On September 28, 2024, a crowd of over 60,000 people attended the 2024 Global Citizen Festival in Central Park. Under the pouring rain, the event continued on as normal and ultimately raised over $1 billion to fight poverty.
The organizer Global Citizen, a group committed to fighting climate change, world hunger, and poverty, hosts an annual festival to bring people together from all over the world. Fans have the opportunity to get free tickets by taking actions to combat these global issues. Each year, a group of songwriters and artists also perform in front of an energetic crowd in order to raise money for this effort. Hosted by ambassador and actor Hugh Jackman, this year’s festival was the twelfth edition of the event and was filled with a star-studded lineup, including but not limited to Benson Boone, Jelly Roll, Lisa from the K-pop group Blackpink, Post Malone, and Doja Cat.
Before the performances started, a huge crowd had gathered in Central Park, with many people wearing raincoats to cover themselves from the rainy weather that was expected to occur throughout the event. The festival began at around four in the afternoon with Benson Boone as the first performer. Before singing his hit song “Beautiful Things,” he played the piano in order to accompany another song he made in his debut album called “Slow it Down.” Next, Jelly Roll took the stage, performing songs such as “Son of a Sinner” and “Save Me” while also singing with Jessie Murph for the song “Wild Ones.” Next, British artist Raye performed James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” while Puerto Rico’s Rauw Alejandro sang the songs “Pasaporte” and “Déjame Entrar.” Other performances included Lisa singing “Money,” Doja Cat singing her hit song “Paint the Town Red,” and Ed Sheeran and Chris Martin from Coldplay performing iconic tracks such as “Shape of You” and “Viva La Vida.” Finally, Post Malone rounded out the performance by singing some of his greatest hits, including “Sunflower.”
Though there were so many other songs and performances that weren’t able to be listed in this article, the entire six-hour event has been streamed online on Youtube. Throughout the show, there were breaks between the performances in order to spread awareness about world hunger and climate change. Ultimately, the 2024 Global Citizen Festival has definitely achieved its intended purpose to both spread awareness about some of the most pressing issues in the world and give a spectacular musical performance to tens of thousands of fans.
