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D.C.'s Climate Rally: A musical party with a
purpose

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By Jacquelyn
Martin, AP

Sending out an SOS:
Sting performs at The Climate Rally on Sunday.

Track
the action song by song, mingle with fellow fans and keep
current with Brian Mansfield's updates at our American
Idol community.

By Kristin McGrath, USA TODAY

The event: Celebrity performers,
advocates and citizens gathered Sunday for the Climate Rally with two
goals: to celebrate Earth Day's 40th anniversary and to demand that
Congress pass a climate and clean energy bill in 2010. The musical lineup
included Sting,
John
Legend, The Roots,
Passion Pit and more.

Crowd size: Producers estimated that over 150
thousand attended throughout the day.

The crowd:  Men, women and children of
all ages. Sign-carrying activists walked among tourists heading to the
Smithsonian. A tight throng filled the area near the stage while others
sat on blankets, threw Frisbees, Hula Hooped and walked dogs throughout
the Mall.

The stage setup: Speakers and musical
acts took turns onstage with the Capitol as a backdrop. Large screens
flanked the stage with other screens set up for those situated further
down the Mall.

A cuddly message: While spreading the
word about global warming, Geneva Boyer, 18, of Newton, Mass., was melting
inside her polar bear costume. She was accompanied by another
representative of the Global Warming Education Network, Susan Shamel, 60,
who was dressed as a smokestack. They've been posing for photo-ops with
curious onlookers since arriving in D.C. for Earth Day last week. "It's so
hot, but it's so fun," Boyer says of her costume, which includes a large
inflatable globe. "People who might never get excited about environmental
activism are so excited to see a fuzzy polar bear."

Happy anniversary: Wearing a cape and
streamers, D.C. native John Sherman recalled the first Earth Day, which he
attended in 1970 as a teenager. He remembers displays about recycling,
hippies, Vietnam War-era activism and a lot of energy. "There's a lot of
energy here, too," he says. "It's a whole new generation. We've come a
long way, but there's so much more to do."

Out of this world: As Honor Society
wrapped up its afternoon set, two figures stood out from (and above) the
crowd — Elizabeth Kesnick and the mono-monikered experimental artist
Flynn, both of New York, who came dressed head to toe as Na'vi from the
movie Avatar. The duo wore full-body blue paint, pointed teeth,
outfits that looked straight from the planet Pandora and even stilts.
Despite the stilts, Kesnick danced gracefully to the music, while
onlookers crowded around the pair for pictures. "The Na'vi are all about
connectedness," she says. "To nature, to the earth and each other."

Passion for Passion Pit: Younger
rally-goers rushed from their picnic blankets when the electronic band
took the stage. The crowd singing along to the chorus of Little Secrets
could be heard from as far as the Washington Monument.

Green space: A lush, plant-filled tent
served as a replica of Avatar's Pandora, where staffers touted James
Cameron's initiative to plant a million trees worldwide and reported
that the director had been popping in throughout the day. Over at
AT&T's booth, free phone-charging stations were powered by solar
panels and a wind turbine activated by winds over 8 mph.

Villain really the good guy: Giovanni
Ribisi may have played the villain in Avatar, bent on
destroying the sacred tree of the Na'vi in his quest for unobtanium, but
his own views are more balanced. "So often, there's a polarity between the
economy and the environment, and you have to choose sides," he says in the
media tent. "And I don't think that is the case." Protecting this planet,
he says, is a group effort. "If everyone does a little bit, it's a lot
more than one person holding the torch by themselves."

Ready for the finale: At 4:30, a tweet on
the rally's displayed Twitter
feed read: "where are sting and john legend?"

Working together:Joss
Stone joined The Roots for a jam, wearing a teal shirt saying "Peace
is in Fashion." The crowd fist-pumped and jumped in unison, some audience
members blowing bubbles. After a brief break, The Roots returned as a
backup band, first for gospel singer Mavis
Staples, and then for Patrick
Stump of Fall
Out Boy.

Camera time: Stone returned with The
Roots for a funky cover of Gnarls
Barkley's Crazy. The cameras panned to the crowd to focus on a
woman holding a sign reading "Green is the Future." A handwritten poster
popped up in front of it reading "We're Here to be Trendy."

Sharing the mike: Next up with The Roots
was Bob Weir of
The Dead, who sang Dancing In the Streets. Stump joined him on
vocals for Bill
Withers' Harlem.

A message from the president: The crowd
cheered as President Obama appeared onscreen for a taped address to rally
attendees. He called for those in attendance to help "heal the scars our
parents and grandparents knew too well." As his speech came to a close,
the audience held up peace signs.

A message from James Cameron: The
director was thrilled to take the stage after Robert Randolph's
performance of Purple
Haze and to see "a lot of young people rocking out to it." The
song, he told the crowd, came out when he was 15, the same year as the
first Earth Day. "There is a direct line from that moment in 1970 and
making Avatar," he said.

Wake-up call: John Legend, backed up by
The Roots, got the crowd dancing with Wake Up Everybody, a song off
Legend's new collaboration album with the band. The camera revealed Jesse
Jackson jamming along backstage.

Getting the ball rolling: During Legend's
performance of Compared to What, the audience began tossing a giant
rubber ball covered with 1,000 plastic bags toward the stage. The ball
created by advocacy group Blue Avocado represents the number of plastic
bags used by a family in a year. By the song's end, security had rolled
the ball off to the side of the stage.

Fragile earth: Introduced by his wife Trudie
Styler, co-founder of the Rainforest Foundation, Sting took the stage
wearing a gray graphic T-shirt with the words "Give Hope" and an image of
Africa. Sitting on a stool with his guitar, he opened with his song
Fragile. Afterward, Sting greeted his audience and joked, "It's
nice to be at a tea party — a green tea party."

Rain dance: As gray clouds moved in over
the stage, Sting switched to an uptempo number, One World (Not
Three). Then he nonchalantly introduced his closing number with a swig
from his water bottle. "I'm going to play a song called Message In a
Bottle," he said to cheers.

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