Toyota and VH1 Save The Music Partner On Six-Festival Activation To Benefit Music Education Programs

For the third year, the interactive and social campaign asks musicians and fans what music means to them

Festival stops to include Stagecoach, Country 500, Firefly, Lollapalooza, Life is Beautiful and Voodoo Music + Arts Experience

Press Release – Torrance, Calif., April 18, 2017 – For the third consecutive year Toyota, in partnership with VH1 Save The Music Foundation, will donate instruments and valuable resources to assist music education programs in public schools, as they’ve previously done in Chicago and New Orleans. Toyota is committed to continuing its support in 2017 to once again bring music education to deserving schools.

Launching at Stagecoach Festival in Indio, California on April 28, the #ToyotaGiving and VH1 Save The Music campaign is an interactive summer music festival activation at six of the nation’s most prominent festival destinations. The campaign features on-site and social media participation from festival goers while simultaneously increasing awareness of the importance of music education. The campaign benefits VH1 Save The Music Foundation, a national nonprofit organization committed to restoring music education programs in America’s public schools. Toyota will present an education grant to a to-be-determined Las Vegas school in partnership with VH1 Save The Music and Life is Beautiful Music & Art Festival.

Each of the six festival stops on the #ToyotaGiving partnership tour will include a unique photo mosaic mural activation. The mosaic will develop in real time throughout the duration of each festival using photos that artists and festival attendees post on social media with the #ToyotaGiving hashtag and a message about what music means to them.

This is the third philanthropic partnership between VH1 Save The Music and Toyota. The 2015 campaign culminated with a surprise appearance by pop singer Santigold in a school assembly in which a grant was presented to LaPlace Elementary in New Orleans. The grant provided students with their first music education program in over a decade. In 2016 a grant aided Chicago-area music education programs by providing instruments and equipment to students and Chicago-bred urban gospel singer, Sir The Baptist, performed with students.

“As a Fine and Performing Arts School, Spry has a tradition of providing opportunities for all our students in the fine arts, including music. Unfortunately because of the realities of the community that we serve, for many of our students these opportunities do not extend beyond the school day. The instruments donated to our school through the Toyota piano grant have allowed us to continue our mission of enriching our students’ lives through the arts. We are very grateful to Toyota for this contribution,” said Pablo Guzman, assistant principal, John Spry Community School in Chicago.

“At Toyota, we take our commitment to improve education very seriously. As a result, we continue to evolve our partnership with VH1 Save the Music in an effort to create awareness of and support their mission to restore music education programs in schools nationwide,” said Steve Appelbaum, national engagement marketing manager, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

“In our 20th Anniversary year, we are more grateful than ever for Toyota’s continued support and for joining us in our mission to provide every student with the benefits of a sustainable music education program,” said Henry Donahue, executive director of VH1 Save The Music Foundation. “Thanks to Toyota’s help, the last two years were a tremendous success in bringing music programs to schools in New Orleans and Chicago and we look forward to building on that success once again in 2017.”

Full Tour Schedule

Indio, CA – Stagecoach Festival, April 28 through April 30, 2017
Daytona, FL – Country 500, May 26 through May 28, 2017
Dover, DE – Firefly, June 15 through June 18, 2017
Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza, August 3 through August 6, 2017
Las Vegas, NV – Life is Beautiful, September 22 through September 24, 2017
New Orleans, LA – Voodoo Music + Arts Experience, October 27 through October 29, 2017

About VH1 Save The Music Foundation:

The VH1 Save The Music Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education programs in America’s public schools, and raising awareness about the importance of music as part of each child’s complete education. Founded in 1997, VH1 Save The Music was the first organization in existence dedicated to restoring music programs in America’s schools. In the foundation’s 20 years, more than $53 million worth of new musical instruments has been donated to 2,024 public schools in 247 school districts around the country to date — impacting the lives of more than 3 million public school students. Learn about the foundation’s Play It Forward campaign in celebration of its 20th anniversary here: on.vh1.com/playitforward.

About Toyota:

Toyota (NYSE:TM), creator of the Prius and the Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is committed to advancing mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. Over the past 60 years, we’ve produced more than 30 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than 44,000 people (more than 34,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold almost 2.6 million cars and trucks (2.45 million in the U.S.) in 2016 – and about 85 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 15 years are still on the road today.

Toyota partners with community, civic, academic, and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We share company resources and extensive know-how to support non-profits to help expand their ability to assist more people move more places. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.