Global Citizen Festival
The Global Citizen Festival is an annual music festival started in 2012 and organized by Global Poverty Project. It was founded by Ryan Gall and Hugh Evans.[2] Gall said he was inspired by visiting Austin City Limits and seeing the branding on the stage, but wanting to replace the corporate branding with branding from charities.[3]
Global Citizen Festival
In 2015, the organization announced that Coldplay lead vocalist Chris Martin would serve as the festival's curator for the next 15 years.[4]
Mission[edit]
The Global Citizen Festival is part of a movement to end extreme poverty. By contributing to charity acts on the website, including watching videos and signing petitions, fans can get free tickets to the festival. In addition, the organizers are striving to make the event "global" by live-streaming events in public locations. Since 2015, the goals of the festival have been closely aligned with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include 17 tasks to end extreme global poverty by 2030.[4]
According to Time, Global Citizen's model of ticket distribution in 2017 generated 1.6 million actions in two months, equaling commitments and announcements of $3.2 billion for sustainable development and affecting 221 million people.[2][5]
History[edit]
2012 - New York City[edit]
Co-founder Ryan Gall created the Global Citizen Festival when he met festival co-founder Hugh Evans at Columbia University at a conference and proposed the idea of holding a festival on the Great Lawn of Central Park. The pair later approached concert promoter Goldenvoice to launch the festival in 2012.[2][6]
Gall says the inspiration for the festival came from visiting Austin City Limits and seeing the branding on each stage but wanting to replace the corporate branding with branding from charities.[3] Tickets to the festival are distributed through a lottery system with festival-goers performing actions on Global Citizen's website, globalcitizen.org (which Gall co-founded), for a chance to attend the event.[7] The festival has taken its model to Australia, India, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and Canada and is one of the largest, most visible events drawing attention to sustainability and anti-poverty efforts for young people around the world.[3]
The Global Citizen Music Festival was first held in New York City on September 29, 2012. The headliners included the Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, John Legend, Band of Horses, K'naan, and Neil Young & Crazy Horse.[8]
2013 - New York City[edit]
In its second year, the festival was held on September 28, 2013. The headliners included Stevie Wonder, Kings of Leon, Alicia Keys, and John Mayer. The event's major themes for the year were education, women's equality, global health, and global partnerships. The event was produced by Anschutz Entertainment Group and Diversified Production Services, with Ticketmaster serving as the event's ticketing partner.[9][10]
2014 - New York City[edit]
In 2014, the festival was held on September 27. The line-up included Alicia Keys playing a special piece of music for the show along with Palestinian and Jewish artists. Tiësto opened, followed by Fun, The Roots, Carrie Underwood, No Doubt – joined by Sting for a song, and Jay Z – whose set featured two duets with Beyoncé. The event was hosted by Hugh Jackman, alongside presenters Dianna Agron, Zachary Quinto and Erin Heatherton. Speakers at the event included Queen Silvia of Sweden, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi,[11] Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg and US President Barack Obama via a pre-recorded video.[12][13]
2015 - New York City[edit]
The 2015 festival, which was held on Central Park's Great Lawn in New York City on September 26, included performances by Beyoncé (joined by Ed Sheeran for "Drunk in Love"), Coldplay (joined by Ariana Grande for "Just a Little Bit of Your Heart"), Pearl Jam (joined by Beyoncé for "Redemption Song"), Ed Sheeran (joined by Chris Martin for "Thinking Out Loud"), and Fall Out Boy. Special appearances and speakers included Stephen Colbert, Hugh Jackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Vice President Joe Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama. The show was broadcast live on MSNBC in the U.S. The Hong Kong free-to-air TV channel TVB Pearl aired the festival on the first day of January 2016. An edited one-hour special aired on NBC in the U.S. on September 27 and the BBC One in the UK on September 28. The edited version also aired in Australia on September 30, on the Nine Network.[14][15]