Beyoncé is taking part in a United Nations-backed charity concert in New York’s Central Park this September in a bid to support the UN’s unveiling of a plan to end extreme poverty across the globe before 2030.
Other artists taking part in the fourth annual Global Citizen Festival include Ed Sheeran, Pearl Jam and Coldplay who will all play on the Great Lawn of the Manhattan park on 26 September. Beyoncé will follow in the footsteps of Neil Young, Jay Z and Stevie Wonder who have all headlined in previous years.
The festival coincides with the UN General Assembly converging in New York, where members from 193 nations will set out their new “Global Goals”, including the 15-year poverty target.
Free tickets are available to the event, but festivalgoers must complete “actions” in order to earn entry. Examples include calling the US State Department and requesting that it donates 50% of its foreign aid budget to the world’s least developed countries and signing petitions aimed at ensuring water, sanitation and hygiene - priorities for the UN.
The initiative is similar to that of Afro Punk, the New York festival, which takes place in August and gives charity volunteers a ticket to the event, designed to “encourage interested festivalgoers to be of service by volunteering time, passion and talents to communities citywide”.
Hugh Evans, the chief executive of the Global Poverty Project, told the New York Times that he wants to use the concert as a “call to action for citizens” who want justice and equality for those who need it most.
He added: “This year the stakes are really high. The world has halved extreme poverty in the last 15 years, but to end it in the next 15, there’s a whole lot of things we need to make that a reality.”
• This article was amended on 10 July 2015. An earlier version referred to the charity Global Citizen as Global Citizens.
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