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How Philip Anschutz, Coachella’s Main Financier, Supports Anti-LGBTQ Groups

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Coachella

News is breaking out today that Philip Anschutz, the multi-billionaire behind Anschutz Entertainment Group, is being linked with direct support of anti-LGBTQ and climate-change-denial groups.

Anschutz Entertainment Group, which you may more commonly know as AEG, as been revealed by the Washington Post as one of the most important donors to several anti-LGBTQ groups, with donations upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars going to associations such as Alliance Defending Freedom, National Christian Foundation and Family Research Council.

The news comes following an investigation by Freedom For All Americans (FFAA), a “bipartisan campaign seeking nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people nationwide” that was created last year in the wake of the backlash that resulted from the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage.

forbesAs the Washington Post reports, “one of the hubs of this coordination is Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a 22-year-old group that “advocates for your right to freely live out your faith.” Another is the National Christian Foundation (NCF), which funds a lot of the groups aggressively working to chip away at the equal rights of LGBT Americans. One of them is Family Research Council (FRC), which is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an ‘extremist group.‘”

The piece goes on to explain, “Another is Liberty Council. Listed as an “extremist group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the group is notable because chairman and founder Mat Staver represented Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who caused a national stir when she refused to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple in defiance of the Supreme Court last year.”

Phil Anschutz is one of the richest people in America, with an estimated fortune of over $10 billion, and is listed at #42 on Forbes’ U.S. Billionaires list as of May 17, 2016. His link to these anti-LGBTQ groups isn’t exactly news, but perhaps due to Coachella’s recent lineup announcement the association with the festival is now. AEG is the parent company behind Goldenvoice, the organization that you might recognize as the producers of massive musical operations the likes of Coachella, Panorama, FYF, Stagecoach, Splash House and Firefly.

Furthermore, Anschutz has also been linked with strong support of Koch Industries, some of the world’s biggest deniers of climate change. Greenpeace has reported that Anschutz has been having regular meetings with the brothers to discuss strategies to push an anti-environmentalist agenda that also challenges the science behind evolution.

 

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Four Tet, Ben UFO, and Andy Stott Take On Joshua Tree This Spring

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four-tetFYF and Goldenvoice will bring the live sounds of Four Tet, Ben UFO, and Andy Stott to the picturesque California desert this spring. On May 7, the trio are set to play at Pappy and Harriet’s, an intimate outdoor venue located in Pioneertown on the outskirts of the famed Joshua Tree National Park. Read more

Four Tet brings Floating Points, Ben UFO, Daphni and Madlib to LA

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Four Tet

This morning the dance music community was hit with a whirlwind of announcements, including the full Lightning In a Bottle line-up and Movement Detroit’s Phase I.

Because good things perhaps come in threes, Four Tet added to the news of his Movement debut and LIB performances with the release of a unique mini-festival set to take place at the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles on April 30th.

Presented together with Los Angeles based promoters FYF and Goldenvoice (who puts together Coachella), the night will feature performances by British DJ sensation Ben UFO, Daphni (Caribou’s frontman Dan Snaith), Madlib and perhaps the most acclaimed named of this stellar line-up, Floating Points. The latter caused waves of excitement with his amazing Essential Mix debut in 2015 and has been one of the most sought-after acts to catch since, especially considering the fact that he only played less than ten live sets as of December 2015. Four Tet himself will be performing, a return behind the decks in Los Angeles after his six-hour set at Lot 613 in early December.

Floating POints

Tickets for the 18-and-over show are on sale now, starting at a cheap $15.