Benefit concert:
Relief organization’s first big fundraiser to feature Metallica, G-Eazy and Dave Matthews.
A coalition of Bay Area business and community leaders have joined forces to organize a major fundraising campaign supporting recovery efforts for the recent firestorm that swept through Northern California, kick-started by a concert featuring Metallica, G-Eazy and Dave Matthews at AT&T Park scheduled for Nov. 9.
The group, which calls itself Band Together Bay Area, has collected $6.5 million, and hopes to raise much more for short, intermediate and longterm relief for low-income families, immigrants and other North Bay fire victims.
Tipping Point founder Daniel Lurie says the genesis of the coalition began when he was called to an Oct. 15 meeting by Rabbi Ryan Bauer of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco.
“I walked in and there was Larry Baer (San Francisco Giants president and CEO), Marc Benioff (Salesforce chairman and CEO), Jeff Law-
son at Twilio, CFO Ned Siegel of Twitter,” Lurie said. “There were a number of people around the table saying ‘What can we do?’ ”
Others involved include Lynne Benioff, Erica Lawson and Ron Conway, founder of SV Angel; as well as Google and Kaiser Permanente. Another Planet Entertainment and Live Nation, rivals in the local concert promotion industry, are also on board as collaborators.
“Nobody said ‘No,’ ” said Baer, who was at the meeting with Bauer. “It’s hard to imagine this is the largest disaster in our state since the 1906 earthquake. We need to get money to those in need as fast as possible.”
Tickets, which range from $49.50 to $199.50, will go on sale Friday via Ticketmaster, which has pledged to donate all processing fees to the relief effort. Prime seats in the stadium will be reserved for first responders, volunteers and families who were caught in the firestorm.
“My heart goes out to all those affected by the devastating fires,” said Oakland rapper G-Eazy, who was on set shooting a music video Tuesday. “The Bay Area is forever my home, my heart and soul, and it hurts to see so many people lose everything.”
More acts are expected to join the bill in the coming weeks.
“The North Bay fires are a catastrophic situation and in times like this, it’s important to stop what you’re doing and work together,” said Gregg Perloff, CEO of Another Planet Entertainment, the Bay Area-based concert promoters behind major music events such as the annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in Golden Gate Park.
All proceeds from the concert and related fundraising activities will go to the Tipping Point Emergency Relief Fund, which will direct money to North Bay community foundations, service providers and government partners. The first round of beneficiaries — $1.5 million has been distributed — include the Community Foundation Sonoma, Napa Valley Community Foundation and the Redwood Credit Union, which is behind the North Bay Fire Relief fund.
The Wine Country fires killed at least 42 people, burned at least 8,400 structures, blackened more than 245,000 acres and forced an estimated 100,000 people to evacuate, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The tragedy hit Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett particularly hard. He nearly lost his house in Sonoma’s Mission Highlands and feels for his neighbors who may not have been as fortunate.
“On the Cal Fire map, the fire ends right on top of my house,” Hammett said. “The reality is that it ended at my front gate. It’s brutal. The mental and psychological toll is what I always think about.”
In that first Oct. 15, meeting with Bauer, the idea for a concert came up quickly. The event was made easier because Benioff ’s Salesforce will be staging its Dreamforce concert in AT&T Park on Nov. 7. Salesforce will keep the set-up in place for the Band Together Bay Area event two days later.
“The ballpark we view as a community gathering place,” Baer said. “It’s a place to celebrate, and it’s also a place to heal.”
The funds generated by Band Together Bay Area will support temporary housing, food and health care services, as well as a push to rebuild the communities in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties that were devastated by the fires, Lurie said.
He added that the goal is to build “as much as we can now,” so when attention fades or another disaster moves the news cycle, there will be longterm resources for low-income North Bay fire victims.
“If there was an earthquake in San Francisco, we know our neighbors up north would respond in kind,” Lurie said. “So we have to be there for them during this tragic situation.”