The Israeli-Palestinian conflict ‘entered’ today’s Kalorama festival in Lisbon, with Massive Attack clearly reminding us which side they are on in this and other issues that plague the world today.
The Bristol band has a history of political and social activism both on and off stage, and tonight they demonstrated it once again at Parque da Bela da Vista.
For almost two hours – between 8:15 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. – images of real situations were shown on the screen at the back of the stage, alternating with others from fictional films, which were punctuated with phrases and words, many written in Portuguese, that referred to issues such as wars, ‘fake news’ or conspiracy theories.
Throughout the show, images taken in the Gaza Strip were shown several times, with the audience being reminded that the Palestinian territory has been occupied by Israel since 1967, although the conflict has intensified since October last year.
Robert del Naja, one of the ‘pillars’ of Massive Attack, appeared on stage with an armband on his left arm with the word Palestine written on it.
He dedicated the song “Safe from harm” to the people of that country, giving a cheer for Palestine.
At a concert in their native Bristol on Sunday, Massive Attack were joined on stage by Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, to whom they gave the floor.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia on November 22, 2022, the Bosnian War in the 1990s or the resurgence of fascism – “Up against fascism” was one of the phrases shown on the screen for a while – were other issues addressed during the show.
The concert began with “Risigson”, one of the songs from “Mezzanine”, released in 1998, ten years after the group was founded.
The line-up included some of Massive Attack’s most popular songs – “Angel”, “Unfinished Sympathy”, “Karmacoma” and “Teardrop” – and they were joined on stage by a number of guests: Horace Andy, Elizabeth Fraser, Young Fathers and Deborah Miller.
The 3rd MEO Kalorama runs until Sunday. The festival, which features more than 50 musical acts spread over four stages, has Sam Smith as its headliner, as well as Massive Attack.
Jungle and LCD Soundsystem are the headliners on Friday, and Burna Boy and Raye on Saturday.
The line-up also includes bands and artists such as Peggy Gou, Loyle Carner, The Kills, Gossip, Ana Lua Caiano, Unsafe Space Garden, Ezra Collective, Glockenwise, Ana Moura, dEUS and Soulwax.
In this edition, the festival has adopted the ‘cashless’ system (with payments at the venue being made without the use of cash or cards, via a wristband).
This system requires three-day passes and day tickets to be exchanged for wristbands – which allow entry to and exit from the site and serve as a method of payment at the festival.
At the end of the afternoon, very long queues formed where tickets were exchanged for wristbands, causing many people to take much longer than they wanted to enter the venue.
