Weekend Recap... on Thursday

The weekend kicked off Friday night with a friend's birthday! We went to Charritto's, a local BYO Mexican place where they made us delicious margaritas...and sangria! Then en route to our next stop, we bumped into Batman! He was nice enough to take a picture with us, and shared a dance with the birthday girl! 

#tokencrew

Our nickname for our lil group is "Token Crew", since we have our "token" black girl, Latina, ghetto white girl, and a (1/2) Indian!

Saturday was the Global Citizen's Festival in Central Park- and what a gorgeous day for it! I got lost getting there (I seriously get lost going anywhere), but I did stumble upon this fountain and park within the park!

 The Global Citizen is an organization to fight poverty worldwide. You can learn more about it HERE. I think it's an amazing cause that I could really get behind, even if I only found out about it because of this concert!

It was a super long day though. Gates opened at 2, so I was on line by 12:30. (And I didn't get home til midnight!) The line was INSANE- it started at 72nd street, and when I was at the end I was at 67th... that's 5 NYC blocks! But it was totally worth it- I got pretty close to the front, and could actually see the people performing instead of just on the giant screens!!

view of the stage from where I sat, Elvis Costello, Janelle Monae, Bono, and John Mayer

 Elvis Costello, Janelle Monae, Bono, and Maxwell were the surprise guests. They each only did a song, but it was still cool to see them- I especially loved Janelle Monae!

There were a lot, like a LOT of guest speakers. Most of them I didn't know or care about, and they talked for quite a while between sets. I don't remember or take a picture of everyone, but I did get Dato' Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak ( Najib Razak for short), the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Nelson Mandela's grandchildren, Princess Mary from Denmark, Katie Holmes, and my personal favorite special guest, Gerard Butler!!! 

Of course Bono was there, and Russell Simmons (his introduction for Alicia Keys was cut off by all of us screaming for her!), and the Nobel Peace Prize Winner (2011) and Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — the first woman to be elected president in modern Africa. (And another picture of Gerard Butler... just for good measure.) (And a pic of Maxwell- not sure why he's in this collage- whoops!)

The headliners were Kings of Leon, who for some reason I don't have any pictures of (but they were really good!), Alicia Keys, John Mayer, and Stevie Wonder.

 I was most exciting for Alicia Keys- and she was absolutely phenomenal!! And gorgeous, as per usual! 

She performed all the favorites, Fallin, Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart, You Don't Know My Name, No One, Girl on Fire, If I Ain't Got You, Empire State of Mind!, But I think this one was my favorite...

 Unfortunately, she was the only one I was able to keep a whole set list for, because then my phone died. Which was extremely annoying since at this point I was sitting by myself, and trying to get to my friend who had come later. But then Security wouldn't let me leave my section, even to go backwards! I was so annoyed- and sad- I wanted to watch the concert with her, and she had come up from Central Jersey just to watch it with me! But I guess it's cool that we both got to see it.

The one artist who surprised me the most was Stevie Wonder. Of course he closed out the concert. But I didn't really think he was going to be as amazing as he was. I really only stayed to watch him because, well, he IS an icon. And when else am I going to see him? But a lot of people left right after John Mayer. Which just means the rest of us got to move even closer! 

He was amazing. 

The crowd was fun, and everyone was singing and dancing. 

He's really funny... and apparently strongly against guns. (Did you know blind people are allowed to own and carry handguns? He told us. Seriously though... WHY??! How does that make ANY sense?? But I digress...)

He sang. He played the keyboard, piano, and harmonica! And he was freakin fantastic. Definitely a strong end to an incredible night!