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A Night For The Planet: Inside The Captain Planet Foundation’s 35th Anniversary Gala At Coca-Cola Roxy

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A guest poses with Captain Planet on the step and repeat. Photo by Justiz Walker.
A guest poses with Captain Planet on the step and repeat at the Captain Planet Foundation's 35th Anniversary Concert for the Planet gala at Coca-Cola Roxy. Photo by Justiz Walker.

The Captain Planet Foundation marked 35 years of putting environmental power in young hands on Saturday night, and Atlanta showed up for it. The foundation’s Concert for the Planet benefit gala filled the Coca-Cola Roxy with a step and repeat that never slowed down, a ballroom at full tables, and a stage program that moved from film clips of the foundation’s young grant winners to the first Ted Turner Legacy Award. We Speak Media photographer Justiz Walker was on the carpet and in the room as it happened.

The Carpet Belonged To Captain Planet

Guests arriving at the Roxy stepped onto a step and repeat backed by the foundation, Delta and Warner Bros., and nearly every group made the same stop: a photo with Captain Planet himself, green hair, red suit and all, pointing straight at the camera with them. Families, foundation leaders and longtime supporters took their turn, and the line ran all night.

Yola singing on stage at the gala. Photo by Justiz Walker.
Yola performs at the Concert for the Planet gala at Coca-Cola Roxy. Photo by Justiz Walker.

Yola Took The Stage

The evening’s performance came from Yola, who stepped to the microphone in a black gown and delivered the night’s musical set to the ballroom, singing under the gala lights with the crowd at the tables in front of her.

The First Ted Turner Legacy Award

A presenter in red at the gala podium. Photo by Justiz Walker.
A presenter in red addresses the gala from the Concert for the Planet podium. Photo by Justiz Walker.

The stage program, guided through the night from the Concert for the Planet podium, built to a first: the inaugural Ted Turner Legacy Award, presented on stage during the gala. Honorees crossed the stage to accept framed awards and glass honors as the ballroom watched, with Captain Planet standing in for the presentations.

Thirty Five Years Of The Power Is Yours

The ballroom at full tables during the gala. Photo by Justiz Walker.
The ballroom at full tables during the Concert for the Planet gala. Photo by Justiz Walker.

Inside the ballroom, tables ran the length of the room under auction paddles and big screens, with displays of the foundation’s history laid out for guests, including the original Captain Planet artwork and the story of the show that started it all. The film program showed the foundation’s current work: classrooms and young people running environmental projects of their own, which is where the money raised on nights like this goes.

The Headline Still To Come

The night was billed as a concert as well as a gala: The Wallflowers headlined the evening, celebrating 30 years of Bringing Down the Horse, with Monica Pearson and Marcia Gay Harden serving as the night’s emcees. Our coverage closed from the carpet and the ballroom floor.

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Amble Lights Up A Sold Out Brooklyn Paramount With Harmony And Heart

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Amble live at Brooklyn Paramount, November 7, 2026
Robbie Cunningham of Amble performs at a sold out Brooklyn Paramount in Brooklyn, New York, on November 7, 2026. Photo by Toby Tenenbaum.

Brooklyn got the full measure of Amble on Saturday night. The Irish folk trio sold out Brooklyn Paramount long before the doors opened, then played sixteen songs that reached from their debut album Reverie to brand new music from the record still to come. By the end of the night, the room was singing like it had been waiting for this band all year. The photos below, by Toby Tenenbaum, tell the story of the evening as it unfolded.

A Full Band Behind Three Voices

Amble are Robbie Cunningham on lead vocals and guitar, Ross McNerney on mandolin, bouzouki and banjo, and Oisín McCaffrey on guitar and vocals. On stage in Brooklyn the trio’s songs arrived with a full band behind them, and the sound filled every corner of the Paramount. Special guest Vincent Lima opened the evening, on a run where he is the billed guest for the whole North American tour.

Amble live at Brooklyn Paramount, November 7, 2026
Amble’s front line in full voice at Brooklyn Paramount. Photo by Toby Tenenbaum.

The night carried the feel of the way the band records. Cunningham has explained the approach behind Reverie this way: “In the studio, we’re all sitting in a circle and playing together around a microphone. Basically, everything is recorded live. You can feel the energy when you get the right take. If there’s even one mistake, we’ll start over. If you listen to Reverie, you’re truly hearing who we are.” On Saturday, Brooklyn heard exactly that, played live in front of them.

The Set

The main set opened with Schoolyard Days, The Swell and Hand Me Downs, and settled in for the long haul. Brooklyn got a song the rest of the tour has not heard in that spot, The Heather Calls, played fourth in place of the tour standard Marlay Park. Midway through, the band tipped its hat to John Prine with Angel From Montgomery.

Amble live at Brooklyn Paramount, November 7, 2026
Oisín McCaffrey on guitar during Amble’s sold out Brooklyn Paramount show. Photo by Toby Tenenbaum.

Two songs pointed at the future. Church Bells and Last Rites both come from the band’s second album, Love And All Its Wares, which arrives on January 29, 2027. The main set closed with Tonnta, and the encore paired Lonely Island with Into a Dream, an unreleased song from the new album, sending the sold out room home on a first listen.

A Rise That Keeps Rising

Amble live at Brooklyn Paramount, November 7, 2026
The full stage at Brooklyn Paramount, with the sold out crowd on its feet. Photo by Toby Tenenbaum.

Amble formed in the west of Ireland in late 2022, when Cunningham and McCaffrey, both former teachers, began playing together, with McNerney joining soon after. They signed to Warner Records in 2024, and the rise since has been steep: more than 229 million streams, a support run on Hozier’s North American tour, and 130,000 headline tickets sold in 2025 alone. Reverie, released May 23, 2025 and recorded live in one or two takes, spent four weeks at number one in Ireland and became the most streamed Irish album of 2025.

McCaffrey has said of the record, “Hopefully, it feels timeless. Our ambition was to make an album that would be great 100 years from now or 100 years ago.” Saturday night at the Paramount, that ambition sounded well within reach.

What Comes Next

The North American run continues this week, with a sold out night at the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia on Tuesday, November 10, and closes in Dallas on November 18. Love And All Its Wares, the second album, arrives January 29, 2027 on Warner Records.

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All photos by Toby Tenenbaum.

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