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SALT LAKE CITY — After its debut in August 2017, a concert festival aimed at helping the LGBT community feel loved and included will return to Utah in July.
Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds started the concert and foundation in 2017 as a way to “ignite the vital conversation about what it means to unconditionally love, understand, accept and support our LGBTQ friends and family,” according to the LOVELOUD website.
After losing friends to suicide and receiving letters from fans who told him because of his religious upbringing they assumed he didn’t accept them for who they were, Reynolds has become an advocate for LGBT issues. He has worked with The Trevor Project, a national suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth, and was involved with the documentary “Believer” which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
The LOVELOUD concert will feature Imagine Dragons as well as Zedd, Mike Shinoda, Grace Vanderwaal, Tyler Glenn of Neon Trees, Vagabon and A.W.
“It’s really meant to be an event that’s family-friendly, that is safe for everyone on all sides of the spectrum,” Reynolds told KSL.com in July 2017 about LOVELOUD. “It’s really supposed to bring everyone together in one place and to talk about a way to create a safer community.”
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When Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds began receiving letters from fans appreciating a song featured on the TV show “Glee,” Reynolds felt devastated.Proceeds from the concert’s ticket sales will go toward local and national LGBT charities, including Provo’s Encircle, a resource center for LGBT youth and their families.
The 2017 concert saw a turnout of 17,000 people at the Brent Brown Ballpark in Orem, and included Steve Young throwing nerf balls from the stage and a speech by Tom Christofferson, an actively attending Latter-day Saint who is also gay and the brother of a Mormon apostle, according to the Deseret News.
The second LOVELOUD concert will be held July 28 at the Rice-Eccles Stadium. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. and can be bought online. Prices start at $29.50.
