Massive Attack and Cavalera have announced details of a special show in São Paulo in recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights. Check out the details below.
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The one-off gig will be held on November 13 at the Espaco Unimed arena in São Paulo, and will see the Bristol trip-hop icons perform a headline set. They will be joined on the night by Brazilian band Cavalera – formed by Sepultura co-founders Max and Iggor Cavalera – who will perform Sepultura’s ‘Chaos A.D.’ album in full.
The show comes in a bid to support and create a platform for the indigenous people of Brazil and the Amazon G9 (the indigenous organisations from nine Amazonian countries), as well as work towards climate justice and campaign for the immediate recognition and protection of indigenous lands.
Dubbed ‘The Answer Is Us’, the gig will be held as world leaders and global corporations arrive in Brazil for the COP-30 summit, which will be hosted in the Amazonian region of Belém. It also comes designed in direct coordination with indigenous groups, in support of their urgent demands.
Alongside hosting representatives for the indigenous movements at the live performance, both Massive Attack and Cavalera are working elsewhere in Brazil to help support the demands of the Amazonian indigenous movement, and more details about this are set to be shared soon.
“We’re honoured to collaborate with Iggor and Max in support of the extraordinary integrity and vital role of the indigenous people of Brazil and the wider Amazon region,” said Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja .
“This is more than a passing of the mic. It’s an opportunity to listen to the knowledge, moral authority and wisdom of the indigenous alliances and help ensure they are heard in the negotiation rooms of COP30. We’ve never needed their presence within that distorted political space as much as we do right now”.
Max and Iggor Cavalera added: “In times when polarisation is so present, when people feel divided and distracted, we are honoured to join forces with Massive Attack and the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil and the Amazon to weave a narrative of positivity and change. We’re beyond excited to work alongside a band like Massive Attack and have been fans for many years.
“We have fostered a close relationship with the indigenous peoples and have worked alongside them for many years now. It is a privilege to share the stage with both of them.”
Tickets for the Massive Attack and Cavalera show will go on sale tomorrow (September 16) at 12pm Brasilia Time (4pm BST). Visit here to buy tickets, and check back here to find the positional demands of ‘The Answer Is Us’.
“We, Indigenous peoples, step onto the stage as if lighting an ancient fire in the heart of the night,” said Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), and G9 in a collective statement. “Together with Massive Attack and Cavalera, we turn sound into uprising. Our voices — alive, ancestral, untamed — will cut through the air, cross every border, and unite peoples, from the Amazon to the Pacific.”
“We are the roots that resist, the future that insists. We have never left,” they continued. “We are here to remind you: the Earth remembers. And through us, it demands — dismantle the machine that devours her. The answer is already here. It rises from the very ground we walk together. The Answer Is Us. All of us. And we will advance.”
COP-30 is the upcoming 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which will mark the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference. It will be held in Belém between November 10 and 21.
The performance from Massive Attack follows on from their huge Act 1.5 concert in Bristol last year – which served as the UK’s biggest low-carbon gig ever – and their Act 1.5 “climate action accelerator” shows in Liverpool. It also follows Del Naja and co. announcing an alliance of musicians speaking out over Gaza against “intimidations from within” the music industry.
Massive Attack were also joined by Khalid Abdalla and Yasiin Bey in a show of solidarity with Palestine at London’s LIDO Festival earlier this summer, which was 100 per cent battery-powered.
As for Iggor and Max Cavalera, the brothers have frequently celebrated indigenous culture throughout their time in Sepultura, and have worked to raise awareness for the struggles faced by those communities. The Brazilian metal legends played their final run of tour dates in 2024.
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