SXSW Unofficial Start with the Fray and and Global Citizen Project

With so much to do in Austin during SXSW, you can easily get lost in the sea of people all around. You feel a great electricity in the air as musicians and fans combine with one fantastic week of non-stop experiences. As the week started off, The Fray along with Allen Stone and Saints of Valory delivered a stellar performance at Emo's.

The intimate venue brought together 1600 music lovers, who took more than 15,000 'actions' on GlobalCitizen.org to win their tickets. Actions fans took included sending a Tweet, signing a petition or watching a related video, where they learned about and engaged with four of the key issues (food aid reform, water and sanitation, global education, and polio eradication) that contribute to extreme poverty.

The Global Poverty Project CEO Hugh Evans took the stage and thanked the attendees for bringing the movement to end extreme poverty to Texas. Hugh said, "We know that to build a grassroots movement, we need citizens everywhere getting on board. So we decided to take the show on the road with Global Citizen Nights."

Hunter Biden, Chairman of Board for World Food Program USA, thanked attendees for taking action to ask Congress to fix U.S. food aid policy. "We can feed more people and make sure nobody has to go hungry just by making simple, commonsense changes in the way we provide food aid."

This program will aid the many people effected by poverty and will help raise awareness on the problem facing many in our world. This is just the beginning. There will be many more shows where people will earn their way in my raising the awareness of poverty and taking steps to help those who are most helpless. The Fray and other musicians donate their time for this cause and want to help where they can.

The audience present that evening seemed to enjoy this unofficial kick-off to SXSW for 2014 and were thrilled with the intimate look at their favorite band.

SXSW continues throughout the week and will include performances from Lady GaGa, Coldplay, Pitbull, Willie Nelson and Keith Urban. Go to www.sxsw.com for more details.

PHOTO CREDIT: Cameron Cloud