Dublin and the UK

The second half of the tour has been spent in the UK and Ireland. We hit up London first, two big shows at the O2 arena. Our volunteers both nights came out and braved some pretty nasty weather and even nastier transportation problems to join us! The shows were a blast, really supportive, friendly fans, and our volunteers worked like crazy (and went up and down lots and lots of stairs) to talk to as many people as they could.







We moved onto Dublin from there, and I quickly learned why the band loves playing shows there so much! The crowds there were rowdy, but fun and supportive - some of our best nights on the whole tour were during our two nights in Dublin, in fact! Because of the layout, we set up three mini tables spread throughout the O2; our volunteer team really went above and beyond, with some of them staffing the tables, and the rest really working the floor; one volunteer signed up over 200 people on her own, which was really incredible! Our team in Dublin was a lot of fun: students, the brother of a volunteer from Madrid who does music therapy and his co-worker (they joined us straight from playing at a retirement home, ties still on!), former volunteers... as always, the amazing list can go on and on! We also had Shane join us, who works at Google Dublin.



Shane and I had been coresponding via email for a few weeks, as he was working to raise money for PIH at work ahead of the show, and he asked if I’d like to come speak to the Google team at his office. I asked Marika and Regine if they’d like to join, and the three of us went to Google Dublin on Monday and found a receptive audience of a few hundred staffers (and we later found out they recorded it to share company wide!) waiting to hear us talk about PIH, Haiti, and individual actions people can take to engage and make their own unique impact. It was a lot of fun, the team at Google was great, and we even got treated to lunch in their cafeteria!





After Dublin, the tour moved into Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow for our final week. Our English crews in these cities were FANTASTIC - we got so much support for what we are doing from UK fans, it’s really unbelievable! A big shout out has to go to team Birmingham; though our smallest team in size, six amazing people, they nonetheless had the highest average of sign ups & conversations per volunteer than ANY of our other teams (and we had some really hard working impressive teams!), with each volunteer engaging with an average of 84 fans! That also means they won our ‘friendly competition’ among European cities to see which team could do that, so they’ll have a little Arcade Fire thank you gift coming in the mail soon!





All in all, it’s been an incredible run; 14 cities, 143 volunteers, tens of thousands of fans talked to, and hopefully even more inspired by our volunteers, the band, and PIH.

On the road with Arcade Fire

On the road with Arcade Fire

A quick update on what I’ve been up the past two week: I’ve been working with Arcade Fire on joint project with Reverb and Partners in Health, greening the tour and running the fan engagement for PIH.

On the greening front, Reverb is coordinating backstage recycling, water stations and biodiesel fuelings. The band and crew were all given a reusable water bottle at the start of the tour, which they are then using to cut down on the amount of plastic water bottles being used each day.



I make sure there are ample water coolers or five gallon water containers with our cool little ‘dolphin pumps’ backstage and in dressing rooms for the crew each day, in addition to placing recycle containers throughout the backstage area, finding out what the venue recycles, and taking care of all advancing issues related to greening. We get biodiesel fuelings about twice as a week as well, fueling our trucks and buses with B20. The band has been really committed on this ‘green front’, even taking their reusable bottles on stage with them!




My afternoons and evenings are spent running an outreach program for Partners in Health, an organization I have long admired and am thrilled to be working with. Night after night we talk to fans about the work that PIH is doing and the relationship between the band and the organization, get fans to sign our ‘Stand with Haiti’ declaration, and take small donations to support the work that PIH is doing.



Each night is filled with incredible conversations with fans doing amazing things; people that have volunteered in Haiti, that work in global health, that work for local health organizations in their own towns, doctors that want to help PIH.



In New York at one of our Madison Square Garden shows we talked to a fan who had come in from Mexico City for the show, and really wanted to volunteer and help with PIH efforts where he lives. In Baltimore we met several people whom had just returned home from working in Haiti the previous six months. Our Philly show included a visit from several Haitian families that Partners in Health had placed locally for medical treatment following the earthquake - meeting the young, funny, smart, resilient little kids among them was a particular treat!



Doing engagement and organizing on a concert tour always reminds one of how much of the world is full of people silently doing their own thing to make things a little better, a little more just, and a little bit kinder. This tour has been remarkable on that front; night after night after night we get to hear incredible stories, and it feels great to know we are linking all of these amazing people together through the PIH community.



Our volunteers have been nothing short of amazing. Many of them have been students: high school students, college undergrads, grad students in public health, law, pre-med, and medicine leading efforts on their campus for both Partners in Health and other global health organizations, many inspired by the work of Paul Farmer and the story they read in Mountains Beyond Mountains.



They have come to us through student list serves, forwarded emails, Facebook and Twitter, and some have driven as much as three hours in each direction to join us. Our student volunteers in particular have been remarkable, I’m always so encouraged to hear about the efforts they leading on their campuses and in their communities, motivated by a strong sense of compassion and justice.



We have also been joined be a steady stream of volunteers that are no longer in school but are committed to the work that Partner’s in Health does and want to donate their time. All of our volunteers have worked incredibly hard, talking to thousands and thousands of people about the work of PIH, inspiring the Arcade Fire fan community about the work of PIH and the potential we have to forge a new future for Haiti and all of the developing world.

We wrapped up this short two week run in Toronto on Saturday night, where instead of Partners In Health, the set up was for Kanpe.



Kanpe is an organization that Regine Chassagne established with a close friend, and is focused on working in a very grassroots, one on one manner with Haitian families, linking them to the resources they need to end the cycle of poverty. Kanpe works to address health, nutrition, housing, education and financing/banking in part by partnering with organizations like Partners in Health and Fonkoze, helping families navigate the confusing stream of NGO resources available to them in their country to get what they need to literally ‘stand up’ and become self sustained.



The Toronto show was a lot of fun; we were joined by a Kanpe board member and Ambassador, as well as an awesome crew of volunteers who helped us have an absolutely incredible night - the ideal way to wrap up a tour!



Check out more photos here!

Be sure to become a fan of Reverb, PIH and Kanpe on Facebook to learn more and stay updated!