By Gus Saltonstall
The Global Citizen Festival will return to Central Park next month for its 14th year.
The annual concert will take place on Saturday, September 26, at 4 p.m. on the Great Lawn. In 2026, the concert is aimed at raising money and spearheading campaigns in support of: access to schools for children in Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Spain, and Norway; rural farmers in Spain, Norway, Ireland, and Kenya; and access to electricity in the Indo-Pacific region.
There will also be a selection of tickets where the money spent will go to the City Parks Foundation to support free programming and community engagements in park spaces across New York City.
Here is who will be performing on the day:
- Ms. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean
- Lenny Kravitz
- John Legend
- Lainey Wilson
- Shaboozey
- Tomorrow X Together
Hugh Jackman will host the show.
There are some changes in how you can get a ticket to the Global Citizen Festival this year.
You can “earn a pair of free tickets” by downloading the Global Citizen App and then taking actions to earn points, which you can use for a chance to get free tickets.
This year, Global Citizen has launched “Donation Tickets.” In this version, you also have to download the Global Citizen App and take actions to earn points, but then you can use your points to claim a code instantly. You then redeem that code and make a $25 charitable donation per ticket, which will go to the City Parks Foundation, and will instantly secure you a ticket for as long as the supplies last.
Lastly, you can simply buy different levels of tickets — HERE.
Connected to the Global Citizen conversation is the forecast.
In 2023, the Great Lawn was badly damaged during the concert, as Tropical Storm Ophelia blew through the city on the same day that tens of thousands of people showed up to enjoy the show. As a result, Central Park closed the Great Lawn for the winter about two months earlier than normal, and it needed more than $600,000 in repairs, which was first funded by the Central Park Conservancy and then reimbursed in full by Global Citizen.
The next year, there was rain again on the day of the concert, but the damage was not as bad. However, the Great Lawn still ended up closed to the public from the third week of September through the end of October, after it was initially projected to only be shuttered until October 2 of that year.
Upper West Side City Councilmember Gale Brewer, along with other elected officials, has voiced her opposition for years to the Global Citizen Festival taking place on the Great Lawn, and has suggested Randall’s Island as a better location for the event.
The concert continues to take place on the Great Lawn, though.
In keeping with past years, the Great Lawn will be closed to the public around a week before the September 26 concert, in order to prepare the green space for the event.
You can find out more about the Global Citizen Festival — HERE.
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Missing something here?
Not clear to me why Global Citizen is seeking to raise funds for school access for “children in Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Spain, and Norway”?
Scandinavian countries particularly have reliable school systems.
And rural farmers in Norway?
Perhaps someone knows?
and japan??!!
My thoughts exactly! Kids in Japan don’t have access to schools? I beg to differ.
Agreed. Raising money to benefit other countries seems strangely out of touch in today’s world of affordability concerns here in the U.S. And to top it off, nothing like trashing the park and imposing additional costs on city tax payers in order to do it!
Raising money to benefit other countries is extremely important, and is what we stopped doing when the president destroyed USAID, causing considerable harm both to our reputation and to individuals in other parts of the world.
However raising money for people in developed countries with much better social safety nets than ours hardly seems like a reason to limit access of New Yorkers to Central Park.
They weren’t smart enough to keep from being overrun?
True
“overrun”?
What does that even mean, “overrun”? Have you ever been to Scandinavia? Apparently not.
Oh, but I have. Mods won’t let me ask questions about crime statistics in Sweden 2003-2023.
Just Stockholm and Kiruna, prepandemic, but I occasionally scan Sweden Herald. What do you think explains to 500% increase in rape between 2003 and 2023?
Of course they haven’t been to Sweden, this is just a right wing talking point. I’ve been to Sweden several times, including Malmo, it’s all nonsense. Stockholm is one of my favorite cities in the world.
So then you can explain the 5x crime change in 20 years. Please try to avoid using “the 70’s” in your answer.
