I stumbled across something this weekend that sent me down another rabbit hole.
It is called Freedom Village, and it was part of the Power to the People Festival held October 3, 2026, at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., roughly one month before the midterm elections.
Those who follow what I write know that I tend to stay away from national incidents for the most part. There are plenty of people covering Washington, D.C., national politics and the daily circus that comes with it. More importantly, I recognize where I actually have influence—and most of the time, it isn’t 2,000 miles away.
My attention is usually right here at home.
Our towns. Our county. Our state. Our elected officials. Our schools. Our families. The decisions being made around our kitchen tables and in the government buildings we can actually walk into.
But local doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
Sometimes something happening nationally deserves our attention precisely because eventually those ideas, organizations, funding networks and political strategies find their way into our states, communities, schools and homes.
Bringing national issues back down to the local level, showing people what is happening, how it works and what to watch for here, is important too.
And that is why Freedom Village caught my attention.
This wasn’t simply a rock concert with a voter-registration table tucked in a corner.
The festival’s own website says the event was designed to influence what happens “on, and beyond, Election Day.” It combined major musicians and celebrities with activists, nonprofit organizations, voter-engagement groups and an entire area dedicated to political and social organizing.
And it happened one month before the midterm elections.
That deserves a closer look.
WHO PUT THIS TOGETHER?
Power to the People was curated by longtime political activist and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.
Bruce Springsteen helped publicly launch it, announcing the festival onstage while touring with Morello.
The lineup was enormous: Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Joan Baez, Public Enemy, Killer Mike, Serj Tankian, Dropkick Murphys (these I find ironic, as theirmown nation is being destroyed as we speak), Jack Black, Cypress Hill and many others.
But the music was only one component.
The festival deliberately brought together “artists, fans, activists, organizations and community leaders.”
Then there was Freedom Village.
THE FREEDOM VILLAGE POLITICAL NETWORK
The official Freedom Village roster included:
- ACLU
- HeadCount
- VoteRiders
- Rock the Vote
- Indivisible
- DC Abortion Fund
- Noise for Now, which connects artists with and financially supports reproductive-justice organizations
- National Domestic Workers Alliance / Care in Action
- Oxfam
- The Sentencing Project
- Trans Maryland
- We Are CASA
- Third Act
- Amica Center for Immigrant Rights
- Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks
- Farm Aid
- Project on Government Oversight
- Woody Guthrie Center
There were additional organizations as well, including the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Nourish Now, Sasha Bruce Youthwork and the Mary Morello Memorial Project.
Community partners included Ben & Jerry’s, Red Emma’s and Charitybuzz. (😂)
These aren’t organizations I randomly assembled to make an argument.
This is the festival’s own published Freedom Village roster.
And their own descriptions are revealing.
Third Act says it is building a “progressive organizing movement.”
Rock the Vote says it exists to “build the political power of young people” and specifically describes using culture, technology and organizing to accomplish that.
HeadCount says its mission is to use “the power of music and popular culture” to register voters and promote participation, specifically adding:
“We reach young people where they already are.”
That sentence deserves considerably more attention.
THIS IS WHERE MY CONCERN REALLY BEGINS
I don’t have a problem with young people voting.
I want them voting.
I want them reading legislation, questioning politicians, understanding the Constitution, examining both sides of an issue and becoming absolute pains in the rear ends of elected officials who forget who they work for.
That’s civic engagement.
But this is something different worth examining.
Look at the structure.
Bring young people in with some of the biggest musicians and celebrities in America.
Put political organizations throughout the festival.
Use music and popular culture to introduce them to activism.
Register them to vote.
Surround them with organizations promoting abortion access, progressive organizing, immigration activism, transgender advocacy, criminal-justice reform and other overwhelmingly left/progressive causes.
Then have performers delivering explicitly anti-Trump and anti-administration political messages from the stage.
And do it approximately 30 days before an election.
You don’t have to speculate about whether popular culture is being used as a political-engagement vehicle.
The organizations themselves tell us that it is.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Then we get to the financial side.
A portion of proceeds from every regular ticket, plus 100% of net VIP-ticket proceeds, was designated for VoteRiders and HeadCount.
HeadCount was also physically present registering voters and educating attendees about upcoming elections.
The festival additionally created the Power to the People Festival Fund.
According to its own description, the fund will invest in organizations advancing:
civic engagement, social justice and human rights.
And the festival says some of the organizations participating in Freedom Village are among the organizations in which the fund will invest.
So we aren’t simply talking about advocacy organizations purchasing booths at a music festival.
There is money moving from the entertainment event into the advocacy network itself.
That is an important distinction.
THE MEDIA PIECE
Then add another layer.
MS NOW was the festival’s official livestream destination.
The festival described the partnership as based upon a “shared commitment to democracy.”
Its own promotional material then specifically highlighted Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki, Rev. Al Sharpton and Joe Scarborough as personalities associated with MS NOW’s “pro-democracy” audience and membership.
Again, don’t take my word for it.
Read the festival’s own language.
AND THEN LISTEN TO WHAT HAPPENED ONSTAGE
The political message wasn’t subtle.
