Making sweet music in southern bomb shelters as the rockets rained down
Several of the country's most popular musicians chose to donate their time and talent to entertaining those stuck in shelters during the recent rocket attacks by Islamic Jihad from Gaza.
By HANNAH BROWNCelebrants at the Jacob's Ladder music festival. (photo credit: Courtesy)
Surprisingly, the place to hear great music in Israel during the last couple of days was in bomb shelters in the South.Several of the country’s most popular musicians chose to donate their time and talent to entertaining those stuck in shelters during the recent rocket attacks by Islamic Jihad from Gaza that began on Tuesday.Eurovision winner Netta Barzilai made a surprise visit to the wedding of a couple in Beersheba who had to greatly cut back on the scale of their nuptials because the Home Front Command does not permit large gatherings during a period of attacks, and sang to the couple.Natan Goshen, a singer/songwriter who has become religiously observant in recent years, posted on social networks asking fans in the South to let him know their location and promising to visit them – a promise he kept. Videos of the singer performing for an enthusiastic group of young fans in a shelter in Netivot, a town in the south of Israel, were widely shared on social media. The fans sang along to some of the singer’s most popular hits.Harel Skaat, another one of Israel’s top performers, was scheduled to give a concert in Netivot this week, which was canceled due to the security situation. However, that didn’t stop Skaat from visiting Netivot on Wednesday and performing for a group of fans stuck in a shelter. He promised on his Instagram account to return to do the scheduled concert as soon as possible.“I love you citizens of the South and our soldiers... We’ll fly as high as we can. Take care of yourselves,” he wrote.The EDM TLV Festival, which will be held November 14 at 10:30 p.m. in Tel Aviv’s Exhibition Gardens (Pavilion 2), is offering deep discounts to anyone from the South – NIS 100 per ticket. Those purchasing tickets must present an ID that shows they are from the South and must buy the tickets at the box office tonight after 10 p.m. It is hosting a number of internationally known electronic dance music performers, including Oliver Heldens, Rising Dust and Mike Williams. Dash Berlin was scheduled to perform but due to logistical problems will not attend tonight but will perform in Tel Aviv at a later date.
