see when the line-up announcement is dropped in the coming weeks.