Istanbul Gets Funky

An update from the “Rock Stars Are Coming To Save The Planet” (Live Earth) event on July 7th.
This is from the AP…

Istanbul will not be among the cities set to hold a Live Earth concert next month.
Organizers cited insufficient interest and sponsors for the July 7 event.

A large screen will be set up in Istanbul for viewing the concerts in other cities, Cengizhan Yeldan of Purple Concerts told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Yeldan has said the government was preoccupied with elections on July 22, while fears of terrorist attacks and possible protests from environmental groups were keeping many would-be sponsors away.

This looks bad. Usually if a promoter had to cancel a show, they wouldn’t cite “insufficient interest and sponsors” as a reason in a press release. It makes it look like the promoter made a stupid mistake. Now, “fears of terrorist attacks and possible protests from environmental groups (huh? they are saving the planet!)” sound like better reasons to cancel a show. Must be pretty rough over there, probably not a good environment to put on a show. People in Istanbul are probably not wanting to go out with all of that instability.

Here is a partial list of acts that will be performing concerts in Istanbul that are not related to Live Earth during July: George Clinton, Dionne Warwick, Shakira, Natalie Cole, Joe Satriani, Julio Iglasias, Lionel Richie, Chaka Khan, Isaac Hayes, Kool And The Gang.

Sufficient interest for the P-Funk but not for Al Gore. Don’t worry Al, I’m sure they’ll be digging you in Johannesburg.

From liveearth.org (right next to the merchandise button); Climate Crisis Solutions #49- Useful Rule For Reducing Global Warming: Buy Less Stuff.

So take me back to Constantinople
No, you can’t go back to Constantinople
Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks’

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon