Nathaniel Rateliff, Lumineers members protest Greenwood Village police resolution and boycott Fiddler’s Green

From a distance, it may have seemed like a windy summertime concert in a affluent Denver suburb. But the hundreds of people who gathered in the park behind Greenwood Village City Hall on Monday night were not just there to listen to Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, the Flobots, or Wesley Schultz of The Lumineers.

They were there to inform the Greenwood Village City Council that their resolution protected city police officers from civil liability in cases of civil rights violations. Not if they and some of the most prominent musicians in the state have something to say about it.

The “March and Play for Justice” was the second demonstration outside of Greenwood Village City Hall since the council attempted to undermine new state liability legislation by resolving that its officers would never act in bad faith in interactions with residents. After the resolution passed on July 6, more than 100 protesters took to the streets despite the use of a city snowplow to block street access to the city hall parking lot.

Between Rateliff’s hit “Say it Louder” and Bruce Springsteen’s version of Schultz, state Senator Jeff Bridges took the microphone. Bridges, who lives in Greenwood Village, said his first concert was at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater, but that he will not return to the venue until the City Council rescinds his resolution.

“Our officers must be exemplary, not exempt,” said Bridges.

Just after 9 p.m., after more music from the Brothers of Brass marching band, the assembled crowd headed to the amphitheater for the march. Tay Anderson of the Denver School Board helped lead the rally, along with the main sponsor of the police reform bill, Rep. Leslie Herod, a Democrat from Denver.

“Do your job,” he called. “Defend the law,” replied the crowd.

Senate Bill 217 was drafted and passed this spring after protests over the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the death of other unarmed blacks, including Elijah McClain of Aurora last fall. Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats, The Lumineers, Flobots and DeVotchKa, along with gospel group Spirit of Grace and artists Erica Brown and Andrea Marchant, all participated in the protest on Monday night.

“Live performances at Fiddler’s Green are an important source of revenue for the city of Greenwood Village,” the petition said. “Because the city council does not understand why it is imperative, from a civil rights and security perspective, to comply with our state laws, we hope they understand why it is also an economic imperative that we as artists and fans now refuse to spend our money at Greenwood Village. “

For residents with long memories, the protests recall the boycott of Colorado in the early 1990s by touring musicians such as Madonna and Elton John, the result of Amendment 2, a narrow-margin statewide voting initiative in 1992 and forbidden Colorado for enacting protections against discrimination for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals.

The United States Supreme Court struck down the amendment in 1995 as unconstitutional, but his three-year reign cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue from concerts, conventions and other businesses, according to historians and news reports.

“Amendment 2 may be the biggest public relations disaster that has hit Colorado,” The Denver Post reported at the time.

Withholding performances, and hence revenue, is just the starting point, the musicians say. If the resolution doesn’t go away, the goal is to erode the prestige previously associated with Fiddler’s Green, as well as stigmatize it as if it were located in a city that’s not safe for people of color.

“Overall, that’s a skill that artists have that most people don’t have,” said Storm Gloor, aassociate professor of music and entertainment industry studies at the University of Colorado at Denver. “If I If you were to take a position on something, you wouldn’t have much to deal with personally. But artists do.

That’s the point, of course, of cornering platinum sales acts like The Lumineers, whose singer, Schultz, provided one of the most billed names at Monday night’s event. Their voices give the message a different tone, said Leslie Herod, the Denver Democrat who chairs the state’s Black Democratic Legislative Caucus and organized the event.

“Nathaniel and his band were the first to sign on board, and I mean within hours,” he said. “But of course bands like Flobots have always been there. This is not just a time for Colorado artists, but a movement. It’s not just about police accountability, but how we show ourselves in life and respect the lives of blacks, period. (These artists) are willing to risk their livelihoods for the lives of blacks, and that cannot be underestimated. ”

Mega-promoter AEG Presents, whose Rocky Mountain office reserves Fiddler’s Green and controls the scene of regional tours, also released a statement in support of the event on Monday night.

“AEG Presents and the Museum of Outdoor Arts, the non-profit organization that owns Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater, unite in support of Black Lives Matter and against social and racial injustice. We also support all the artists who have come forward to lend their voice to progress, both locally and nationally, ”she said. AEG Presents, as a music company that operates a premises in Greenwood Village and works closely with its police department, has a unique perspective and connections to this topic. We have already reached out to key voices on both sides with the intention of bringing all parties together for meaningful dialogue and resolution. ”

Singer Lerea Edwards performed at the event with her gospel group Spirit of Grace.

“I am glad to see the musicians standing up for this, but there are many more who have been sidelined over the years and who don’t have that voice,” said Edwards. “From what I’ve seen, the music community is united in this, and if you can’t love one of us, you can’t love any of us.”