Shhh… close your eyes. 

If you focus, you can feel the excitement of a crowd of citizens all around you. You can smell the bright fall day as you stand at the Great Lawn in Central Park. You can hear the sounds of some of the world’s biggest artists serenading you for being an action-taker who joined the global movement ending extreme poverty. 

Look around. You are at Global Citizen Festival 2023. Are you ready? 

That’s right! Global Citizen Festival is back, hitting the iconic Great Lawn of Central Park in New York City on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023, as well as being broadcast and streamed to the world.

There will be performances by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Jung Kook, Anitta, Conan Gray, D-Nice, and Sofia Carson. Stray Kids had been set to perform but due to an unforeseen accident, we will be joined by 3RACHA, which features three members of Stray Kids, Changbin, Bang Chan, and Han.

Tickets to the festival are free and can be earned by joining the movement ending extreme poverty and taking action for equity, for the planet, for food, and for jobs over on the Global Citizen app or website. Head here for everything to know about Global Citizen Festival and what we’re campaigning for — plus how to earn your tickets.

Join us as we rally to unite millions of voices, amplified by the world’s biggest artists, to demand urgent action from world leaders meeting in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly in September. 

We’re honored to, once again, host an epic lineup of artists, who have all, in their own right, used their voices to call for equity, justice, action, and change when the world has most needed it. We can’t wait to see them set the stage alight with what is sure to be a night of epic performances. 

This will be Jung Kook’s first solo performance at a music festival, and we’re thrilled to see him light up the stage. It won’t be his first time taking to the Global Citizen stage, having joined us as a member of BTS at Global Citizen Live in 2021.

Ms. Lauryn Hill is set to make a return to the Global Citizen stage to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of her history-making album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. She previously joined Global Citizen at Global Citizen Live in 2021, where she and the rest of the Fugees surprised a New York audience of Global Citizens. This year she joins Global Citizen to call for gender equity and equal access to education for all.

Sofia Carson will be back on stage with us for the second consecutive year — last year she lent her voice to the call for climate action; this year she’ll also be performing some of her hits, as she calls for gender equity. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are no strangers to Global Citizen either, having advocated for justice and the end of extreme poverty with us before, particularly in our Stand Up for Ukraine campaign, and we can’t wait to see them light up the stage as this year. 

We’re also buzzing to see the energy that Brazilian artist and activist, Anitta; hip hop DJ and producer, D-Nice; singer-songwriter Conan Gray; and K-Pop sensations Stray Kids will bring to the festival for their first times on the Global Citizen stage. 

You can also get ready to see Charlize Theron, Chris Rock, Daymond John, Eddie Izzard, Katie Holmes, Liza Koshy, Natasha Lyonne, Nomzamo Mbatha, Vladimir Duthiers, Bill Nye, Bridget Moynahan, Busy Philipps, Carmelo Anthony, Common, Connie Britton, Danai Gurira, Gayle King, Jordan Fisher, Lewis Pugh, Padma Lakshmi, Rachel Brosnahan, and Sophia Bush; as well as world leaders including, President of Timor-Leste José Ramos-Horta, Governor Helder Barbalho and State Secretary for Indigenous People Puyr Tembé from the Brazilian State of Pará. We’ll also be joined by renowned advocates Barbie Izquierdo, Brianna Fruean, Deja Foxx, Helena and Nina Gualinga, Ineza Umuhoza Grace, Jerome Foster II, Moj Mahdara, Nkosana Butholenkosi Masuku, Sophia Kianni, Pashtana Durrani, Xiye Bastida, and Wangari Kuria at the festival this year.

You can learn more about who else will be joining us to speak on stage in our article here. 

It’s urgent now, more than ever,  that we step up immediately to end extreme poverty. For the first time in a generation, the number of people living in extreme poverty is rising. This year’s Global Citizen Festival campaign takes aim at the major global challenges that are perpetuating extreme poverty. 

This includes the impacts of the climate crisis on the Global South, the inequities affecting women and girls around the world, and the global hunger crisis — and will call on governments to protect and defend advocates, activists, and the civic space everywhere. 

“As each inconsequential global forum passes this year without tangible results or disruption of the world’s unjust systems, more people are abandoned to cycles of extreme poverty,” said Hugh Evans, Co-Founder & CEO of Global Citizen.

“But complacency can’t win,” he continued. “If we want to see breakthroughs on financing for development, climate change, and famine, and to help marginalized women and girls, we must be laser-focused on holding leaders in government, business, and philanthropy to account for the promises they have made to the world.”

Find out everything you need to know about Global Citizen Festival 2023 here, including how you can earn your free tickets by taking action in the mission to end extreme poverty NOW. 

The live event will also be broadcast and streamed across various platforms and channels, starting at 4 p.m. EST, including ABC News Live, Apple Music and the Apple TV app, Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch, Facebook, HBO Max, Hulu, iHeartRadio, Instagram, Mediacorp, SABC, TikTok, TimesLIVE, TNT, TV3, Veeps, YouTube, the Global Citizen app, and globalcitizen.org. A primetime special, Global Citizen Festival 2023, will air on ABC on Sunday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. EST. Find out everything you need to know about tuning in from wherever you are in the world here. 

Global Citizen Festival is presented by Citi and Cisco. Global Partners are Accenture, Delta Air Lines, P&G, TimesLIVE and Verizon; Campaign Partners Bridgewater Associates, Motsepe Foundation and World Wide Technology; with Live Nation, iHeartMedia, and Location Partner New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The Global Citizen Festival broadcast is produced by Done and Dusted.