San Francisco, CA – Saturday October 13th 2001 will see the fifth annual E A R T H D A N C E the one day party which will unite the dance community in over 100 cities in 45 countries. Earthdance began as a vision to get the whole world dancing in support of peace on the same day, regardless of time zones. The event creates a synchronized global dance music party that is held in multiple locations on the same day with the aim of raising awareness for peace. Funds raised are donated to Earthdance's four global causes: the environment, the indigenous peoples, the well being of children and the people of Tibet.

The climax of the event is a synchronized dance-floor link-up when at 12 midnight GMT  (7pm EST, 4pm PST), a specially recorded song “The Prayer for Peace” is played at every event across the globe simultaneously, uniting all dancers. Morning in the Australian rainforest, midnight in London, afternoon in San Francisco and sunrise over the Himalayas - the global link-up is a profound and powerful moment that focuses the intention of millions of people on the affirmation of global peace. It truly captures the spirit of 'act local, think global'.

Involved in the global celebrations will be hundreds of thousands of promoters, organizers, live acts, DJs, performers, decorators, artists, volunteers and party goers plus hundreds of thousands more watching the event live on the net – all uniting in a celebration of peace.  Over 200,000 people have participated in Earthdance since 1997. 

For three years since its conception in 1997 until 1999, Earthdance focused on the plight of the Tibetan people and was described by the Dalai Lama's London secretary as "the most successful global event of its kind aimed at Tibet". In the year 2000, Earthdance expanded its focus to include other important global causes with the Earthdance mission of peace remaining the spearhead of the campaign. In it’s first four years Earthdance raised over $400,000.

The new Earthdance Urban initiative, launched in 2001, has taken the Earthdance message to an even wider audience attracting promoters from other music scenes who are closely associated with the urban electronic genres such as hip hop and drum and bass.

Chris Deckker, The founder or Earthdance released this statement last week: “the shock of the recent disaster ripped through our community with great sadness as we watched the morning news with horror and disbelief.  When disaster strikes at such an intense level it stirs the deepest of emotions. We have now been called to action. Not the action of retaliation fueled by anger and hatred but the action of going deep within ourselves to a place of stillness where we can open our hearts to the reality that love and compassion is the greatest healer for a world twisted with fear and hatred.

It is always an intense wake up call when disaster strikes your own back yard. The reality is that these scenes of horror are happening all around the world EVERYDAY - Tibet, Africa, South America, The Middle East and so on.

In these times of escalating international violence we are being called upon more than ever before to join together as a united global community to pro actively work for peace and healing. One of the most powerful forces on our planet is the power of joining our intentions through meditation and prayer.

The Earthdance International collective would like to extend an invitation to all seekers of peace to join with us on October 13th, as we unite as one global family to affirm our commitment to global peace.

With over 100 cities participating we realize once again how important an event like Earthdance is for our global community. In the face of the tragedy we are even more committed to creating an even stronger event this October 13th. We invite you to join us.”

One of the major highlights of the EarthDance event is the 12 hour synchronized cybercast that links many of the EarthDance cities live in action. Last year, over 1 million people tuned into the cybercast and watched the dancefloors of the world unite in peace. This year, on Saturday October 13 2001 Earthdance.org will be hosting a page showing all the cities taking part in this year’s event and linking to webcasts of individual parties. We will be updating this page with a list of this year’s webcasting cities closer to the event.