CHICAGO — Music website Consequence of Sound describes Lollapalooza, one of the largest alternative music festivals in the country, as a “metropolis.” The festival is held in Chicago and consumes 319 acres of Grant Park with eight separate stages every year. Sold-out Lollapalooza 2014, which took place August 1-3, featured “Eminem, Outkast, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, Skrillex, Calvin Harris, Lorde, Foster the People, Krewella, Nas and more.”
Since 1991, Lollapalooza has teamed up with non-profits and cause-oriented organizations to promote issues like registering to vote and fighting global poverty. This year Lollapalooza teamed up with organizations ONE and Oxfam.
Bono, lead singer of band U2, co-founded ONE, an advocacy organization focused on eradicating extreme poverty and fighting preventable disease with a special focus in Africa. This year, ONE collaborated with Lollapalooza, asking the festival’s attendees to write letters to the senators of their district in support of the Energize Africa Act.
The Energize Africa Act would provide 20 million residents of sub-Saharan Africa with electricity by 2020. Right now, about 68 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s population has no access to electricity. This lack of access limits economic growth in the region and endangers the health and safety of the population.
ONE has released a video entitled ‘The Domino Effect: It Starts with You” that discusses the realities of living without electricity, including giving birth in the dark without medical equipment, babies going without vaccinations due to no refrigeration and families dying from smoke inhalation due to lack of proper cooking equipment. Electricity issues like these were the focus of ONE’s campaign at Lollapalooza. The organization Oxfam was also present at the festival.
Oxfam “works to find practical, innovative ways for people to lift themselves out of poverty and thrive.” Oxfam engages the public in participatory democracy and raises awareness in order to fight global poverty. They are an international confederation of 17 organizations, working collaboratively in over 90 countries worldwide.
Oxfam believes music can play a part in eradicating poverty in the world, and the Chicago Oxfam Action Corps puts this belief into action at Lollapalooza 2014. Oxfam engaged fans at the festival to get them involved in “the fight against hunger and poverty,” and utilized a summer mix tape to promote their cause. The mix tape features artists such as Diplo, the Pixies and Maximo Park, and is currently available for download online.
Music is a tool for passionate expression so it makes sense that it is used to raise awareness for humanitarian causes. Another recent festival that collaborated with anti-poverty organizations is Rock the Vote. These festivals have, for some time, helped to make a significant impact on the global goal of eradicating extreme poverty.
– Christopher Kolezynski
Sources: MusicforGood, The Borgen Project, Oxfam International, Consequence of Sound, YouTube, Oxfam America
Photo: MusicforGood