On 21st September 2008 a host of international stars took to the stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London to support the Peace One Day Celebration, marking Peace Day. 21st September has been adopted by every member state of The United Nations as an annual day of global cease-fire and non violence. Peace One Day is a non-profit organisation founded in 1999 by British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley.
Stars such as Annie Lennox, Bryan Adams, Peter Gabriel, John Legend and Lenny Kravitz each performed to the capacity audience whilst supporting this important day of global unity. The actor Jude Law, who had recently visited Afghanistan with Jeremy Gilley, introduced the screening of Gilley's acclaimed new documentary, “The Day After Peace”, in which he features.
Backstage at the Royal Albert Hall a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar and an Epiphone Acoustic guitar were signed by the many performing stars and presenters. Both signed guitars will be used for promotion by Peace One Day to help aid further awareness of Peace Day.
The Peace One Day Celebration follows the success of last year’s sold out event, which featured performances from Annie Lennox, Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), Corinne Bailey Rae, James Morrison, Marc Almond and Kate Nash and was broadcast around the world to an estimated 100 million people.
"Something that's of common interest to every man, woman and child on the planet must surely be the notion of 'Peace'. Without 'Peace' we cannot survive. Valentines Day is on the 14th February. Christmas Day is on the 25th December. Peace Day has been established by the United Nations on the 21st September and the whole world is invited to participate. This 21st September a special musical event will be taking place at The Royal Albert Hall to celebrate and commemorate the spirit of the occasion. I'm thrilled and delighted to be part of it, and to contribute to making 'Peace One Day' become an inspirational reality.” Annie Lennox
After Jeremy Gilley’s and Jude Law’s visit to Afghanistan in 2007, the Ministry of Public Health joined by UNICEF, the World Health Organization and local vaccinators used Peace Day to carry out a mass vaccination against polio of 1.4 million children. As a direct outcome of Peace One Day's campaigning in 2007, 100 million people in 192 countries were engaged in Peace Day activities and in 14 of those countries, efforts were targeted towards providing life-saving activities and medical services on the Day.
Jeremy Gilley said today, “For Peace Day to grow in the way that we would all like it to, it’s essential for individuals, governmental bodies, and corporations to get involved. I’m thrilled that Gibson and Epiphone have supported the Peace One Day Celebration for the second year running.”
For more information on Peace One Day, please visit here.