Metallica have represented the Bay Area since 1983, and now the heavy metal icons will headline a massive fire relief benefit concert at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Thursday, Nov. 9.
The show, dubbed Band Together Bay Area, is hosted by San Francisco–based nonprofit Tipping Point Community. Funds from the event will help low-income communities recover and rebuild from the North Bay wildfires. Formed in 2005, Tipping Point helps fight poverty in the Bay Area by supporting service organizations working in the areas of housing, education, employment and early childhood development.
“There’re just far too many people living in poverty here in a region where there’s tremendous wealth, and we think that’s got to change,” says Tipping Point founder and CEO Daniel Lurie. “We need to get everybody engaged and involved in giving back.”
With a board of directors covering all overhead costs, Tipping Point ensures every dollar donated goes to the community. This month, Tipping Point adds relief work to its to-do list, in response to the North Bay wildfires. “We knew immediately that the members of the community up north most impacted would be low-income individuals and families, and immigrants, both documented and undocumented,” says Lurie. “We wanted to help our neighbors, and we felt like we could bring our experience to support the work going on up there.”
Four days after the fires hit, Tipping Point established an emergency relief fund, and Lurie says plans for the upcoming benefit concert began simultaneously. Lurie met with Tipping Point board member and Another Planet Entertainment founder and CEO Gregg Perloff and others from Live Nation to approach artists with Bay Area connections. In addition to Metallica, the bill includes supergroup Dead & Company, featuring Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart and guitarist John Mayer. Oakland hip-hop star G-Eazy, Berkeley punk group Rancid, platinum-selling songwriter Dave Matthews and Oakland soul man Raphael Saadiq will also perform.
Band Together Bay Area is already close to selling out, though Tipping Point is holding the best seats in the house for first responders and those directly affected by the fire. The organization is distributing those tickets to individuals that Lurie says will be honored and appreciated that night.
“We wanted to show all our neighbors in the North Bay that the Bay Area’s got your back,” says Lurie. “We’re not going anywhere.”
