Global Citizen Festival

"There are 1.4 billion people in the world living in extreme poverty. That's 1.4 billion people living on less than $1.25 a day." - The Global Poverty Project

Last weekend we were sitting at home and Louis came across some kind of information about a Neil Young/FooFighters concert. He bought tickets off of ebay, and we were excited about it all week. At the time I didn't realize that the concert was put on by Global Citizen (nor did I know what that was), a tool to teach people about extreme poverty all over the world and what can be done to end it. Tickets to the concert were supposed to be earned through a point system. There were tasks such as watch a video or read an article that could earn you a number of points to get the tickets. We missed out on that part of the education, however several issues were discussed at the actual event.

Between each band, we were given information and called to action about what we can do to contribute to the end of various issues and diseases that lead to, or are a result of extreme poverty such as women's rights, polio, and malaria. It was difficult to hear the speakers, because there were so many excited fans that were just ready to see the bands & I'll admit by the end, I was definitely ready for Neil Young. But, I was curious to find out more about the organization putting on the event.

Over 60,000 people attended on Saturday---at least some had to be touched by the speakers who were victims of preventable diseases and had witnessed girls dropping out of school to become prostitutes because they need money. I've been reading through the website today, and encourage you to take a little time to learn about The Global Poverty Project and how you can get involved--there are several ways, not just giving money.

Now, here are a few photos that I took during the event...don't be disappointed--it was pretty much impossible to get photos of the bands so you're not getting any closeups of Dave or Neil:

Pics from the pros:

source

source

source

source:Kevin Mazur/WireImage

source:Kevin Mazur/WireImage

source:Kevin Mazur/WireImage

source:Kevin Mazur/WireImage So, the concert was amazing. I have always dreamed of going to a really big outdoor concert, like you see in music documentaries. I was starting to think that they just didn't exist anymore so you can imagine I was pretty dang excited to find out I was finally going to get to attend one! I guess that wherever you can put thousands of people and really great musicians is pretty amazing, but CENTRAL PARK?!?! Just the walk through the park to get there was gorgeous and the weather was perfect. We made it in time for Band of Horses and the Black Keys, both were pretty good but I was way more excited about Foo Fighters and Neil Young. The park was set up so that once you got in you had to stay in your designated area for everything--bathrooms, food, merch, and watching the show...so we were all trapped unless we wanted to leave. We wandered around a bit and attempted to get a blanket and a snack, neither of which happened but we were okay with that. The sun went down as Foo Fighters began which led to the excitement of the show (and also my anxiety--why is darkness so scary?!). I haven't seen the Foo Fighters before, but obviously I know lots of the regular hits so I was able to bop around and sing along which was really fun. As you might have heard, Dave kept hinting around that it'd be the last show for awhile, so it's pretty great that we got to see them before they break up or go on whatever hiatus he was referring to. THEN it was time for Neil Young...and although my feet were throbbing from standing all night I was absolutely ready! He did a lot of jamming I'll tell ya that, which if you're a big fan (like Louis) you wouldn't have been surprised by that like I was. My favorite parts of the show were when he played acoustic--I loved "The Needle and The Damage Done" and of course the best part of the whole night was when he closed the show with "Rockin in the Free World".

So. Cool. Sometimes I can't believe that this is our life...and that we are blessed in so many ways including getting to go to that big concert in the park.