Make Poverty History - Melbourne Concert

[Proud Pies]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20553570-661,00.html


Bands making history

Cameron Adams

October 10, 2006 12:00am
Article from: Herald-Sun



MELBOURNE will host a free rock concert next month as part of the global Make Poverty History campaign.

Eskimo Joe, Paul Kelly, Evermore, the John Butler Trio, Sarah Blasko, and Hilltop Hoods will perform for 15,000 at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Friday, November 17.

U2 frontman Bono has also been invited to speak at the event.

The concert will be held the day before the G20 global economic summit starts in Melbourne.

Waterfront City will stage a simultaneous live event for 10,000 fans, featuring Dallas Crane and other top Australian acts.

The first tickets to the Sidney Myer Music Bowl gig will be available only through the Herald Sun from next Monday.

Organiser Dan Adams has modelled the concert on last year's successful Live8 concerts, which raised the profile of global poverty among the younger generation.

A child dies from extreme poverty every three seconds, while 1.2 billion live in abject poverty.

"Our generation has this amazing opportunity to end poverty," Mr Adams, 19, said yesterday.

"Australia wasn't part of the G8 meeting, but we are part of the G20, so it's an awesome opportunity to show we do support the Make Poverty History campaign."

As well as music, the event will feature speakers including Young Australian of the Year winners Trisha Broadbridge and Hugh Evans.

U2's Bono, who has supported the Make Poverty History campaign around the world, has been offered the chance to speak at the Melbourne concert.

Bono will be in Melbourne for U2's rescheduled concerts.

"Obviously it'd be absolutely amazing to have Bono speak at the concert," Mr Adams said. "But we can't confirm that at this stage."

Evermore frontman Jon Hume said the band jumped at the chance to play at the concert.

"It's not just about coming to an Evermore gig. There's a larger reason behind it. Hopefully we can achieve something positive," he said.

Though the event is free, a ticketing system will be used for safety reasons. The 15,000 tickets will be given away via an SMS lottery system later this month.

The concert will be broadcast live on myspace.com with highlights on Nova FM. Channel 10 will screen a package the next day.

Mr Adams said the concert hoped to reach those who hadn't seen the Make Poverty History message.

"We want to tap into the youth, the mainstream, the general public who wouldn't normally be involved in this thing," he said. "We want people to go to see Eskimo Joe and Evermore play and then leave inspired and empowered."

GO TO THE SHOW ON US


ALL 15,000 tickets to the Make Poverty History concert will be free.

But there's a catch. You have to win a ticket to be part of the action. And the only way you can access a sought-after ticket will be to enter a competition.

The Herald Sun has 450 passes to give away in coming weeks. And news.com.au/heraldsun will deliver access for a further 100 lucky winners.

Another 100 tickets will be up for grabs from mX.

See HiT magazine every Thursday for more news about the concert and how to be in the running to win.

Weblink: www.makepovertyhistory.com.au

[David]

what a great way to make everybody feel good about themselves without actually achieving anything. "Raise awareness" my arse.

Sorry for the cynicism, but if they actually wanted to do something, maybe they could charge even just $5 a ticket, hmm multiply that by 15000 and you have $75000. Surely that money could build a few wells in ethiopia, or whatever.

We live in a strange world.

[Proud Pies]

what good is raising money going to do? They already have many charities that raise money. This is to 'raise awareness' of what's really going on globally.

Go to the website and have a good read David, then come back and comment.

On debt

[David]

Debt relief is one way of easing poverty but it is not the be all and end all.

Debt relief in a way is directly assisting the governments of these countries. Aid Charities generally go straight to the people. Both achieve the same goals, granted that you're assuming that the countries' governments are working solely for the good of the people. If you look at many of the African regimes, you'll find it's not really the case.

If you can tell me specifically what the 'live8' concert achieved, I'd be grateful. The whole thing still just seems like a feel-good exercise.

Think of this logically. What is the point of raising awareness? a) to pressure governments of the developed world to do more for people in poverty (via media or otherwise) and b) to encourage people to donate. Objective b) would be achieved under my suggestion of getting people to pay for tickets. As for a) I'm unconvinced that this sort of concert is going to make John Howard suddenly realise that he needs to increase African aid.

[sherrife]

I guess it's designed to open people's eyes up to poverty reduction, and hopefully make it an election issue.

The more people tell their politicians that they value debt reduction and fair trade and all that shit, the more pollies will consider real policies to achieve some of those goals.

Not sure whether it still wouldnt be better to have a concert and try to do these things AND charge 5 dollars a ticket as you say Dave.

Wow we sort of agree for once!