The Dec. 26 virtual “Georgia Comes Alive” festival will feature Dave Matthews, Big Freedia, Diplo, Bob Weir, Portugal. The Man and many more playing to get out the vote for January’s crucial run-off election.
The one-day event will kick off at 3:00 p.m. ET to encourage voters to participate in the Jan. 5 runoff that will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate in advance of the Jan. 20 inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden.
The partnership between Live For Live Music and HeadCount will support local grassroots organizations including Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda and CivicGeorgia, with fans encouraged to visit GeorgiaComesAlive.com today (Dec. 16) to donate to the cause; a donation of any size in advance will generate an email with a link to the stream on the day of the show.
“The stakes are incredibly high in the Georgia runoffs. The fate of the music industry, struggling small businesses around the country, and our democracy as a whole are at stake,” said Kunj Shah, the founder of Live For Live Music and the Comes Alive event series in a statement. “With ‘Georgia Comes Alive,’ we hope to once again channel the power of music to support the grassroots organizations getting people to the polls in January and shine a national spotlight on the importance of participation in democracy.”
The lineup will include the one-off supergroup The Lame Ducks featuring Bob Weir (Grateful Dead), Dave Schools (Widespread Panic), Jeff Chimenti (Dead & Company), and Jay Lane (Wolf Bros, Primus), as well as the Blind Boys of Alabama and Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Big Gigantic, Ben Folds, The Revivalists, Tank and the Bangas, Musiq Soulchild, Bobby Rush, Warren Haynes and Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers), and many others.
The virtual event powered by Nugs.net and Plus1 will be hosted by SiriusXM’s Ari Fink and starting today, fans can donate for chances to win prizes including a guitar played and signed by Weir; to look at the prizes and enter the Georgia Comes Alive Fandiem sweepstakes, click here.
Local voters will decide which candidates will win the crucial pair of Senate seats — with Republicans maintaining their slim majority if they win one or both and Democrats taking control if they win both contests — but the results will have major national implications as the U.S. faces a still surging COVID-19 pandemic and its disastrous economic consequences; for more information on the implications of the Georgia runoff races, click here.
The show is the latest musical effort to draw attention to the runoff, joining Death Cab For Cutie’s recently released The Georgia E.P. featuring covers of songs by Peach State acts (R.E.M., TLC), the Dec. 3 “Rock the Runoff” virtual show with Death Cab, John Legend, Common and Indigo Girls and a last weekend’s reunion of the Hamilton cast to raise funds for Georgia Democrats.
Check out the full list of acts on the bill below.
The Allman Betts Band
Andy Frasco and the UN
Ben Folds
Big Freedia
Big Gigantic
Big Head Todd
Billy Strings
Blind Boys of Alabama
Bob Weir ft. Dave Schools, Jeff Chimenti, Jay Lane
Bobby Rush
Dave Matthews
Diplo
Dragon Smoke
Fruition
Futurebirds
G. Love
Galactic
Grace Potter
Horseshoes & Hand Grenades
Jackie Venson
Judith Hill
Lawrence
Los Lobos
Midnight North
Mihali
Moon Taxi
Mt. Joy
Musiq Soulchild
Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers)
Portugal. The Man
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
The Revivalists
Roosevelt Collier
Samantha Fish
Shah
The Soul Rebels
The Suffers
Tank and the Bangas
Taylor Goldsmith (DAWES)
Warren Haynes
