Istanbul to scale down Live Earth concert

Istanbul is likely to cancel its Live Earth concert part of a series of concerts around the world on July 7 to raise climate change awareness, for there is no support from Government and sponsors, organizers said Thursday.

"Sponsorship and state support is zero," said Cengizhan Yeldan of Purple Concerts, the company that is organizing the Istanbul show. "Nobody is interested."

Yeldan denied Turkish media reports that the concert had been canceled.

"Nobody wants the concert to be canceled, so we are considering a smaller concert," he said.

Yeldan said the government was preoccupied with elections on July 22, while fears of terrorist attacks and possible protests from environmentalist groups were keeping many would-be sponsors away.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who is promoting the Live Earth concerts in cities around the world, wants the Istanbul leg of the event to go ahead and plans to write to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ask for support, Yeldan said.

Yeldan said the Istanbul venue would probably be limited to Turkish stars.

Apart from Istanbul, Live Earth concerts are slated for London, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro and Hamburg.