Springsteen opened his performance with “Streets of Minneapolis,” criticizing federal immigration enforcement actions. (This entitled out of it multi-millionaire celeb)
Grandson performed a song with the refrain “My president’s a felon.”
Performers repeatedly encouraged attendees to visit the organizations in Freedom Village and vote in the approaching midterms.
Killer Mike told the audience to vote locally in 30 days and hold elected officials accountable.
The Associated Press described Power to the People as a “protest music festival.”
Put all of those pieces on the same table.
Celebrity.
Music.
Youth culture.
Progressive advocacy organizations.
Voter registration.
Political messaging.
Nonprofit fundraising.
Media distribution.
And an election approximately one month away.
“NONPARTISAN” DOESN’T ANSWER THE QUESTION
The festival has been described as nonpartisan. ( jokes)
Fine.
But “nonpartisan” doesn’t mean politically neutral.
An organization can refrain from officially supporting a Democratic or Republican candidate while aggressively advocating political positions that overwhelmingly align with one side of America’s ideological divide.
So forget the label for a moment.
Look at the organizations.
Look at their missions.
Look at what was said from the stage.
Look at where the proceeds went.
Look at the organizations specifically targeting young voters.
Look at the media partnership.
And look at the timing.
Then decide for yourself what kind of political environment was created.
THIS IS BIGGER THAN BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Bruce Springsteen’s politics aren’t exactly breaking news.
Neither are Tom Morello’s.
That’s not what interests me.
What interests me is the infrastructure developing underneath celebrity politics.
This model doesn’t require a politician standing behind a podium saying, “Vote Democrat.”
It is far more sophisticated than that.
Politics can now enter through culture.
Music gets people through the gate.
Celebrity provides enormous reach.
Advocacy organizations provide the political infrastructure.
Voter organizations convert enthusiasm into participation.
Nonprofit networks provide organizational capacity.
Philanthropic money helps sustain those organizations.
Media expands the audience far beyond the people physically attending.
And young people encounter the entire package inside something that feels like entertainment and community rather than a political rally.
That’s powerful.
FOLLOWING THE MONEY FURTHER
The Power to the People Festival Fund is connected to a philanthropic structure that deserves its own investigation.
The fundraising mechanism identifies the Festival Fund as being housed at Catalyst Philanthropy Fund, with donations processed through Our Change Foundation, a 501(c)(3).
Catalyst is relatively new, having been formed in 2024.
Public grant records show millions of dollars flowing into Catalyst from philanthropic organizations.
That doesn’t tell us that every dollar entering Catalyst financed this particular festival. What it does give us is the next set of records worth examining.
Which donations were specifically restricted to Power to the People?
Who contributed directly to the Festival Fund?
Which Freedom Village organizations ultimately receive grants?
How much money does the fund distribute?
Which foundations finance those recipient organizations?
And do the same foundations, fiscal sponsors, advocacy organizations and political networks repeatedly appear together elsewhere?
Those aren’t conspiracy theories.
Those are accounting questions.
WHY THIS MATTERS HERE AT HOME
And this brings me back to why I’m writing about something that happened all the way across the country.
I’m not under the illusion that an article post from rural Montana online paper is going to change Bruce Springsteen, Tom Morello or Washington, D.C.
That’s not the point.
The point is recognizing the machinery before it arrives in your own backyard wearing a different name.
When we understand how national political movements use nonprofits, entertainment, philanthropy, voter-engagement organizations and popular culture, we become better equipped to recognize those same strategies when they appear locally.
Watch the organizations.
Watch the grants.
Watch who partners with whom.
Watch the language.
Watch which organizations suddenly appear in schools, community programs and local political discussions.
And especially watch how our young people are being approached.
Because national politics eventually becomes state politics.
State politics becomes county policy.
County policy walks through your front door.
Local government is where national ideas eventually acquire an address.
That’s why occasionally looking beyond our own county line matters.
AND THAT IS WHY I AM DIGGING
I am increasingly interested in the machinery underneath American politics.
Not simply Republicans versus Democrats.
Not simply who said something ridiculous on television today.
Who funds the organizations?
Who selects the organizations?
Who provides the platform?
Who controls the distribution?
Who is being targeted?
And where does the money go next?
Freedom Village provides an unusually clear little window into that system because so many of the pieces were assembled in one physical location.
And perhaps the most important sentence in this entire investigation didn’t come from a critic of the festival.
It came from HeadCount’s own description of what it does:
“We reach young people where they already are.”
Exactly.
And when political organizations deliberately go where young people already are, inside music, entertainment and popular culture, we should be paying very close attention to what those young people are being shown, who is showing it to them, and who is paying for it.
Because teaching young Americans to participate in democracy is one thing.
Building an ideological pipeline through their culture is something else entirely.
And that is the thread I intend to keep pulling.
SOURCES
Power to the People Festival : Official Festival Website and Mission
Power to the People Festival, Official Freedom Village & Festival Fund Roster
Power to the People Festival, May 28, 2026 Announcement
Associated Press, October 4, 2026 coverage of Power to the People Festival
HeadCount, Mission and voter-engagement information
Rock the Vote, Mission and youth political-engagement information
VoteRiders, Mission and voter-ID programs
Individual Freedom Village organizations, published organizational mission statements
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