Mandela AIDS Awareness Concert Cancelled Because of ‘Sponsorship’ and ‘Broadcast Rights’ Problems With Producers
Officials with the Nelson Mandela Foundation on Friday said they have cancelled an AIDS awareness concert planned for Feb. 2 because the concert's proposed producers did not obtain the proper broadcast and sponsorship rights, Reuters reports. The concert was to be hosted by former South African President Nelson Mandela at Cape Town's Robben Island, the site of the apartheid-era jail where he was imprisoned, and would have included "international stars" such as Macy Gray, Shaggy and Irish rock star Bono. The concert's organizers planned to broadcast the show worldwide, donating all proceeds to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, UNAIDS and the Robben Island Museum. "The aim of the whole thing was to broadcast this concert across the world and to tell people that the world was standing together to fight HIV/AIDS because they see the impact it has had on human rights," Zelda La Grange, spokesperson for Mandela, said, adding that while the group could have "pull[ed] off" the concert, they didn't "just want to have a concert and not reach the aim of it all." Mandela has become a vocal campaigner for HIV/AIDS awareness in South Africa, where 4.8 million people are HIV-positive (Reuters, 1/18).
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