Amnesty International has announced the lineup for its Human Rights Concert...the first since 1998. The show will take place at the Barclays Center in New York City on February 5, featuring headliners including the Flaming Lips, Imagine Dragons and Lauryn Hill. Other acts include Tegan and Sara, the Fray, Cold War Kids, Colbie Caillat, Cake, and organizers have hinted that more acts will be announced in coming weeks.
Amnesty International has run the Human Rights Concert since 1986. The original was a blowout event featuring U2, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed playing a six-show concert run, with a final gig that also included Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Carlos Santana and Yoko Ono. The organistion planned a tour featuring Bruce Springsteen and others that visited 15 countries. Two additional concerts were held, one during 1990 and one in 1998, but this year's version will be the first in 16 years. Amnesty claims that the popularity of the concert series helped the organization triple its membership.
"Amnesty's past concerts have featured some of the greatest artists of our generation and have been catalysts for real, measurable change," said Dan Reynolds, the vocalist for Imagine Dragons. "It's an honor to perform as part of this event and continue the cause of championing human rights around the world."
There are no plans for this year's event to tour, but a press release hinted that the concert will be available for streaming online. Tickets for the concert will be available on January 11 via Ticketmaster.
