Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July, 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 Conference and Summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland from 6-8 July 2005; they also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. Run in support of the aims of the UK's Make Poverty History campaign and the Global Call for Action Against Poverty, the shows planned to pressure world leaders to drop the debt of the world's poorest nations, increase and improve aid, and negotiate fair trade rules in the interest of poorer countries. Ten simultaneous concerts were held on 2 July and one on 6 July. On 7 July the G8 leaders pledged to double 2004 levels of aid to poor nations from US$25 to US$50 billion by the year 2010. Half of the money was to go to Africa.
More than 1,000 musicians performed at the concerts, which were broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks. pr_on_en/music_live_8_cda_10" target="_blank">http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050623/ca_pr_on_en/music_live_8_cda_10
_Live Aid and Band Aid organiser Bob Geldof announced the event on 31 May Many former Live Aid acts offered their services to the cause. Prior to the official announcement of the event many news sources (see e.g. liveaid.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/chartnews/050526_liveaid.shtml http://www.nme.com/news/112486.htm) referred to the event as Live Aid 2. However Geldof and co-organiser _Midge Ure have since explicitly said they don't think of the event as the same as Live Aid. Geldof said "This is not Live Aid 2. These concerts are the start point for The Long Walk To Justice, the one way we can all make our voices heard in unison." blank">http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=643010. Many of the Live 8 backers were also involved in the largely forgotten _NetAid concerts.
Organizers of Live 8 presented the "Live 8 List" to the world leaders at the G8 summit. This is a list of names compiled from around the world of people who have voiced support of the Live 8 call that politicians take action to "Make Poverty History" blank">www.live8list.com. Names from the list also appeared on the _giant televisions at each concert during the broadcast.
Some ticket holders placed their tickets on the auction site eBay, creating an uproar which included Geldof demanding that the company remove the auctions, even encouraging hackers to attack eBay. eBay later removed the tickets, after some controversy.
Other critics say that millionaire rock stars would make greater contribution by donating parts of their personal fortunes. Indeed, as some of the performers involved had been out of the public eye, some may have perceived the concert as a way of getting back "into the spotlight". While some have tried to argue that Live 8 wasn't intended to raise money, but awareness and political pressure, this then makes it unclear why Geldof would be so upset about the eBay auctions.
An official Live 8 DVD set was released on 7 November 2005 internationally, 8 November 2005 in the United States. It was released almost a year to the day after the release of the DVD of Live Aid on 8 November 2004.
