Bob Weir, Patti Smith, Flea Lead 2018 Pathway to Paris Concert

Bob Weir, Patti Smith and Flea lead the lineup for 2018’s Pathway to Paris concert, set for September 14th at the Masonic in San Francisco, California. The event, which caps off the Global Climate Action Summit, focuses on the potential for cities to achieve and extend beyond the climate targets outlined in the Paris Agreement.

Former Animals singer Eric Burdon, environmentalist Bill McKibben, Canadian cellist Rebecca Foon, Tibetan musician Tenzin Choegyal, French pop-soul artist Imany and Pathway to Paris co-founder (and Patti Smith’s daughter) Jesse Paris Smith will also appear during the concert, among other special guests. Icelandic visual artist Olafur Eliasson will guide the audience through an interactive, collective artwork, leading a choreography using Little Sun solar lanterns to create a solar-powered “sunrise.”

Tickets to Pathway to Paris 2018 go on sale Friday, July 13th at 10 a.m. PST via Live Nation, Ticketmaster or phone (1-800-745-3000).

In a statement, Jesse Paris Smith highlighted “collaboration” as the key to solving climate change. “We must join together to make this the most ambitious collaboration of our century,” she said. “We will not be able to implement crucial and challenging solutions to climate change, plastic pollution, and all urgent environmental problems as long as we stand divided. Inseparable from the issue of climate change is the need for world peace, global communication, and an international collaboration unmatched by any event in human history.”

“Cities play a critical role in transforming our world out of the era of fossil fuels and into a renewable world,” added Foon. “This is our time to make this shift and transform our cities to become sustainable, resilient cities for us all and future generations. This is our chance as our window of time is narrowing.”

The 2018 event is the fourth overall, beginning with the inaugural 2015 concert in Paris, France, which coincided with the adoption of the Paris Agreement. During the 2017 concert at New York, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Pathway to Paris announced its “1,000 Cities” initiative, which encouraged cities around the world to transition from fossil fuels toward 100 percent renewable energy by 2040. Patti Smith, Michael Stipe, Flea, McKibben, Cat Power and Talib Kweli all appeared during the show.