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Here's How You Can Watch & Support A Concert For Charlottesville

by Danielle Jackson
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Shortly after racially-motivated violence reared its head at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, Dave Matthews Band announced they would be holding the A Concert For Charlottesville to benefit the community. The star-studded concert will boast performances from Ariana Grande, Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake, and more, and is set to take place at University of Virgina's Scott Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 24 at 5:55 p.m. ET. For any people out there who won't be able to attend the concert in person, there are obviously other ways for fans to show support — and how to stream A Concert for Charlottesville straight from your laptop is super easy.

Tickets to attend A Concert for Charlottesville are officially no longer being distributed, but any fans still interested in watching and supporting the cause can head over to musicandunity.tumblr.com at 5:55 p.m. EST to tune in to the show. Of course, the concert's official Tumblr page isn't the only place you'll be able to watch it. Organizers of the show announced Wednesday that, in addition to Tumblr, fans all around the world will also be able to stream A Concert for Charlottesville (free of charge) on other social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook, and even via The Huffington Post's own live-stream.

The benefit concert is being organized by Dave Matthews Band, as Charlottesville is actually the band's hometown. According to the event's official website, fans should expect to see performances from the concert hosts themselves as well as Chris Stapleton, The Roots, Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, Cage the Elephant, and more special guests that have yet to be announced.

Throughout the last two weeks, tickets to the event were being distributed upon special requests through an online system, and they were free for all members of the Charlottesville and University of Virginia communities. Though the tickets weren't priced, concert attendees were still encouraged to donate to the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation's Concert for Charlottesville Fund that would benefit victims of the events that took place in the city last month, families of said victims, and first responders.

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Last month in Charlottesville, white nationalists gathered in the streets of the city to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The "Unite the Right" rally, as it was called, was held on the weekend of Aug. 11, and it sparked nationwide controversy. The rally's attendees were seen marching through the city's streets carrying torches. Meanwhile, groups of counter-protesters also eventually showed up in the city as a form of resistance, and violent clashes between the groups occurred before the rally could even officially start. Virginia's governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency "to aid state response to violence at Alt-Right rally in Charlottesville," while the University of Virginia announced the cancellation of all events taking place on the school's campus for that day.

Celebrities and public figures alike took to social media during the time to voice their opinions on the matter, most of which were condemning the actions of the white supremacists who planned the rally. Out of all of the responses, perhaps the most notable one of them all was Barack Obama's response. The former president tweeted out, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion," alongside a photo of himself smiling at four children. He continued his thoughts in a thread, though his initial tweet quoting Nelson Mandela quickly became the number one most liked tweet in Twitter's history.

Given the outrage that the events in Charlottesville sparked last month, Dave Matthew's Band's benefit concert will surely be a hit for a good cause. If you need a bit of a musical pick-me-up after the last month, then this is definitely an event you won't want to miss.