From: "Shelly Roberts" Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 13:47:21 +0000 Subject: October Celebration Concert IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Karen Snyder - 404.377.4404 DISTRIBUTE WIDELY April 12, 1999 THE RAINBOW CELEBRATION CONCERT OCTOBER 13-15, 2000 - ATLANTA The nationwide Rainbow Celebration Concert, scheduled for October 13th -15th , 2000, will be the largest gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender live musical event ever staged. It will deliver 500,000 national rainbow community members, their friends, family and allies, to Atlanta's Piedmont Park and all available outlying venues for unprecedented, historic three days of non-political music, culture and celebration. The Rainbow Celebration Concert will serve as a demarcation point for the entire spectrum of rainbow community members to pause and celebrate the most successful civil rights movement in history. The concert will also feature the full spectrum of invited rainbow performers from mainstream headliners like Melissa Etheridge, kd lang, Janis Ian, Indigo Girls, Sir Elton John and others, to exciting newcomers who are just beginning their long career climbs. In between, the concert will feature hundreds of top glbt performers who have dedicated their careers to serving their own communities. Performers like Suzanne Westenhoefer, Jamie Anderson, Kate Clinton, Romanovsky & Phillips, Sonia of Disappear Fear, GLAMA award winners Tom Robinson, Catie Curtis and Jeff Krasner. The lineup already includes more than 150 recognized glbt performers and the list grows longer every day. In addition, recognized allies and supporter performers will be invited to grace the multiple outdoor stages planned for the park or Atlanta's larger venues. Allies like Garth Brooks, whose open support of his lesbian sister has made a significant contribution to the greater well-being of the entire community. And Cher, whose very public support for her lesbian daughter, Chastity, has created a role model for all parents of rainbow community members. The list of invited, prominent allies is a long one. The Rainbow Celebration Concert is receiving special support and assistance from the office of Atlanta's Mayor, Bill Campbell, with focused attention from Assistant to the Mayor, Phillip McDonald, who can be reached for confirmation at 404-330-6235. The Rainbow Celebration Concert will be a sanctioned event as part of the official Atlanta2000 calendar, listing all celebration events surrounding the millennium shift. The Concert is being produced by The Rainbow Celebration Company, Inc., a Delaware corporation, which was specially formed by best-selling lesbian author, and longtime internationally syndicated columnist, Shelly Roberts. Roberts has declared that the concert will be a one-time only extravaganza celebration of glbt culture and entertainment, and that it will be a specifically non-political event. "This is a wonderful time to celebrate what we did in a decade. In Concert!" Roberts explains when queried, eyes alight with the enthusiasm she so obviously feels full force for the task at hand. "We came together in adversity, and now our apparent success, and lack of meaningful enemy, has often caused us to take each other on. I think it's time to stop for a couple of days, breathe, and realize just how far we've come, and acknowledge the enormous work, and lives put on the line on our behalf, that went into getting us here. So I've invited the entire national and international community to come to Atlanta to listen to our music, honor our performers, and to share the wonderful positive results and good feelings. To celebrate the Rainbow. The response so far from the local community, the national community, the performers, the corporate sponsors, allies and supporters has been overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic. Heartening, but not surprising. Our local and national Boards of Advisors reads like a "Who's Who" of the Rainbow and Ally Communities. People want permission to celebrate the good stuff." Roberts has gained the respect and recognition of the worldwide community through her funny, positive-attitude perspective, as conveyed in her "Roberts' Rules" biweekly column which reaches an estimated 1 million readers worldwide, and her best-selling Rules of Lesbians book series. "If anyone call pull this community together and pull this off, it's Roberts." Says Phillip Rafshoon, Owner of Outwrite, Atlanta's largest GLBT bookstore where her books regularly sell out. The Rainbow Celebration Company is currently in negotiations with Chuck Gayton of Gayton & Partners Productions, Los Angeles, California, to serve as producer of the Rainbow Concert Grand Finale which is scheduled for Sunday evening, October 15th, in the Georgia Dome. Mr. Gayton is the producer of, among other things, the Gisbourne2000 celebration, the first International Millennium celebration to take place as the clock hand clicks past the 12 on January 1st, 2000. Gayton and Partners were responsible for packaging and producing "The Three Tenors" concert, and its subsequent sale to WarnerVision Entertainment as a television program. -30- For further information, please contact Karen Snyder, VP, Co-Executive Producer at The Rainbow Celebration Company, 1293 Harvard Rd., Atlanta, GA 30306. Phone 404-377-4404