Dan Reynolds of pop rock band Imagine Dragons, has raised $1m for organisations that provide support to the LGBTQ community through his LoveLoud music festival.
Mr Reynolds founded the LoveLoud foundation in 2017 in an effort to support the LGBTQ community and its youth by encouraging acceptance in the home and community. Last year, a sold-out LoveLoud festival in Orem, Utah, drew an estimated 17,000 people with proceeds directed to LGBTQ charities.
This year, Mr Reynolds aimed to go higher and raise $1m – a goal he previously noted was “overly ambitious”.
“I think that we went into this shooting for the stars, and that's been kind of what LoveLoud has been about from the very beginning – doing something that is maybe a little overly ambitious, but somehow we pull it off,” he toldBillboard prior to the festival.
Indeed the LoveLoud festival met its goal; its day-long festival on 28, July raised $1m from ticket sales and donations. The money raised will benefit organisations, including main benefactors The Trevor Project, Encircle and Tegan and Sara Foundation.
For this year’s festival, Mr Reynolds teamed up with Tegan Quin of indie pop band Tegan and Sara, to help execute its goal to raise $1m. Furthermore, AT&T, the festival’s primary sponsor, pledged to donate $1 for every tweet that featured hashtag #loveloud for up to $50,000 (40,000 £). The festival featured speakers and performers, like Zedd, Mike Shinoda and Vagabon. More than 30,000 people attended the sold-out festival in Salt Lake City, Utah, The Salt Lake Tribunereported.
“The people and the community want to love our LGBTQ youth,” Mr Reynolds told The Tribune. “Period. And that’s the goal of LoveLoud.”
A HBO documentary on Mr Reynolds, Believer, released earlier this year, followed the pop rock band frontman for one year as he sought out to examine how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints treated its LGBTQ members and his own Mormon upbringing.
In an opinion piece for Rolling Stone published last month, the Imagine Dragons lead singer cited staggering suicide rates among teens in Utah to address the importance of LGBTQ youth feeling accepted in their homes and community. He also noted the experiences of his friend from secondary school, Casey, and lead singer of Neon Trees, Tyler Glenn, who struggled with acceptance within the Mormon Church.
“To our LGBTQ youth, especially those who are within the walls of an orthodox faith, I love you and accept you,” he wrote in part.
“I will fight to be a true ally for you, an ally that I wish I would have been for Casey and Tyler when they needed it. If the leaders won’t change the doctrine, then I will fight to change the culture. We as Mormons, or people of faith, cannot stand by for one more day and support these harmful teachings that are literally killing our youth. That is not Godly. That is not love.”
