Music fans
leave the One Love Manchester benefit concert, held for the families of the victims of the May 22 Manchester terror attack.
MANCHESTER, England — The message onstage and in the crowd at “One Love Manchester,” a benefit concert for victims of the Manchester attack that was hosted by the pop star Ariana Grande, was one of defiance.
The event, at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground on Sunday evening, was Grande’s first appearance since a suicide bombing at her May 22 concert at the Manchester Arena killed 22 people, including children, and wounded dozens of others.
It came less than 24 hours after another terrorist attack rocked the capital, London, about 200 miles away. Seven civilians died in the Saturday night attack, after a van screeched onto the sidewalk on London Bridge, slamming into pedestrians, before three assailants ran into a nearby open-air market area wielding large knives.
‘You’ve broken nobody’
After Saturday night’s events in London, Lily Garner, 22, said she felt some trepidation about coming to Sunday’s concert, but that she ultimately overcame it.
“It puts you on edge a bit, but you can’t let those things affect you, you can’t stop it from living your life, doing what you want to do,” she said.
Garner, who lives in central Manchester, added that she had felt a community spirit in Manchester since the bombing: “It’s just so strong. You just want to support everybody.” Tyron Webster, another One Love Manchester attendee, said he and his friends decided to come to the concert on Sunday because it was their duty to carry on.
“We’re not going to let one person’s cowardly act ruin our life,” Webster said. “We’re going to go to this concert, we’re going to have an amazing time, we’re going to enjoy life, we’re going to sing at the top of our voices.”
“And we’re going to just prove them wrong,” he added. “Like, who have you broken? Nobody. You’ve broken nobody. You’ve not.”
A similar spirit of resilience was spreading far from the concert grounds in the form of a photo of a man caught up in the Saturday night attack holding his half-drunk pint of beer.
Shared widely on social media, the picture of the unnamed man started attracting headlines in the British news media.
“Man flees London Bridge terror attack still holding pint of beer in his hand” the Mirror reported, adding, “and Brits couldn’t be more proud.”
Answered the challenge
Grande, 23, announced the benefit concert last Monday on Twitter, a week after the blast at her concert, naming an Alist roster of guests who would join her, including Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Coldplay and Pharrell Williams.
Speaking onstage at the concert on Sunday, Grande’s manager, Scooter Braun, praised the crowd for its bravery. “Last night this nation was challenged, and all of you were challenged, and you had a decision to make if you were going to come out here tonight,” he said. “And this is so beautiful. You guys made that decision. You looked fear right in the face and you said, no, we are Manchester, and the world is watching.”
Emotional moment
Williams told the crowd that he did not see or feel any fear in the audience, and Cyrus called for peace. Perry shouted, “We will not be silenced, Manchester!” and Grande thanked the crowed for being “strong and unified.”
“I think that the kind of love, the unity that you’re displaying is the medicine that the world really needs right now,” she said.
Perhaps the most emotional moment early in the evening came when Grande performed with a children’s chorus, after which she appeared to choke up.
The audience crooned along in loud unison as Chris Martin of Coldplay sang a cover of “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by the Manchester band Oasis and reacted with large cheers when Oasis’ singer, Liam Gallagher, later took the stage as an unannounced performer.
The concert, which took place on the city’s southwest outskirts, about 3.5 miles away from the city center Manchester Arena, where the bombing occurred, was broadcast live by BBC television and radio, aired on other radio stations and live-streamed online.