Nice, the city of energy!
I’m just sat on my tour case back stage in Nice as I write this. The band finished a few hours ago and the crew are packing up around me but I just needed to tell you guys about the volunteers and atmosphere tonight!
In the Europe dates, Coldplay have increase the volume in so many ways. They now play stadium gigs which hold up to 60,000 people. Can you imagine what it sounds like when people sing Viva la Vida all together whilst they wait for Coldplay to start? It makes you smile no matter what mood you are in! Only at a World Cup football game would you get such an amount of people singing together at the same time.
Yesterday I went out to meet the Nice volunteers. The volunteers today were very special as they had responded to an advert i’d put out to recruit campaigners in Nice. This was exciting for me as it was my first time recruiting people for the tour.
At 3pm I went to meet them and I knew instantly we had a winning team as everyone knew the campaign and was excited to talk about it with Coldplay fans. From 5pm we started to talk to the people of Nice and before long people started approaching us wanting to sign up with Oxfam. The energy for getting involved with the GROW campaign blew me away!
By 9.30pm 500 people in the Coldplay crowd had joined our campaign and the new campaigners were full of buzz and excitement. They fed me with their new French energy. I was thrilled to see their enthusiasm about campaigning with Oxfam and spending their time before the gig talking to others about the food system and making sure we fix it! The topic is something we all have in common no matter what language you speak or which country you reside in. Lots of us know the food system is unjust and want to do something about it! To celebrate this, I even dressed as a carrot to attract people’s attention with my opening line “photo avec le carrot?” (my French is minimal, I apologise!).
As we packed up I hurried back to the tour case to pack my things as last night was the night I was going to watch the band from the beginning with the lovely Nice volunteers! I went backstage to drop off the food costumes and as I walked back to watch the band they all appeared and walked on stage, in such a cool manner, they didn’t seem at all scared that 40,000 people were screaming for them. Even I was nervous – my heart was in my mouth.
Then the music started and the fireworks lit up the sky. “Wow, this is amazing” I thought, “i’m in Nice, where the sun has warmed the night and everyone is dancing to Coldplay!” I was full of the French energy the volunteers had given me and I couldn’t help it, I just started to dance! It was lush! Such a great end to an inspiring day spent with volunteers new to Oxfam and seeing them talk so confidently to others, with the people in Nice agreeing that we needed to ensure people didn’t go hungry!
So off to Turin, or by the time you read this we will already be there. I can’t wait to feed off the Oxfam Italia volunteer’s energy tomorrow!
Merci beaucoup pour ces soir Nice, Au revoir, Rachel.
We had such a great time, thank you Rachel, thank you Oxfam and thanks to Coldplay for making this day amazing !