PIH and Kanpe in Spain with Arcade Fire!

The European leg of the Arcade Fire tour started up with two dates in Spain this past weekend, building support for Haiti, Kanpe, Partners in Health along with way!

Day one in Madrid: Palacio De Los Deportes sits in the middle of Madrid, flanked by a lovely plaza that quickly filled with fans lining up early to get a good spot on the floor. This was going to be a big show, nearly 15,000, and we were excited to get going!



As always, we were joined with an amazing crew of volunteers. Several were students at an American University in Madrid - and a big thanks to Maya O’Cadiz for helping us to recruit for this first show! We were also joined by teachers, musicians, community members and business professionals - all committed to the idea of helping Haiti forge a prosperous future. After a brief talk from Marika on behalf of the band, the crew got to work practicing how they were going to explain the work of PIH and Kanpe to fans. Once the doors opened, they hit the ground running, having nearly 600 conversations about Haiti in just under two hours - very impressive! A big thanks to our Madrid team - Neil, Andreas, Joseph, Maya, Susan, Stephanie, Didier, Diarmuid, Leticia, Bruno, Stephen, Curry, Ray, and Madelyn - for getting our tour off to a great start!



We arrive in Barcelona late - at least in tour terms! - the next morning. Palau Sant Jordi has an incredible view of the city and the sea from the top floor, where we were lucky to set up our Kanpe table! We were joined by a smaller but mighty crew of volunteers that night: Ines, Andrea, Patricia, Marina and Maribel who did a fantastic job and managed to talk to and inspire lots and lots of fans! It’s so exciting to see people really check out our set up, read about Kanpe and PIH and tell us about their own connection to Haiti or other parts of the world, or their desire to become engaged and involved.





As an added bonus, Regine and the band are still writing out and autographing set lists every night to give away to PIH/Kanpe supporters as well!



Our nights in Spain provided a great preview of the weeks to come as the tour moves into France, Germany, Ireland and the UK. We can’t wait to talk to and inspire fans across Europe about what they can do to support Haiti!