2nd JULY 2005

See, why couldn't this have been my post for yesterday?

On this day, in 2005, in countries across the world, the LIVE8 concerts were held.

Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the Live Aid concerts, organised by Bob Geldof in 1985, a string of music legends performed in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, USA, Canada, Japan, The Russian Federation and South Africa ahead of the G8 Summit held in Scotland that year. The idea of the concerts was to put pressure in the meeting of the political leaders and to highlight the aims of the UK's Make Poverty History campaign, as well as a global call for action against poverty.

The event was again organised by Bob Geldof, so it can get a little confusing as to which concert was which. And many people, mainly news sources, did refer to the event as Live Aid 2. However, there was one major difference. LIVE8 was to start what Geldof and other celebrities referred to as The Long Walk To Justice, to make sure that governments and those in high political powers could hear what the masses were saying about poverty.

The concerts did not raise money for the starving countries, rather highlighted and educated the G8 leaders to do more for the world's poor.

And it worked! Hazarh! (Yes, I put that in. I felt it was needed!)

The G8 finance ministers agreed to cancel the debt owned by 18 of the world's poorest countries. How nice of them.

It was one event that I wished I had been old enough to understand. And I would have loved to go to both the LIVE8 concerts and the Live Aid concerts. Just think how cool that would have been. To have been a part of something that had an effect on the world's poverty.

In places like the U.S.A, where the concert was held in Philadelphia, more than 1 million people attended the concert.

And while it is very possible that the people only attended these concerts because they were music concerts and a chance for them to see their favourite musicians, I think that maybe a little part of me would have felt like this, maybe to begin with. But who really cares? As long as the message gets spread!

Some of the performers included Madonna, Robbie Williams, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Coldplay, Black Eyed Peas, Destiny's Child, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, The Cure, Passi, Green Day, A-Ha, Otto, Faith Hill, Simple Plan, Jet, Neil Young, Good Charlotte, McFly, Lucky Dube, Pet Shop Boys and even Nelson Mandela. Although, who knows what he would have done.

It would have been so awesome to have gone to one of those concerts. I was definitely born in the wrong era.

Darn it!

Image available: http://charityconcerts.blogspot.com.au/2009/11/normal-0-21-false-false-false.html