CARDIFF 22nd Aug 2009 final gig European leg 2009
the rail outside of the catwalk,
the polish delegation next to me, who I had seen quite a few times before ... Hilla and Ingo from germany, we had a truelly great time in line during the day and ended up besides each other at the rail, Rotem from israel, I had met her in the hostel and she went along early in the morning ...
and see how this pic really shows how the crowd position themselves, making sure everyone has a shoulder or had to look over, the madness starts when the crowd starts moving, this means almost everyone needs to move if they want to see what they saw just a little earlier on ... ha ha ..
not at the rail though .. . we were there on purpose, arriving around 6am, making sure we were within the first 100 - 150 people to get in ,.,, there were 20 individual entrance turnstiles divided over 3 entrances, one lacked the bars to divide each lane so at 6am everyone was in line in front of the first two gates ... they had proper fences in between each lane ... then seemingly the confirmation came that the 3rd gate was also gonna be used, at the same time as the other two ... they would place special dividers in between the lanes later .... so that meant that the few bold that were sitting there were lucky, and then the rest of the waiting bunch either went there, or moved forward in line 1 and 2 ... I was not there myself ... I had left just before to check in into my youth hostel and when I came back, my spot with the 4 germans and 1 israelian girl, had moved also ... it now was right in front the outer line of gate three ... I was gonna be 3rd to go in .. !!! WIth the first 60 people to get in ... maybe sooner, maybe later ... this all depended on the speed of the gates opening, they had individual doors and bars that held them closed, some jammed when they were opened, making vital seconds pass by ... you just have to be lucky ... our gate firstly heard the terrible news that our line was not gonna be used at all....
and only then was it that I noticed the end of our line had actually got a turnstile, but there was no bar to turn ... it was the removal line ... used to chuck people out .... oh yes ... we quickly moved to the line on our left, they were too nice letting us quickly get in their lane ... now we made everyone in front of us pre-bend the tear off part of the ticket .. there was no barcode so they either mark it with a pen or marker ... or tear of the tearoff bit off ... you can even rip it yourself half way to speed up your entry .. then came the moment ... we saw gates opening ... ours did not .. others opened, ours still did not ... fuck it ... it was stuck ,,, 7 - 10 seconds passed, some lines moved some did not, it was surreal ... then the door opened, first 4 steamed in, very fast .. yes ... no bags checked, no body feels .. for drinks or cameras etc .. nottin !!! ha ha ... then the two german girls, lightning fast .. and me ... yes ..... gone ... awesome .. to the right, down the steps .. and forward .... going as fast as possible without physically running, I did get slowed down few times, but still ... I went fast . it was offcourse to my advantage that I did not have to come to grips with the sight of that awe inspiring claw .. I saw others standing still, wondering what, how, and where to go ... no, not me ..... straight on to the centre of the rail .... and yes .. got there ! Keeping spots free for Hilla and Ingo, making myself look like three people, then Rotem arrived from the left, was among the first 5 - 6 at the rail ...they had slightly misjudged the centre it looked ... look for the sticker with mic 1 at the catwalk, that is where you want to be .. ... and then there are the great people around me, we were lucky with only a few territorial battles being fought now and then, the guy behind me despite my warnings, did get me on top of his toes a few times ... he moved backwards into the safe zone, where I did not land after a while ..
get on your boots, on my new boots literally .. first they got me up on Penn Y Fan and Corn Du and now they served me well during the show ... comfy and bouncy ... jumping like mad, thankful that camera never got stuck in my face !
my view ... in the centre at the outside of the catwalk....
Came back at 19.00pm tonight .....
14 gigs ... 8 countries ... 11 flights and a missed one ..
more words later .... but here is the present I got upon arrival ...
one of the photographers for walesonline shot the most amazing shots I've seen so far ..
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