The 47,000 tickets for the Sept. 24 concert at a stadium near Tel Aviv went on sale at 8:30 Saturday evening, and by Sunday afternoon they had sould out, Israeli ticket agent Avi Messing told Israel's Channel 2 TV, The Associated Press reported Sunday. “All of Israel is coming to watch Leonard Cohen. It's really great,” the AP quoted Messing as saying. Prices ranged from $90 to $315. In the meantime, on Monday a portion of tickets for Cohen's İstanbul appearances were still available on the Turkish ticket master Biletix's Web site and at the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Art (İKSV), which is co-organizing the concerts with the Beşiktaş Culture Center (BKM). The 74-year-old prolific singer-songwriter, poet and author will be onstage on Wednesday and Thursday nights at the Cemil Topuzlu Open-air Theater as part of his ongoing world tour, which kicked off April 26 in his native Canada. Ticket prices for Cohen's İstanbul concerts range between TL 102 and TL 275.
While this week's two gigs will be Cohen's first-ever appearances in Turkey, the artist previously entertained Israeli troops during the 1973 Mideast war and last performed in Israel in 1975. But adding Israel to his current world tour brought complaints from Palestinian sympathizers, and British fans posted a plea on the social networking site Facebook asking him to cancel the date in response to Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip in December and January, the AP said. Cohen's manager, Robert Kory, said the singer instead decided to make the concert a fundraiser for Palestinian and Israeli groups working for reconciliation. Proceeds will be channeled into a special charitable fund in partnership with Amnesty International, he said.
