Global Citizen holds itself out as a great savior of something — executive salaries, maybe?
Anyway, reports in the NY Daily News and West Side Rag say that Central Park’s Great Lawn has to be closed until April 6th because of the Global Citizen concert last week.
Apparently, they trashed the place by having the concert in the middle of a vicious storm. It must be bad because even the big New York is Back concert two years ago that took place during hurricane didn’t cause this kind of damage.
“The use of heavy equipment and intense foot traffic in the saturated conditions from the September 23 concert damaged a large portion of the lawn and fully destroyed a third of it,” Central Park Conservancy spokesman Matt Lawyue told the News. “Our team is now working to restore the lawn, hopefully in time to reopen this spring.”
Will Global Citizen foot this bill? Their president, Hugh Evans, is paid over $400,000 to put on these concerts. In 2021, the total for salaries was over $3 million. They spend millions producing the concerts.
And still: both times ABC showed a one hour special from this year’s concert, only 1 million people watched. The ratings were abysmal and so were the YouTube views.
The Central Park Conservancy doesn’t want them back. Neither does city councilwoman Gale Brewer. She wrote in a letter to Mayor Eric Adams: “Twelve acres of public greenspace will be unavailable to New Yorkers until April 2024 or later, all to accommodate a one-day event. I have never been a fan of the Global Citizen Festival because so little, if any, of the grants are allocated to non-profits in New York City. However, I believe the festival brings in $2 million to the general fund. I urge you to schedule the Global Citizen Festival in a venue other than Central Park, such as an arena or stadium.”
