New York City’s Global Citizen Festival: Pearl Jam, Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay Play Central Park On Saturday

New York City’s Central Park will be host to the 2015 Global Citizen Festival tomorrow, Saturday, September 26. The festival is scheduled to be held on Central Park’s Great Lawn. Acts expected to perform include Pearl Jam, Beyonce, Coldplay, and Ed Sheeran. The event is set at the same time the new United Nations Global Goals get underway, which aim to fight inequality, protect the environment, and put a stop to extreme poverty by the year 2030.

Tickets for the groundbreaking New York festival are not available for purchase from organizers. Instead, Global Citizen has set up a unique scheme where fans and activists complete sets of tasks aimed toward ending global poverty. Those who want to see the concert in-person either need to take part in Global Citizen activities or be given a ticket by someone who has.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0cANLKVgh4

Fans wishing to attend the New York festival are directed to the Global Citizen website, and then tasked with completing “action journeys.” Action journeys are comprised of activities like petition signing, tweeting messages, making telephone calls, and writing letters. Once all of the required steps are completed in a given action journey, fans are entered into a draw to win two tickets. Ticket draws have been taking place through the months leading up to the Global Citizen festival. Those who didn’t win tickets in a draw could complete another action journey and try again.

One of the perks of the Global Citizen program is that a person who has won tickets can continue completing action journeys in hopes of winning more. Additionally, those who complete special “high impact days of actions” have the chance to win tickets, plus VIP tickets, Global Citizen merchandise, and in-person meetings with performers. Global Citizen states that the days of actions activities can play a “key role” in ending extreme poverty across the globe. The efforts of festival goers are expected to shape the “next 15 years” of international development globally.

On Wednesday evening, scheduled Global Citizen performers Pearl Jam were in New York to speak and play on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, as reported by the Inquisitr. Pearl Jam lead vocalist Eddie Vedder spoke about his respect for Australian Hugh Evans who was instrumental in founding the Global Citizen festivals. Vedder referred to Evans as an “incredible activist.”

Evans was named the Australian Person of the Year in 2004, when he was but 21 years old. He is reported to have been “profoundly affected” when he witnessed young children, living in poverty, scavenging in refuse dumps in Manila when he was 14.

“I am entirely convinced that a well organized group of hundreds of thousands of young people around the world can change the world forever,” Hugh Evans was quoted by the Huffington Post. “I believe if we work together and are committed for the long haul, we are going to see the end of extreme poverty in our lifetime.”

The Global Citizen Festival is Evans’ way of incentivizing calculated and coordinated steps people can take toward putting an end to hunger and poverty worldwide. Coldplay member Chris Martin co-founded the festival. He has been instrumental in its success and has committed to taking part for the next 15 years, reports Rolling Stone.

The first Global Citizen Festival was held in New York City in 2012 and featured acts like The Black Keys, Foo Fighters, Neil Young, John Legend, and Band of Horses. The 2012 festival hosted 60,000 people and captured “3.3 billion media impressions.”

Those who are just learning about the festival now and want to take part or see the show can still sign up with Global Citizen and learn about ways they can help end global poverty. The New York festival will be simulcast on MSNBC: both on television and on the Internet.

The show is scheduled to run from 3 to 10 p.m. ET.

[Beyonce Photo by Christopher Polk / Getty Images — Pearl Jam Photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images — Ed Sheeran Photo by Quinn Rooney / Getty Images]