Wonder, Kings of Leon headline Global Citizen Festival

Steve Jones | USA TODAY

Stevie Wonder, Kings of Leon, Alicia Keys and John Mayer will headline the second Global Citizen Festival in Central Park Sept. 28. The charity event is timed around the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York and promotes a movement to end extreme poverty by 2030.

Like last year, there will be a lottery for people who participate in social action to eradicate poverty to win the 54,000 tickets that will be distributed. There also will be about 6,000 VIP tickets sold through Ticketmaster with the net proceeds going to charity.

To qualify for free tickets, people can visit GlobalFestival.com and earn points through a variety of social actions, including watching videos, signing petitions and buying artist merchandise. The festival's presenting sponsor, the Cotton On Foundation, will be selling artist merchandise in the company's more than 150 stores across America.

"We want to encourage people who got involved last year to continue to take their involvement to a whole new level," says Hugh Evans, CEO of Global Poverty Project, the nonprofit that organizes and oversees the festival. He notes that the event's major themes this year are education, women's equality, global health and global partnerships.