Paul Simon Announces Donation To Environmental Organizations In San Francisco
All Net Proceeds From Artist’s 2019 Outside Lands Festival Performance To Benefit San Francisco Parks Alliance & Friends of the Urban Forest
As previously reported, Paul Simon will return for a special live performance this August at Outside Lands festival, in benefit of local environmental organizations. Today, Simon named San Francisco Parks Alliance and Friends of the Urban Forest as the recipients of all net proceeds from his Bay Area performance.
While no longer touring, Paul Simon has stated his ongoing commitment to perform the occasional concert in benefit of philanthropic organizations he supports, particularly those in the area of environmental protection and ecology. Outside Lands’ location in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, combined with the shared environmental initiatives of the Festival producers provided Paul Simon this perfect opportunity to focus on this vital cause – selecting Friends of the Urban Forest and San Francisco Parks Alliance (in partnership with San Francisco Recreation & Parks) as two local organizations working to protect natural resources and invest in the community.
Friends of the Urban Forest’s (FUF) mission is to promote a larger, healthier urban forest as part of San Francisco’s green infrastructure through community planting, tree care, education, and advocacy. FUF helps individuals and neighborhood groups plant and care for street trees and sidewalk gardens in San Francisco. This “green infrastructure” improves the city by beautifying neighborhoods, cleaning the air, and reducing polluted stormwater runoff. Since 1981, FUF has brought communities together to plant more than 60,000 trees, totaling almost half of the city’s street tree canopy.
San Francisco Parks Alliance (SFPA) champions, transforms, and activates parks and public spaces throughout the city through innovative partnerships with community groups, city government and local business. SFPA believes that building these partnerships to support parks and open spaces leads to stronger, more cohesive communities, greater physical and mental wellness, and a more sustainable, equitable urban environment. To reach these goals, the Parks Alliance helps community members form park groups around their parks, open spaces and recreation centers. Founded in 1969, SFPA is also the fiscal sponsor for nearly 100 small grassroots non-profit groups in the city.
Of Outside Lands, Simon said, “I’m looking forward with great anticipation to playing at Golden Gate Park this summer. This will be my first appearance there, and it’s an honor to join the long line of musicians who’ve given the park its sanctified musical heritage. I’m equally pleased to be playing in San Francisco with its well-deserved reputation for being in the forefront of environmental issues. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be of service to this vital cause.”
Paul Simon will close Outside Lands as the festival headliner on Sunday, August 11th.
For more information:
San Francisco Parks Alliance – https://sanfranciscoparksalliance.org
Friends of the Urban Forest – https://www.fuf.net/
ABOUT OUTSIDE LANDS
Since its inception, Outside Lands has evolved into a beloved San Francisco tradition and boom for the Bay Area, as thousands of fans from around the world flood the iconic city for an incomparable weekend in one of the world’s greatest green spaces. Outside Lands is simultaneously a true destination festival and a celebration of the region’s best.
Visit www.SFOutsideLands.com for lineup and on sale information coming soon.
ABOUT PAUL SIMON
During his distinguished
career spanning six decades, musician and songwriter Paul Simon has produced
timeless masterpieces, such as Bridge
Over Troubled Water, Still Crazy
After All These Years, and Graceland,
all of which garnered GRAMMY Album of the Year.
Simon was awarded the inaugural Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, which recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture. Simon is also a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, and, in 2006, was named one of Time magazine’s “100 People Who Shape Our World.”
Paul Simon’s varied philanthropic work includes the co-founding of the Children’s Health Fund, which donates and staffs 53 mobile medical units that bring health care to low-income children and their families around the United States, providing more than 3 million doctor/patient visits since its inception in 1987.
In June 2017, net proceeds from Simon’s month-long U.S. concert tour were donated to benefit the Half-Earth Project, an initiative of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. During Paul Simon’s Homeward Bound – The Farewell Tour in 2018, he left a financial gift in each city he visited on tour, benefitting local youth and environmental organizations.
In a letter to fans announcing his Farewell Tour and retirement from touring last year, Mr. Simon said, “After this tour, I anticipate doing the occasional performance…and to donate those earnings to various philanthropic organizations, particularly those whose objective it is to save the planet, ecologically.”