Google “Malvo, Sweden” and I think you’ll see what this commenter meant.
What Gus failed to mention is that the school initiatives are only one small part of the campaign. A major focus this year is on an effort to mobilize $100 million to strengthen food security for 1.5 million smallholder farmers across Africa and the Brazilian Amazon.
BTW – the festival always coincides with the week of the UN general assembly when power players, NGO’s, heads of state, and representatives from around the globe are in town and GC has the best opportunity to influence and make change for our planet. The artists and entertainers that perform do so absolutely free and donate their time because they understand what the stakes are and wish to add their voices for change.
Tickets to the festival are 100% free to citizens who have taken actions ( writing letters, starting petitions, contacting their representatives) to lobby for progress.
All of this seems to be totally lost in the media, but this small note might help explain things.
If people are going to “report “ on theses things, they should at least make an effort to be accurate and correct. Why they choose not to can only be seen as cherry picking random facts in support of their interests and parochial internal biases.
How do they know whether citizens have taken actions for change? Are they monitoring everyone’s emails?
Yeah, that’s what that the useless “dignitaries” from around the world are here for…”progress.”Definitely not to take their mistresses shopping in NYC on their clueless taxpayers’ dime.
Could you explain more about how tickets are for people who are/have been making efforts to take action?
How this works?
I was wondering the same thing. I checked their website, here – https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/festival/nyc/2026/
Apparently if you download the Global Citizen app and take certain actions through it then you can be put in a lottery for free tickets. It says:
“Earn Your Tickets
Take action with us for a chance to earn a pair of free tickets.
Download the Global Citizen App & sign up.
Take action to earn points.
Use your points to enter to win a pair of tickets.”
So you might get a free ticket, but they don’t say how many they are giving away for free. Not many, I’m sure
You can also pay $25 for a ticket, this way – but “supplies are limited”:
“Instant Win: Donation Tickets
Download the Global Citizen App
Take action to earn points.
Use your points to claim a code instantly
Redeem your code and make a $25 charitable donation per ticket to instantly secure your Festival ticket while supplies last
Tickets available through this option are limited.
All donations will give back to New York City. Funds raised will go to City Parks Foundation to support their free programming and community engagement initiatives in parks across all five boroughs, as well as to organizations helping those experiencing homelessness across the city.”
Or you can buy a ticket – the cheapest tickets are $79.
So tickets definitely are not all free. They couldn’t be – it’s a benefit, they raise money by selling tickets.
According to the Global Citizen website the food insecurity of farmers is Goal #2. Goal #1 is about education, sports and meals.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/festival/nyc/2026/
Who is cherry picking?
I think this is the first time I’ve ever read about who was benefiting from the concert! Surely, this can’t be correct. 😲
Norway boasts a 100% literacy rate. The US is 79% literate. Seems like Global Citizen is sending money in the wrong direction.
so you didn’t look into it at all and just want to complain?
Excellent! Trash the place to protest trashing the place!
Norway has a $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund I’m pretty sure they can manage to improve access to their schools by themselves
I wouldn’t attend just because I’m sure everyone would have to bring their ‘service dog’ — and they’d be (illegally) smoking and vaping whatever. Yuck.
You seem like a real hoot!
Great! Thanks for the inconvenience to our neighborhood
Is that a serious comment? How specifically are you inconvenienced?
Truly. I continue to ask myself what is wrong with the commenters on this forum, who seem to enjoy sapping the joy out of everything in this city that makes it special. If you don’t like it here, New Jersey is a ferry ride away.
UWSYIMBY,
It is interesting that a number of suburban transplants seem to exhort others to “move”?
Also what actually makes a city great is the authentic “day-to-day” aspect – not the corporate FOMO events to add to the Instagram account.
Alisa,
It is interesting to me that you think I am a “suburban transplant”. I have lived in New York City my entire life.
