Along with ticket sales, the Classic Rock Cares tour experimented with online auctions that offered fans a closer experience. This page summarises how the archived announcement described the idea. The auctions have closed, and nothing here can be bid on.
The concept
For the Fort Myers, Florida, show, five meet and greet packages were listed on an online marketplace. The organisers said similar auctions would run for each venue on the tour. Winning bids were to go directly to the John Entwistle Foundation.
What a winner was promised
The package was described as an opportunity to meet musicians from AC/DC and other bands before the performance. It included:
- A backstage conversation with Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams of AC/DC, together with Joe Lynn Turner, formerly of Deep Purple and Rainbow, and Steve Luongo of the John Entwistle Band.
- Autographs and photographs taken by a professional photographer, so that guests would not have to worry about their own cameras.
- Two VIP tickets for the Saturday, 30 June show at the Barbara B. Mann theater, with front-row orchestra seats.
Why the auctions mattered
The foundation’s mission was free and easy access to music education and instruments for underprivileged children through the public library system. The tour, and these auctions, were means of funding it. The organisation described itself as a United States tax-exempt charity, a status the archived page asserted and which is not independently confirmed here.
Left out
The original included payment deadlines, telephone numbers and pick-up instructions. They belong to a completed event and are omitted. For wider context, read about the tour and the format of the concerts.