Pictures of our heroes... Letters To You's "The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour" 2025 Online Scrapbook
- Letters To You
- Aug 30
- 4 min read
August 30, 2025
With Labor Day Weekend unofficially bringing a close to Summer 2025 here in the Northern Hemisphere, we've prepared something special for our readers... an online scrapbook of "The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour," which began when summer was still about a month away - though also when Memorial Day Weekend, which unofficially marks the beginning of summertime fun here in the U.S., was only about a week away - and ended on the eve of Independence Day Weekend's arrival. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band spent a significant chunk of their Spring/Summer 2025 performing in Europe, but this entire tour was very much about the United States, its ongoing leadership crisis, and its effect on not just U.S. citizens, but all citizens around the globe. (And speaking of Labor Day Weekend 2025, it also was about "the richest men... taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers.") More important, it served as a sorely needed beacon of hope, resistance and inspiration in times that are both dangerous and depressing.
And so, as Bruce said onstage before performing "Chimes of Freedom" at the end of the tour's first show, "Take this home with you." We've compiled a great set of tour-photos from the large portfolios of Gert Dewaelheyns and René van Diemen. (Thanks, guys!) The photos can be viewed in both scroll-down mode and - by simply clicking on any photo at any time - slideshow mode. In scroll-down mode only, the photos are also accompanied by a selection of Bruce Springsteen's own words - onstage and off - related to one of the most important tours that he and the E Street Band have ever undertaken. While the tour is now over, the inspiration and the challenge that it offered - for all of us - remains, as do the struggles and tasks we must endure and accomplish together, if we as a nation and planet are to survive and overcome this severe, worldwide threat to democracy. So crank up one (or more) of those official nugs.net tour recordings, or maybe the Land of Hope & Dreams EP, begin scrolling down, and let freedom ring. All rise and enjoy, brothers and sisters! (And Happy Labor Day Weekend 2025 to all who are celebrating it.)
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“One of the artist's jobs is to make sense of existence and to make sense of the current times that you live in, and to contextualize those times. Every artist does it in a different way. So I’ve got that on my mind, and I’m sure it’ll be reflected in our next leg of the tour.” (Variety interview published on April 18, 2025)
"Good evening!...Welcome to 'The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour!' The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ‘n’ roll in dangerous times.
"In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration.
"Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism, and let freedom ring!"
"The last check on power after the checks and balances of government have failed are the people, you and me. It’s in the union of people around a common set of values now that’s all that stands between a democracy and authoritarianism. At the end of the day, all we’ve got is each other."
"[O]bviously we’re living through an American tragedy, and I believe we will come out intact. The country is not like other countries that have had authoritarian histories. We have a democratic history, and I believe that will rear its head again. That is not a tradition that I believe is going to disappear overnight regardless of how hard somebody tries to subvert it.
"(interviewer:) You’re not losing hope?
"No, no, no. Got to have hope, man. I got to have hope." (Rolling Stone interview published on June 19, 2025)
