This Saturday, an estimated one million spectators will descend on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to take part in Live 8.
The series of 11 concerts will take place worldwide, 10 on July 2 and one on July 6 in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the beginning of the G-8 summit being held there.
A stage will be set up in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and streets will be blocked off from Market to Poplar and from Broad to the Schuylkill River.
The concert will be hosted by Philadelphia native Will Smith and will feature the music of Bon Jovi, Maroon 5, Stevie Wonder, the Dave Matthews Band, Destiny's Child, Alicia Keys, the Black Eyed Peas and Kanye West.
The concert event will also include celebrity presenters Natalie Portman, Jimmy Smits, Salma Hayek, Jennifer Connelly and Chris Tucker.
At 8 a.m., the other Live 8 concerts from around the world will be broadcast on giant screens located all along the Parkway.
The Philadelphia concert will begin at noon and go until 6 p.m. Each artist will perform a 20-minute set of about three songs.
The City of Philadelphia, as well as many local organizations, have pledged to take significant measures to ensure maximum safety, convenience and enjoyment for all those who plan to attend as well as those who do not.
The concert is free, and there will not be any metal detectors or security checkpoints. However, there will be 20 mounted state police officers along with uniformed and plainclothes Philadelphia police officers stationed at various points throughout the crowd.
Concert-goers will not be allowed to have alcoholic beverages or open containers on the Parkway.
Medical tents will be set up along the Parkway in case of emergency.
Also, even though there have been no reported threats of terrorist attacks, there will be a no-fly zone over the concert area that will prevent planes from flying less than 3,000 feet above the ground.
Concert-goers are advised not to arrive on the parkway until 6 a.m. at the earliest, since they will not be allowed on until 7 a.m.
SEPTA is selling day passes for $8 that will be good only on Saturday. The passes will allow the bearer unlimited travel on all bus, regional rail, trolley and subway lines.
The passes can be obtained though www.BuyPhilly.com and all regional rail ticket offices and major SEPTA sales offices.
The concert will also feature numerous Philadelphia street vendors.
The Live 8 concert is being put on by the mastermind behind the 1985 Live Aid concert -- musician-activist Bob Geldof -- along with the ONE Campaign, which is headed by U2 frontman Bono.
Their goal is to promote awareness of poverty and disease in Africa and to persuade the world leaders who will be meeting at the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, next week to erase the debt owed by African countries to the World Bank and lift trade barriers on many African countries.
"This isn't about charity, this is about justice," Geldof said at a recent press conference.
In order to promote greater awareness of issues facing the poor in Africa, Philadelphia will be holding a Social Issues Series of forums and seminars starting today and running until July 3.
The series will begin with a "Live 8 Celebration" at the Free Library of Philadelphia from 7 to 10 p.m. featuring Desmond Johns, director of the U.N. AIDS Office as the guest speaker.
There will also be a forum on Africa at the National Constitution Center beginning at 6 p.m. tomorrow. This event will include the unveiling of a exhibit of pictures from Philadelphia Inquirer photographers who have taken pictures in Africa over the last 20 years.
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