An Old Trafford-full of Oxfam and Coldplay supporters.
The Coldplay tour, along with it’s Oxfam rep, has now travelled to Belfast City, and I have not even talked about the last show in London yet.. so, just to recap, here’s a note from London..
The third London show was the final concert in England & Scotland for 2008. Oxfam GB was there, with a group of volunteers at every show. A massive 18′350 Coldplay fans made the Health and Education For All pledge over the 12 shows! That’s the equivalent of a capacity crowd at the Birmingham NIA, plus the Liverpool Echo Arena, and all of their staff and security, standing up at once, and pledging their support. A truly incredible level of support, to add to the global movement of people speaking up about Health and Education For All.
A massive thank you to every Oxfam volunteer, who helped Oxfam to get an average of 1544 pledges per night! That’s more than 1 in 7 of all the people who went to see Coldplay on their UK tour.. and I know for a fact, there were a few who wen’t twice (you know who you are). It’s an awesome response. Coldplay have invited Oxfam on their tour, so that our volunteers can talk to their fans about current campaigns and Oxfam’s amazing work around the world. Each day, Oxfam’s coordinator arrives at the venue, with the rest of the 50 strong crew and set’s up for the show. That’s usually just a couple of tables, banners, t-shirts, petition sheets, leaflets and a few badges. From this small presence, Oxfam has seen a huge whirlwind of support. Thousands of people taking small actions together. That adds up to a lot of pressure on world leaders.
Oxfam has been at 72 of the 76 Coldplay shows, so far this year. Overall, a huge 73′186 Coldplay fans have stopped and signed up. Either signing to directly support Oxfam campaign work on Health and Education For All, Fair Trade, Agricultural policy in Germany, or to join an online active community of supporters spreading across USA. That number of people could almost fill Manchester United’s famous Old Trafford football stadium.. which is a lot of people.
It’s been an incredible journey that’s brought us here to Belfast, for tonight’s show, at the Odyssey Arena. Another 8000 Coldplay fans, will get their chance to see possibly this years most successful band. They will be joined by 20 volunteers from Oxfam Ireland. Before a chord has been struck by Jonny Buckland and Guy Berryman, or a mic lifted by Chris Martin, or a drumstick picked up in anger by Will Champion.. Oxfam will have been working tirelessly to give people the chance to get involved in helping to overcome poverty. 4 more shows to go. 33′000 more fans. Let’s see if we can hit 80′000 sign-ups overall!
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Coldplay has invited Oxfam on their mammoth Viva La Vida World Tour. Throughout 2008 the band played huge shows across 3 continents and 18 countries. Oxfam volunteers were there every step of the way, talking to 100,000s of people about how they can take action to overcome poverty. Now in 2010, Coldplay continue this tour with shows across in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Oxfam groups around the world will again join the tour, blogging as they go.
CriS_SantoS December 19th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Wow, great numbers so far!
Hope you reach 80′000 soon \o/