Jane Fonda to host First Amendment concert countering White House UFC event

Jane Fonda will headline a concert in New York City on Sunday night billed as a celebration of First Amendment freedoms, scheduled on the same evening as the UFC Freedom 250 fight card at the White House.

The 90-minute event, “Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment,” will feature Ms. Fonda alongside Bette Midler, Joy Reid, Patti Smith, Rufus Wainwright, Sasha Allen and Broadway Inspirational Voices and will be available to stream online for free. Julia Roberts, Lily Gladstone, Wilson Cruz, Peppermint and Jenn Colella are among those also set to appear.

The event is organized through the Committee for the First Amendment, an activist collective of artists and cultural leaders that Ms. Fonda founded. It is set for Sunday, which is Flag Day. The committee was publicly announced in October 2025 with a statement from Ms. Fonda and more than 550 supporters from across the entertainment industry.

“Music has long been a tool to stand up to authoritarianism, and I am honored to spend the evening with these fiercely committed, talented, and brilliant people to celebrate our First Amendment rights,” Ms. Fonda said in a statement.

The concert will be held at Town Hall in Manhattan, with watch parties organized across the country. All proceeds will benefit the Committee for the First Amendment. 

The event coincides with UFC Freedom 250, which takes place Sunday on the South Lawn of the White House and celebrates both the nation’s 250th anniversary and President Trump’s 80th birthday. The main card streams live exclusively on Paramount+ beginning at 8 p.m. ET. 

The UFC and TKO Group Holdings are funding the entire production and openly expect to take a loss on it, treating the event as a historic marketing opportunity. A 92-foot steel canopy known as “The Claw” was erected over the South Lawn at a cost of more than $60 million and has already drawn a federal lawsuit. 

A federal judge on Friday declined to halt the event, ruling that plaintiffs failed to establish standing or irreparable harm, and that the equities and public interest weighed against emergency relief.

Advertisement Advertisement

This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times' AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times' original reporting, wire services, and/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our AI policy or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com

The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com.