Black Keys, Foo Fighters, and Neil Young & Crazy Horse take action against poverty

These headliners are giving tickets to fans who perform charitable acts

 

People all of over the world, of all different careers and social classes, are making strides to helping the fight against poverty. The Black Keys, Foo Fighters, and Neil Young & Crazy Horse will be headlining in one of this year’s best concerts. However, this concert is not your typical concert that entails fans to put a dent in their bank account when buying tickets.

The Black Keys, Foo Fighters, and Neil Young & Crazy Horse are taking action against extreme poverty around the world by having their fans earn an entry to their show Global Festival 2012 on September 29 in New York City’s Central Park by making strides to help the fight against poverty through a website and app designed to get people to take action before the event, rather than after.

“The scale of things that they’re trying do just felt really cool, and we’re trying to get the ball rolling,” said Patrick Carney, The Black Keys’ drummer. “Especially with everything that’s been going on for the last three years, I suppose, after the stock market crashed. There’s attention on the amount of people living below the poverty line and the disparity between the rich and the poor and everything that’s going on now…It just felt like the right time to do something.”

Global Poverty Project organizer, Hugh Evans, calls the Foo Fighter concert a “crescendo” to an anti-poverty act that coincides with the United Nations meeting in New York.

Fans earn their way into the concert, featuring Foo Fighters and Black Keys, with points awarded for charitable acts performed though the Global Citizen website that launched Tuesday. These charitable points can be earned by simple acts such as posting information on social media, donating money to charity, signing a petition, etc. Black Keys, Foo Fighters, and Neil Young & Crazy Horse fans can attend through a lottery of 54,000 tickets.

“I think what’s exciting is all the world leaders are going to be in town that week for the United Nations meeting,” said Evans. “And this concert and the associated campaign will give us the opportunity to ask these world leaders to make practical and tangible monetary commitments to the world’s poor and to the achievement of the UN’s Millenium Development Goals.”

Evans and Global Poverty Project’s goal is to raise $500 million in sensible solutions by leveraging commitments from the world’s leaders while in New York.

 “Dan and I try not to be too political about things,” Carney said. “… This is not a political thing. This is a humanitarian cause.”