It started with an email from an organisation called Global Citizen. They were chosen to implement Coldplay’s vision for a massive world-wide tour that attempts to offset their carbon emissions and implement a number of green strategies including the planting of a tree for every ticket sold.

Global Citizen were tasked with finding local groups in the city that align with the band, Coldplay’s sustainable living agenda. They chose us to host a stall right in the middle of the fan zone at Craven Park!

Usually, a Rooted in Hull stall at an event allows us to get closer to people in our community that might not already be aware of our work in the city or even the location of our urban farm on St Peter Street in Hull. This time Global Citizen asked us to come up with an activity to encourage the Coldplay fans to interact more, providing a reason for them to stop and talk to us.

We decided that we would paint rocks. After collecting the rocks, they were cleaned and then our women’s group, Rooted in Sunshine (they meet every Thursday between 10am  and 1pm) applied various stencils of butterflies, bees and food that could be coloured in by the Coldplay masses! The completed rocks, signed by the artists, will be displayed on our site and will help to raise awareness around the importance of pollination in a sustainable food system.

Coldplay also announced that some of the proceeds from a specially produced “Music of the Spheres” shirt would be shared amongst some of the NGO’s that supported them in Hull and Rooted in Hull were delighted to have been chosen as one of the lucky recipients.

We would like to extend our thanks to the band, Coldplay. We spent a very busy two whole days up at Craven Park and four of our volunteers were involved in what was an experience of a lifetime, which included access to both concerts on Monday and Tuesday, with a personal invitation to the after show party from the boys themselves. We were disappointed not to meet them so that we could thank them personally, but we did some great work and two massive Coldplay fans in Lauren and Kayleigh were almost out of control with the excitement, although it may well have been all the chocolate we consumed!

An unforgettable experience that was topped off by a personal invitation to the after show party. We were all under the impression that we would meet the band there, but it wasn’t to be and we’re very grateful for our two days jumping queues with our special staff passes!

Rooted in hull thank you Coldplay.