Foo Fighters, Neil Young, Black Keys Global Citizen Concert Shines Spotlight On Poverty (PHOTOS)

NEW YORK -- A crowd of about 60,000 music fans packed Central Park on Saturday night for the Global Citizen Festival, a free concert aimed at calling attention to worldwide poverty and featuring John Legend, Foo Fighters, Neil Young and other performers.

The concert was scheduled around the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week. The festival's organizers used a social media campaign as a means of helping educate concert-goers about global issues including child mortality, polluted drinking water, malaria and other ills that confront the world's poor.

Here is a gallery of photos from the show.

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• Dave Grohl

  Musician Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters perform at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

• Dan Auerbach

  Guitarist Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys performs at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

• Olivia Wilde

  Actress Olivia Wilde speaks at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

• Dave Grohl

  Musician Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters perform at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

• Neil Young, Frank Sampedro

  Musician Neil Young, right, performs with Frank Sampedro from his band Crazy Horse at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

• Selena Gomez

  Actress Selena Gomez speaks at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

• Neil Young, Frank Sampedro, Ralph Molina

  Musician Neil Young, right, performs with his band Crazy Horse including Frank Sampedro, left, and Ralph Molina, at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

• Sophia Bush

  Actress Sophia Bush speaks at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

• Neil Young

  Musician Neil Young performs with his band Crazy Horse at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

• Neil Young

  Musician Neil Young performs with his band Crazy Horse at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

• Dave Grohl

  Musician Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters perform at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

• Dave Grohl

  Musician Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters perform at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

• Dan Auerbach, Patrick Carney

  Guitarist Dan Auerbach, right, and drummer Patrick Carney of The Black Keys perform at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday Sept. 29, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Comments

[sfpic]

03:22 PM on 10/02/2012

Contrary to what we are taught, I've come to believe the ideals of Socialism are more in line with religious teachings than those of Capitalism. The Bible speaks of the "camal through the eye of a needle" and "serving both God and mammon" as well as speaking of helping people in need.
I believe the Republican/Tea Party idea is to starve out one segment of society leaving more resources to go around with an elite minority recieving the lions share and leaving the majority as a work force to make the elite even richer.
While in the meantime needing proper housing, food and medical care, the poor also are in need of education, job training and in some cases, certain types of counseling.

[Eliott Terrance]

08:32 PM on 10/01/2012

Sorry, call me cynical. I'm just tired of all this Bob Geldof save the world bullshit. Yeah they do know it's Christmas. Trouble is the people that celebrate it like them making the tinsel in sweatshops. What really makes a difference are little things, like talking to your neighbor and voting for people who care.

[gingerlings]

04:20 PM on 10/01/2012

I find it mildly offensive when people claim they are "ending extreme poverty" when they don't actually have any plan about how the event will really do that. It seemed to provide neither avenue for action or donation so I fail to see what this event actually did. I attended the concert and left with less understanding of why I was there than I went with.

[Kristen Ricciardelli]

02:56 PM on 10/01/2012

See Neil Young at his next show at the Voodoo Experience at the end of the Month. Win a trip from Fuse here on.fuse.tv/voodooXP

[EdRea]

11:40 AM on 10/01/2012

Aptly held on the night of the harvest moon. A good symbol for bringing help to the impoverished.