Is there anything better than music that plays for a good cause?

The 2015 Global Citizen Festival will take place in New York City’s Central Park on September 26. The Festival will celebrate the launch of the United Nations’ Global Goals, a set of 17 initiatives designed to protect the environment, support universal education and end extreme poverty by 2030. Featured headliners include Pearl Jam, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay.

Although the free event announced the artists earlier this summer, it just recently revealed the hosts of the show. The group of mega-talented individuals that will share the stage with the musical headliners include Stephen Colbert, Hugh Jackman, Deborra-Lee Furness, Salma Hayek Pinault, Kerry Washington and Olivia Wilde.

An online platform created by the Global Poverty Project in 2012, Global Citizen features informative articles and innovative campaigns dedicated to ending extreme poverty, injustice and inequality. It has hosted the Global Citizen Festival since 2012. The hosts this year will encourage festival attendees and fans around the world to become involved in Global Citizen’s mission to eradicate poverty.

In fact, in order to earn tickets the festival requires that people “take action” against poverty. After visiting the Global Citizen website to create an account, fans must perform a series of honorable actions to receive tickets to the festival. Such actions include signing virtual petitions against poverty, tweeting to world leaders and calling the U.S. State Department about the U.S. foreign aid budget.

Colbert and Jackman have expressed their excitement to host the festival as well as their firm belief that extreme global poverty can be eliminated by 2030. World leaders will be in attendance this year, providing the hosts and global citizens alike with the opportunity to voice their support of the Global Goals and the eradication of poverty.

Since 2012, the Global Citizen Festivals have made significant impacts in eradicating poverty; people have taken more than 3 million actions on the Global Citizen website. This September, the Festival will be jam-packed with good music, great people and an awesome cause.

– Sarah Sheppard

Sources: Rolling Stone, Global Citizen 1, Global Citizen 2
Photo: Tick Pick