The Global Citizen Festival...

Yesterday evening Abi and I were lucky enough to be able to go to the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park...

It was a Live Aid type concert, raising awareness of global poverty - an amazing FREE festival for 60,000 people. The line-up was absolutley amazing, a DREAM line-up, Band of Horses, The Black Keys and FOO FIGHTERS! Not only that, but Neil Young was headlining... incredible.

There were some celebrities there too, making announcements and handing out Global Citizen awards to people who have done amazing things to help fight poverty around the world. In between the bands there were inspiring (and heartbreaking) videos about the desperate situations going on around the world, there was even a video about malaria in Swaziland. Seeing that video made me feel especially sad, and made me want to go back there and do some more volunteer work.

The music however was like one big party - the first act K'Naan was brilliant, he was from Somalia and had a bit of Bob Marley about him, his lyrics were great. Then Band of Horses came on and sang a few songs, they always sound fantastic live. Then it was time for The Black Keys...

I've wanted to see The Black Keys live for aaaaaaaaaages, so where better to see them than at a concert smack bang in the middle of Manhattan. The sounded amazing, far grittier than their albums (which is good), their bluesy riffs are so catchy, they had everyone dancing around (even the two very little boys next to us, they were loving it in their pushchairs!).

There was a HUGE eruption of cheers when Mr. Grohl took to the stage. He started the Foos set with a solo version of Times Like These before the rest of the band joined in...

This was my 18th time seeing the Foo Fighters play live, I'm not sure how long I'll have to wait for my 19th time as they announced that this was their last gig for a while... hopefully it won't be too long a wait though, I want to notch it up to 20 times!

I thought we were standing quite close to the back, but through-out the night I turned around and looked back and we must have been smack bang in the middle of the 60,000 people, it looked amazing, especially as you could see the skyscrapers behind the crowd too, the bands must have had an awesome view.

It was a really incredible night - a great gig for a great cause. I think they're repeating the whole thing online, so I might watch it and see if I can spot Abi and me in the crowd!