Oxfam Coldplay Tour Blog 2010

Goodbye.

Hello lovers and friends of the world!

Soha here, coming at you from the departure terminal of Boston’s Logan International airport. Check out this book I just saw walking through the terminal.

The last time I wrote to you all from an airport terminal was in Vancouver at the end of the first leg of the summer tour. I was headed home for a two-week break before resuming the rest of the tour. It feels like a million years ago recalling that moment where I sat with a signed Coldplay banner at my side, the knowledge that Oxfam now had over 100 thousand actions under its belt since the start of the Viva tour, and the rest of the summer ahead of me. Since then, I’ve worked with an additional 300+ volunteers who helped Oxfam America nearly reach our goal of getting 30 thousand people to sign our Climate Change Petition this summer. In that time Team Saratoga Springs was dethroned by Team Raleigh as the highest performing team, achieving 1387 petition sign-ups! Not to forget, since I last talked to you, the North American part of the Viva Tour 2009 wrapped up and Coldplay started the European stadium leg. Well, the N. American bit didn’t so much wrap up as it did come to a screeching halt because of the postponement of the Tampa show, which was supposed to be my last show. This means that I had to clear out the Oxfam road case, and pack and ship the remaining Oxfam America materials in addition to clearing my bunk, packing, and saying too many goodbyes to what had become a crew of dear friends in less than a day’s notice.

Before I could blink, the tour was over and I was back at my old desk at Oxfam America’s Boston headquarters for a week of evaluating, assessing, and debriefing the Coldplay tour with “Team Rock.” Now here I am at the departure terminal of another airport. I hope this doesn’t sound like complaining. World, I have told you before, there is not a single day that goes by that I don’t recall how much good fortune has been showered upon me.

Arriving at my old workstation, I saw this hanging at the desk of Flora Smith, Oxfam America’s Concert Outreach Intern, and the woman I call the glue that held me together on the Coldplay tour.

I couldn’t believe looking at that paper, that it had been my life for the past 14 weeks.

Even harder to believe is how difficult it continues to be to answer the question “So, how was the tour?” It was amazing, obviously, but what else do I say? It was 14 weeks of doing essentially the same things every day in a constantly changing setting with a constantly changing team. It was spectacular. It was exhausting. It was inspiring. It was mundane. It was empowering. It was humbling. It was… I don’t know… amazing!

Perhaps I can answer the question by saying that the tour was a substantial success for Oxfam America and Canada. Thousands of people offered to volunteer with us, though we only had the ability to have 20 volunteers per show. 29, 035 people signed Oxfam America’s petition at 33 shows thanks to the hard work of over 650 volunteers. Over 5,000 people signed Oxfam Canada’s action cards thanks to 120 volunteers in 6 cities! This has helped Oxfam’s global total exceed 115 thousand actions! Many many thanks to the hundreds of volunteers for your commitment to ending global poverty and admirable work ethic that drove Oxfam’s campaigns every step of the way. Awesome work, everyone. Above all, thank you for your friendship, especially to the handfuls of you who I count on having lasting relationships with. You know who you are.

If you didn’t make it to a Coldplay show this summer, or if you want to spread the word about taking action with Oxfam’s climate change campaign, there’s still time to help us reach our goal!  Urge the President to  consider the effects of climate change on poor and vulnerable communities who are disproportionately affected by climate related disasters and emergencies and help us reach the goal of 30 thousand signed petitions before September 1st by circulating our petition online, or on paper. You can print it out and take to work, school, congregations, farmer’s markets- anywhere!! This fall, we will be delivering these petitions to the President when he attends a special gathering of heads of state at the UN to discuss climate change. If you’ll be heading to a Coldplay show in Europe, do visit the Oxfam booth and say hello to Pete Lusby, Oxfam’s representative on these European legs of the tour.

This blog has given me the ability to narrate to you all the Oxfam’s operations of the Coldplay tour through words and pictures. To say the least, blogging has been a cathartic way of externally processing the all of the awesome experiences I’ve had. However, if you’re interested in hearing about the technical aspects of Oxfam America’s Concert Outreach Program, and bits like my favorite moment on the tour and such, check out my interview by our peeps at Coldplaying.com here.

Its on to Nashville for me to spend some time decompressing and getting back to nature for a while before going back home to LA. I’ll tell you what my crewmate Hoppy told me when I said goodbye to him. “Happy trails, and if you ever see the back of my head at an airport somewhere, be sure to come say hello.” Otherwise, world, I’ll see you at the next Coldplay show I go to wherever that is, whenever that is, and whether its as a fan or an Oxfamer.

xoxo from Boston,

s

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 2:02 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.