Also, unfortunately for you I disagree wholeheartedly with your assessment of this particular event as a “corporate FOMO event”.
Your opinion is yours, and mine is mine, but let’s not make assumptions.
Thank you!
so for the first time in years it will rain on sept 26? seems their concerts always coincide with rain and a wrecking of the lawn.
I hope they are going to repair the park when they are finished.
They always have.
They have. But that doesn’t make up for it needing to be closed for extended periods of time to fix it.
Take an escrow to clean up the park after.
Why? They’ve paid for clean up in the past.
I’ve known oxen that are less stubborn than the GC crew when it comes to finding literally ANY alternative venue
Why not use Governor’s Island, with its lovely lawns and spaces, and leave the Great Lawn to its lovely fall glory? Doesn’t make sense that at the time of year MORE people use the park, a huge important chunk of the park gets monopolized for one night, then closes for much of the Fall. It is really bonkers.
The language of this article is confusing. To clarify – it’s not about raising money to support education in certain wealthy countries, but about urging those countries to support education globally. As the website says: “This year’s Global Citizen Festival campaign is calling on the governments of Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Spain, and Norway, as well as businesses and philanthropists, to collectively contribute $100 million to provide 2 million children with access to education, sports, school meals and healthcare…”
And again, as the name indicates, this is a global organization.
Are you saying Global Citizen doesn’t take in donations and then distribute them but rather uses any money ot gets from ticket sales to encourage others to make donations? If so how do they determine they we’re responsible for getting the donations as opposed to Norway just deciding to contribute to education or farmers?
They already are – Scandinavian nations contribute the most to the UN per capita of their population, and fund – again, per capita, – more initiatives than most other nations. The message of this event sounds misguided.
Who makes the decision to offer Central Park to this festival? Gail Brewer is against it. Who decides?
As I recall , the Great Lawn was completely saturated the day BEFORE the concert. I remember hoping & praying someone would call it off bc it was entirely obvious that thousands of feet would damage it badly. As indeed they did. That’s not what this account is saying however – does anyone else remember it the way I do?
Oh, PLEASE move this event to Randall’s Island! The noiise and relentless continuous thumping is horrible and intrusive and there is no escape where I live (UWS- on Amsterdam Avenue!)
It’s for one night. I’m sure you’ll survive. As a “life-long Upper West Sider”, you should be used to noise at this point, especially being two Avenue blocks and change from the Great Lawn.
Or, you know, it’s once a year so not a big deal at all
The NIMBYs are out in force this morning.
The article could have mentioned: In its initial funding rounds, the initiative awarded grants ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 to multiple US-based community organizations. Recipients include Street Soccer USA, Beyond Soccer, School on Wheels, Hit the Books, and SMILE Mass, all of which use sports and education to support youth development.
Hits the Books is Harlem based organization.
Please read the full information at this link https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/ and see one way Global Citizen has achieved 67.7m Total Actions Taken by Citizens and 1.3 billion
Lives Impacted to date thru $49 billion
in funds distributed.
Did people complain about all of the other concerts that have been held there over the years?
Yeah, it looks like somebody’s trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes….. the countries listed that need help with schools are amongst the most affluent countries ( Denmark, Japan , Spain,, Norway, and Ireland) in the world, including my country of origin. Education has always been a priority… the only thing that rings true is possibly Kenya and electricity requirements in the Pacific Islands
There are many states in the US of A that need help ,a lot of help , with schools . Some parts in the educational sphere resemble Third World countries..
Global Citizens steals a portion of the people’s park for a week every year and damages the great lawn, also stealing it for large periods of time. The noise and exhaust from production trucks poisons Central Park West on the weekend of and the noise of the concerts disturbs residents for blocks. IMO GC is another charity designed to provide its administrators with high salaries. Why does NYC allow this event year in and yea r out? The fees it generates don’t make up for the loss of the park or the damage.
Sue — You really don’t know what you talk of.