Stepping Out of the Boat

Becky and I met up with another teacher from school and caught a taxi over to the Olympic Statium where the concert was being held. Surprisingly it wasn't very far from where we live. After we were dropped off we followed the mob, and I mean mob, of people towards the front gate. Now I haven't been to a lot of concerts in the past but I am sure that there are better ways of getting people through the doors. When we got the the front gate it was completely dark and there was a huge crowd of people all standing and pushing each other towards the door. Figuring this must be the place we joined heard. About half way to the entrance we realized that there was a male and a female enterence so being the only male I was left there by myself to figure out how to get into the concert. I would guess that in this little enterence way there was about 50 or so guys just pushing there way in. I was being moved not by choice towards the door. Sucessfullly I made it in where I found the girls waiting.

Inside the stadium there are a couple of different types of tickets you could of had. One was for the seats. I am not sure if it was assigned seating but I doubt it. Another was a V.I.P. pass that entitled you a booth around the seating area that was air conditioned. The third was the ticket that we had, a general admission ticket to stand on the foor of the statium. In this first picture the large screen that is in the middle of the shot was a jumbotron and the backside of the lights and sound booth. The stage is behind this. Wanting the best show that we could get, Becky and I decided that we were going to try and get as close as possible. So we started making our way toward the stage. Obviously the closer to the stage we got the more crowed it became, but we kept pushing forward. We eventually settled on a place that was about 40 feet from the stage just off to the left. We both realized that it was possilbe to have pushed our way up to the front but we were satisfied with where we were. Now the waiting began. Becky and I waited for about an hour and a half for the concert to start. It wasn't the coolest experience that I have ever been in, in fact by the time the concet started we were both pretty much soaked through our clothes. With sooo many people standing soooo close together it didn't alow much room for ventilation.

At last the concert started. This was the first concet that I have been to where I didn't know a lot of the songs, mostly because the majority of them were in Spanish, but it was definatly entertaining non the less. Everyone around us knew all the words to every song and the girls never stopped screaming as loud as they could the entire night. Was people would move and dance little pockets of space would open up which allowed Becky and I to keep inching foward. I would say by the time the concert was over we had gained another ten feet or so closer t the stage. Here in the second picutre is a shot of another jumbotron that was next to the stage close to where we were standing. Another aspect to the concert was the fact that Verizon Wireless was sponsering the show so as people were entering the stadium they were giving those thunder sticks that had the Verizon logo on them. So everyone had those and were also making a ton of noise with them. I am sure I was hit in the head with those blow up sticks a few dozen times by the different people that were standing around me. Here are a few shots that I managed to take at differnt times throughout the concert. Sorry for the poor quality of picture. The camera we have isn't the best for taking shots of moving action in the dark. It was a great experience and a very entertaining show to be a part of. During the last song they shot off a confetti cannon and some fireworks that capped off the show. Now the fun of getting out was upon us. Thousands of people were now all pushing to leave and we needed to find our teacher friend that came along with us. Haha I know. We had set up a meeting place prior to the show so we started making our way there. It was slow goings as a sea of people pratically carried us in the direction of the exits. As we got farther from the stage the crowd began to thin out and we were able to walk again on our own free will. Now that the concert was over there was really no need for everyone to hang onto those thunder sticks that they had been banging around for the last 3 or 4 hours so most decided that the ground was a perfect place to leave them, along with any other item of trash they had. The ground was completly covered with garbage. So much so that walking was tricky because you could easily trip by stepping on a can or plastic bottle. In the last picture you can see the see of red that was left behind. We made our way over the meeting spot and were unable to find our friend. We decided to get something to drink and take advantage of the half empty arena and take some pictures. After which then we resumed our search unsucessfully. So we decided to leave and walk towards the front enterence of the stadium where we had set another meeting place in case we got seperated. Eventually walking through the bumper to bumper traffic jams we made our way to the meeting place and didn't find her. Our next plan was to walk a little ways up the street to where the traffic was thining out a bit and get a taxi home. So we started walking. The more we walked the more we enjoyed the cool breeze and dreaded the thought of dealing with a taxi. As I mentioned earlier the concert wasn't very far from our apartment, maybe a mile or two. So we just ended up just walking all the way back home. I ended up back home sometime after midnight. Come to find out the next day our friend had met up with some friends of her own and they ended up leaving the conert a bit early to grab a bite to eat. Go figure. Overall I would say that the experience was certainly worth every bit of the trouble. I had a great time.