Zurich rocks to sounds of Live Earth concert

Rockers Göla (left) and Steve Lee were among those at the Zurich event Swiss Friends of Live Earth

Switzerland has been hosting its own event to mark the worldwide sequence of Live Earth concerts aimed at raising awareness of climate change.

Zurich’s Hallenstadion staged a 12-hour concert featuring many Swiss stars, which was attended by several thousand people – despite competition from Zurich’s fair, the Züri Fäscht, also held on the same day.

Live Earth started in the Australian city of Sydney on Saturday and lasted 24 hours.

It was organised by former United States Vice-President Al Gore, who said the concerts were the start of a three-year campaign to try to “heal the planet”.

Organisers had expected the gigs to reach a global audience of two billion people via television, radio and online broadcasts.

The Swiss concert, which started on Saturday afternoon, ran until the small hours of Sunday morning. It was a Life Earth event held in solidarity with the nine official concerts worldwide.

Among those playing were Swiss rockers Göla & Friends and upcoming band Lunik. Also announced was Katrina, formally of Katrina and the Waves. Clips from the other concerts taking place around the world were also being shown.

The organisers, the Swiss Friends of Live Earth, said that the aim was to show that people could make a difference in environmental issues.

“We think it’s very important that Switzerland makes a statement on this question of doing something about the environment,” co-organiser Zeno van Essel told swissinfo.

“Switzerland is well known in the world for its nature, for its beauty and for its infrastructure. But it is feeling the effects of global warming, the glaciers are melting. So it too has its environmental problems.”

Van Essel added that there was also another reason behind the event. “Switzerland has a lot of good music and bands too – it’s important that the world knows this,” he said.

Worldwide concerts

London, New York, Tokyo and Johannesburg were among the cities hosting the official concerts. Around 150 artists took part, including such big names as Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, The Police and Garth Brooks.

A concert in Istanbul was cancelled for security reasons. The concert in Rio de Janeiro was also stopped by a judge for similar reasons, but this ruling was later overturned.

However, Live Earth has come under fire from some quarters. There has been criticism that it was hypocritical for performers who fly around the world for tours to call for the cutting down of carbon emissions.

Bob Geldof, the man behind Live Aid and Live 8, said the world was already aware of the dangers of global warming and the event lacked a “final goal”.

The organisers have insisted they are keeping the concerts as green as possible, with proceeds being spent on power-efficient light bulbs and other measures to offset emissions.

For his part, Gore has said the concerts are the start of a long-term drive to promote awareness of climate change.

The green campaigner wants Live Earth viewers to pressure leaders to sign a new treaty by 2009 that would cut global warming pollution by 90 per cent in rich nations and by more than half worldwide by 2050.

swissinfo, Isobel Leybold-Johnson with agencies

In brief

Live Earth was founded by Kevin Wall, who has formed a partnership with Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Live Earth staged official concerts at Giants Stadium in New York, Wembley Stadium in London, Aussie Stadium in Sydney, Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg, Makuhari Messe in Tokyo, the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai and HSH Nordbank Arena in Hamburg.

Bern poverty event

Saturday also saw the “0.7% Together against Poverty” event being staged in the Swiss capital, Bern.

It was organised to mark 07.07.07 as the halfway date by which the United Nations Millennium Development Goals should be carried out.

Organisers called on Switzerland to increase its development aid to 0.7% of Gross Domestic Product (from 0.4%) to reach the UN’s goals.

Former UN Human Rights High Commissioner Mary Robinson attended, as well as some Swiss celebrities. There was also a pop concert. Organisers said up to 4,000 people took part.