The Weekend, Beyoncé, The Biz & More Step Up To Support Fire Relief Efforts

In the wake of the tragedy the Los Angeles fires caused in early January, something spectacular has happened: The entire community took
on efforts to step up and support one another, with artists and the industry donating large sums of money, opening their homes to people who were evacuating and more. Beyoncé’s BeyGood Foundation donated $2.5 million to the L.A. Fire Relief Fund on Jan. 12, which helps families who lost their homes in the wildfires, as well as community centers and churches. The Weeknd put forth $1 million in partnership with his XO Humanitarian Fund and World Food Program USA
to the LAFD Foundation, the LA Regional Food Bank and GoFundMe’s Wildfire Relief Fund. In fact, across the music industry as a whole, people on their own are donating funds and volunteering their time.

Lists of those impacted by the fires appear almost endless. Around 16,000 homes and structures are estimated to have burned in all, with those across the industry impacted regardless of stature – industry legends including Lou Adler, Bob Clear- mountain, Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett and Dianne Warren – to mid-career artists including Jhené Aiko, Madlib and Dawes – to music publicists, guitar techs, agents, production personnel, jazz artists, photographers and everyone who keeps this industry running. For a full list of resources on how to help those who lost their homes, see page 22.

“As soon as we saw that the fire had started to spread and become bigger, our first thought was our employees. We had so many employees who resided
in areas that would be affected,” Romola Ratnam, Head of Impact and Inclusion at WME tells Pollstar. “The absolute first thing we did in the first 24 hours was get an email out from our leadership and get a consensus of who is OK and what do people need. We knew from the generosity of the WME community that we’d be able to help people that were displaced. We put an email out and asked who’s out of their home for a variety of reasons, and who has somewhere to house people from the company that were displaced.”

Ratnam and her team set up a grid tracking and partnering colleagues with one another for housing throughout the evacua- tion. By the end, every evacuat- ed employee at WME had a safe place to shelter throughout the duration of the order.

WME also partnered with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), which works to end mass incarceration throughout the state of California. The organization, founded in 2013 by Scott Budnick, aims to transform the criminal justice system in the United States. As the fires blazed on throughout Los Angeles County, many incarcerated fire- fighters were sent out to the front lines to help with containment.

“I made a couple of calls to figure out what they needed, and it was very easy from there to mobilize support for the fire- fighters,” Ratnam says. “There was one camp that had about 800 incarcerated firefighters, and we got in touch with the lieutenant and the sergeant there, and figured out what they needed. It was assistance with food and hygiene, and we basi- cally started providing dinners with other donors. We started to provide dinners every single night for the firefighters, and we’re still doing that.”

Employees at WME began volunteering to put together hygiene kits for firefighters, as well as donating money.

Karl Morse, agent and partner at Arrival Artists (who was also among those evacuated), has been putting his efforts into helping his artists raise awareness and funds.

“There’s been great crowd-sourcing,” Morse says. “There’s FireAid (see page 32) and the big profile shows happening, but it’s been really great seeing all of the more local L.A. community stepping up for benefits all around town. We had Madison Cunningham up here at the Troubadour last week for one of the first ones that popped up. There are a few more upcoming [shows] that will feature more of our clients. Then some have chosen to have a portion of proceeds, whether it’s a dollar a ticket or something more substantial, go to 501c3s that are helping with relief efforts and funds.”

One of Morse’s clients, Goose (who just announced a tour) partnered with MusiCares to help those impacted by the fires.

“They’re not from L.A., but they still wanted to do something,” Morse says. “We’ve been setting up through management and then our promoter partners just doing a dollar a ticket in the past for Backline, which they’ve been proud to support for years now. As MusiCares has upped their commit- ment to helping victims of the fire and people affected by the fires, we wanted to be a part of that as well. On their upcoming tour dates, they’ll be doing a dollar a ticket, which ends up thousands and thousands of dollars to MusiCares to directly impact those who need it.”

Metallica’s All Within My Hands Foundation also put forth $500,000 to help with fire relief efforts. Their donation will go toward the California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Recovery Fund and the Pasadena Community Founda- tion’s Eaton Canyon Fire Relief and Recovery Fund.

Several music festivals and organizations have begun their own benefit concerts, includ- ing IHEARTCOMIX, Another Planet and Teragram presenting “LA Gives Back: Fire Relief ” at the Bellwether in Los Angeles on Jan. 29, with curated sets from Electric Feels, Heav3n, Pangea Sound, Emo Night, A Club Called Rhonda, Brownies & Lemonade and more. Special guests included Chris Lorenzo, AC Slater and more. Rolling Loud also put their money

where their mouth is, throwing together the Loud Aid Benefit Concert, held at Kemistry Nightclub in downtown Fort Lauderdale on Jan. 20, which raised $25,000 for GoFundMe’s Wildfire Relief Fund 2025.

“It took a huge amount of teamwork and passion from every part of the Rolling Loud family,” Tariq Cherif, co-found- er and co-CEO of Rolling Loud says. “What stood out most was the generosity and heart of our community. The artists – Ski Mask The Sump God, Luh Tyler, Pouya, 1900Rugrat, Robb Bank$ and Danny Towers – immediately said yes to performing for free. Our venue partner, Kemistry, stepped up big time by not only offering the space but also staffing the event at no cost. Onzyte Productions partnered with us to film and rebroadcast the show for our Loud Aid Livestream. Every single person we reached out to – whether it was for resources, time or support – was eager to help. We were able to raise $25,000 for the Wildfire Relief Fund in a week. When people come together for a cause, the impact can be incredible.”

Rolling Loud also part- nered with ARC, launching the “Rebuild LA” T-shirt available now on their online store, with all net proceeds donated to the organization.

“ARC’s Firefighter Fund supports incarcerated firefighters who risk their lives to protect California communities,” Matt Zingler, co-founder and co-CEO of Rolling Loud, says. “These funds help provide immediate necessities to those actively fighting fires and build scholarship opportunities for individuals once they’re released. Supporting these men and women is personal for us. They’ve been an essential, often overlooked part of the effort to keep Los Angeles safe this past month, and we’re proud to stand behind them.”