Guitarist Tom Morello assembled the inaugural Power to the People Fest, held on 3 October 2026 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland. As part of the protest rock group Rage Against the Machine, Morello was well suited to curate the lineup for this day of resistance and rock and roll. With its message of “Peace, Love, Justice and Music”, Power to the People felt like a kindred spirit to festivals like Farm Aid or Vote for Change, which also rallied musicians under a singular message.
However, unlike the Global Citizen Festival—which was unfortunately cancelled due to weather this year—where the artists or individuals generally withhold their political machinations (so governments or corporations can make donations without being associated with any specific message), Power to the People had rock and rap artists that leaned hard on their liberal activism performing alongside tried and true musical legends for nearly ten hours over two stages.
Young San Diego hip-hop group the Neighborhood Kids, first performers of the day, had a keffiyeh draped over the kick drum to show their support for Palestine. Their short set included the song “Third World Problems” and “Kids in the Cages”, speaking to the horrific situations ICE has been putting immigrant children in.
The Linda Lindas, another group of younger musicians, hoped the day would recharge the activists before reflecting the opposite sentiment on “Burning Out”. Before their final song, “Racist Sexist Boy”, the Linda Lindas asked the audience to look around and to keep “standing with trans people” and “protect each other” as they would never bow down to the “racist sexist boys”.
Later, on the main stage, Jordan Edward Benjamin, the musician known as Grandson, wore an ironic shirt that read “Vote Republican” in large letters, with smaller text that included the lines “eat tainted meat” and “help only yourself”. He called out the felon President Trump in his song “Oh No!!” and spoke to the US’ rationale for the war with Iran, declaring we are bombing the “Middle East to cover up the fact the President is a pedophile”. He also reimagined “one of the 20th century’s great resistance songs”, Bob Dylan‘s “Masters of War”.
Rappers and rock acts alternated across the two stages relatively smoothly, though the schedule started to run behind. Killer Mike asked the audience to reflect on when they were younger and wanted to “overthrow the wickedness in this world” in the middle of “Never Scared”. He said the audience should ask their friends if they “wanna go vote and get some waffle house” on the imminent and urgent November election day.
Just before the music turned over to the main stage, a video of Macklemore played where he reiterated “free Palestine” (the comment which essentially got him booted from opening on Ed Sheeran’s tour) and remarked that “none of us are free until all of us are free”. Morello followed up with a joke that all the artists voted to kick Sheeran off the festival bill before introducing Cypress Hill as being on the frontline of “an issue very near and dear to their hearts, smoking weed”.
Cypress Hill played classics like “How I Could Just Kill a Man” and “Insane in the Brain”, along with covers of Rage Against the Machine’s “Bombtrack”, and closed with “church” and a way to burn calories, House of Pain’s “Jump Around” with Flava Flav.
It’s hard to highlight every band of the day as there was so much to appreciate before the headliner. Flav and Chuck D, Public Enemy, had a raucous set later in the day, almost the opposite energy of Nathaniel Rateliff’s solo performance but no less engaging. Jack Black performed Black Sabbath songs with a group of younger musicians (including Tom Morello’s son Roman) as Jack Sabbath but surprised the audience by welcoming out original Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler for “War Pigs”.
Morello, who had introduced many of the acts throughout the day, had an afternoon set that could have closed any regular show. The amazing and guest-laden set included a similar guitar-driven Rage Against the Machine medley as performed at Newport Folk, “It’s Tricky” with special guest DMC, Audioslave’s “Like a Stone” with Serj Tankian singing Chris Cornell’s lines, and what was basically the group Prophets of Rage, when B-Real and Chuck D came out.
For “Walk This Way”, Jack Black and DMC trading verses. Towards the end, Morello asked the audience to sing a song sung by the founding fathers and at other times during America’s history, turning the microphone outward so they could chant “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” on “Killing in the Name”.
Another tribute group formed on the main stage shortly after, with the Pretty Reckless’s Taylor Momsen, Morello, Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready and Soundgarden‘s Matt Cameron performing as Suns of Soundgarden. The grungy Momsen ably captured Cornell’s spirit across three songs, including “Outshined” and “Spoonman”.
Despite all the musical firepower, the festival struggled to attract guests from the political sphere, particularly notable since it was held so close to Washington, DC. There were no videos from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, no remarks from Bernie Sanders, and nothing to indicate who Morello or others might consider a front-runner for Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, let alone the strongest voice against the current administration now on any stage. The closest thing the festival got was former special counsel Jack Smith making headlines simply for being spotted in the crowd wearing a “No Kings” shirt.
On the plus side, the festival hosted a Freedom Village area that included non-profits of varying calibres, including local activists like Trans Maryland and DC Abortion Fund, to national and multinational organizations like National Domestic Workers Alliance, which asked people to proclaim “the person who taught me to care”, and Oxfam, with a message to tax the ultra-rich. Other booths included Morello’s org dedicated to his late mother, the Mary Morello Memorial Project, and conglomerate-owned Ben & Jerry’s, which served up a new flavor for activists, Razz Up.
The festival closed with a set from Bruce Springsteen, mostly protest songs and special guests. Joan Baez took the stage to join him for Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom”, and Dave Grohl and Dave Matthews joined for “Rockin in the Free World”. Morello invited everyone out for the finale: Woody Guthrie‘s “This Land Is Your Land” and John Lennon‘s “Power to the People”.
While Tom Morello strongly suggested the day marked the first for the annual series, his Power to the People fest should serve as a stepping stone for change. Supercharged by the spectacular show and finish, the audience can hopefully bring incredible energy to their own activism through Election Day and beyond.