The vicious heat and New York City sun didn’t stop over 60,000 people from flooding the Great Lawn of Central Park on Saturday, September 23 to see a promising lineup at the Global Citizen Festival. Global Citizen, an international charity organization which fights to end poverty, as well as to provide all humans with sanitation, clean water, food, and shelter, hosted the event. The organization launches actions to solve problems worldwide, and one way they bring awareness to social issues is through this festival.
The show was aired on MSNBC, and featured well-known stars such as Stevie Wonder, Alessia Cara, Green Day, Big Sean, The Killers, Pharrell, and many others.
Although Saturday’s festival was a charity fundraiser, only 12,000 tickets were sold, according to the Global Citizen website. The charity platform distributed 48,000 free tickets to those who downloaded the Global Citizen app and then completed the necessary steps to enter the lottery, in which the app user could be selected for two free tickets. These actions involved emailing their representatives demanding attention towards certain issues, tweeting on social media about bettering sanitation by providing more toilets for impoverished communities, and signing petitions in favor of education for women.
Waiting in line to get into the festival, the excitement was everywhere. Families and groups of friends came from all over the New York area to come see the show. Some people, like Alicia and Kasey, two young women I met from Long Island, had been waiting in line as early as 11:30 a.m. When I asked people which performer they were looking forward to seeing the most, an overwhelming majority of people, both young and middle-aged, said Stevie Wonder.
Alessia Cara began the show with her hit, “Here,” at 4:00 p.m. in a t-shirt that had the word “empathy” written across it, going along with the theme of the event. After each musical performance, the Global Citizen organization screened informative videos on the stage, which included well-known activists or performers such as Whoopi Goldberg, Dr. Jane Goodall, and Wendy Williams. They either spoke about important issues being addressed by the Global Citizen platform, or introduced a performer on stage. After Cara’s performance, Brad Geyer, a slam poet, performed his poem, Lady Liberty, which touches on prejudices against immigration to the United States, with a video of dancers depicting the imagery of his words projected behind him.
All of the artists shone, but some also made sure to shed light on the social injustices Global Citizen fights against. Big Sean asked the audience to take a moment and consider all of the people who could not enjoy the festival with them because of hardships. Stevie Wonder took a knee “for America” inspired by Colin Kaepernick’s protest against constant murder of black young men by police officers. The Chainsmokers’ Andrew Taggart spoke to the crowd about widespread hunger, and lead singer Wesley Schultz of The Lumineers called attention to the action plans to recover devastation caused by hurricane Irma. Andra Day also expressed her activism throughout her set in broken handcuffs and began her performance with “Strange Fruit,” a song originally performed by Billie Holiday that highlights the atrocities of lynching. The video behind her, which memorialized young black men who had been lynched throughout history in the United States, made Day’s compelling performance even more powerful.
Demi Lovato also made a surprise appearance at the festival, but not as a musical guest. Hugh Evans announced that Lovato is now the Mental Health Ambassador for Global Citizen.
After dark, when the festival was in its last hours, Whoopi Goldberg introduced Dr. Paul Stoffels from Johnson and Johnson. He announced that the company has developed a vaccine against Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which was tested on 350 volunteers with a result of being 100% effective against HIV in all of the people who received the vaccine. Now it will be tested on 2,600 more people. Whoopi Goldberg, in shock of this news as well, cheered with the lively crowd.
After Stevie Wonder charmed the crowd with his timeless hits “My Cherie Amour,” “Sir Duke,” and “Isn’t She Lovely,” Pharrell Williams joined him on stage for a set of duets including “Get Lucky,” “Happy,” “Superstition,” and John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Wonder and Williams then closed the festival with a reprise of “Happy.” The attendees left at 10 p.m., after six hours of listening to music, speeches, and viewing videos done by artists and leaders from all around the world.