Waters picks new venue
Photo: Reuters
Waters moves Israel concert venue
Pink Floyd star says he moved concert to Neve Shalom where Arabs, Jews live together as ‘show of solidarity with Israelis, Palestinians seeking non-violent method of achieving peace’
Roger Waters’ highly anticipated concert in Israel, slated for June 22, 2006 originally at Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv, has been moved to Neve Shalom at the foot of the Latrun monastery, located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The concert site was changed after a personal request from the former Pink Floyd musician.
Waters explained in a press release: “I have moved the site of the show to Neve Shalom as a show of solidarity with the voices of reason among Israelis and Palestinians who are looking for a non-violent means of achieving peace and justice between the nations.”
Tickets sold for the original location will be valid at the new venue as well, although people who purchased tickets and choose not attend the show at its new site will be reimbursed. Up until now, roughly 35,000 tickets have been sold.
The show’s producers said that the new venue is even larger than the original site. In addition, Waters will bring the original soundman from Pink Floyd’s heyday to the show.
'I support struggle for freedom'
Since Waters scheduled his Israel show, the musician has reportedly devoted a significant amount of time to learning about the regional conflict. He made efforts to make contact with both Jewish and Arab residents of Naveh Shalom, a community devoted to peaceful coexistence.
In the Live 8 show last year, where Pink Floyd played together for the first time in years, band members told interviewers from Israel’s Channel 10 TV that if the super-group played a show in Israel, they would want to perform in a location where Arabs and Jews live together.
In Waters’ message to newspapers he added: “The suffering caused by the 40-year occupation is insufferable and impossible to understand. I support the struggle for freedom.”
