Bon Iver & Vampire Weekend Announce Concerts Supporting Bernie Sanders In Iowa
The Iowa caucuses — the first real step in picking the Democratic nominee for president — are in 12 days. Right now, according to most polls, it’s an extremely tight four-way race, with Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and Elizabeth Warren all within a few percentage points of one another. And today, at least one of those candidates is pulling out the stops. Bernie Sanders — the consensus choice for indie rock heads, as well as much of the rest of young America, is holding a couple of huge rallies in Iowa next weekend, and he’s getting help from his prominent supporters in Bon Iver and Vampire Weekend.
Next Friday, 1/31, Bon Iver will play a Bernie Caucus Concert in Clive, Iowa. the show goes down at 6PM at Horizon Events Center. The next day, Vampire Weekend will play an acoustic show in Cedar Rapids. They’re playing the US Cellular Center at 6PM. Both of those shows are free and open to the public, but the VIP section is reserved for Sanders volunteers who have knocked on over 150 doors in Iowa. You don’t need a ticket, but the Sanders campaign is encouraging anyone who wants to go to these shows to RSVP; you can do that here for Bon Iver and here for Vampire Weekend.
In a press release, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon says, “I believe, unequivocally, that all people deserve support, love, and the freedom to choose how to live their own lives. There are promises in our constitutional language that are being superseded by money and greed in this country; I believe that Senator Sanders is the only one that has the pedigree, the experience, the courage, and the undying spirit to begin to put these obstacles of freedom to rest.”
Both Vernon and Vampire Weekend have been Bernie Sanders supporters for a long time. When Sanders ran for president in 2016, Vampire Weekend played shows for Sanders in both Iowa and New York, and Vernon spoke in support of Sanders at a Wisconsin rally. (Vernon also had some things to say about Hillary Clinton after the general election. Bet he still feels the same way now!)