What do you think about artists performing at MDL Beast Festival in Saudi Arabia?
Recently, many Instagram influencers have been called out for taking 6 figures to take a trip to Saudi Arabia and geotag photos in an effort to rehabilitate the county’s image and increase tourism (aka pretty classic propaganda).
Why is this an issue? Saudi Arabia is responsible for the World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis (UN’s words not mine). If you’re not caught up on why this is an issue, here are some well know recent/current problems: -journalist Jamal Kashoggi’s murder and dismemberment -Loujain al-Hathloul (a women’s right activist) arrested -outing of Saudi gay journalist and his partner, causing death threats by families (homosexuality is still a crime punishable by death) -torture of Raif Badawi -crisis in the Yemen -countless assaults on women’s rights, free speech rights, LGBTQI non-existent rights, etc, etc.
There are huge names playing this festival (FYI only recently men and women can attend concerts together).
Influencers are being called out (see @diet_prada), but I haven’t seen anything regarding holding artists accountable (big names such as Steve Aoki, Tiesto, David Guetta, Fisher, etc). Many of these artists did many promos for this festival, which was held due to a multi billion dollar push to rehab SAs image.
I personally will not be seeing any of the artists who performed at this festival. I think it’s wonderful to see progression of a country, however this push comes with little to none actual change in the country and their respect for their own people. I wanted to see where other people stood on this issue- is this not an issue for you? Will you see these people again? I honestly am interested in a good conversation regarding this.
A paycheck is a paycheck, but my opinion is a line was crossed for the celebrities in VIP paid 6 figures to attend and the headliners who have sold tickets to this event.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/festivals/comments/eedoen/what_do_you_think_about_artists_performing_at_mdl/
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