30,000 enthusiastic headbanggers, 4 very narrow gates for entry, 1 big dusty venue and A Mismanagement of EPIC proportions.
This is what defines the Friday evening for Gurgaon city, which was supposed to host DELHI'S first ever ROCK concert being headlined by none other than METALLICA (God of Rock).
News channel says that...Crowd stampede causes the show to be postponed till Saturday...Well... not entirely true.
This is what really happened.
I reached the venue at about 1500 hrs, exact time as the entry was to be started. On reaching the parking, first thing i encounterd was DUST blowing like a HURRICANE... within which bunch of guys were giving out parking tickets which i am sure were not legal...but hey...WTH it's metallica coming, so who cares.
So after spending 50 bucks we proceeded further and the scenes we saw were not great. No one was there to guide the parking of the car, it was all a ruckus created by dust and cars. It was pretty evident by then only that it's gonna be one hell of a JAM when the show ends. And to my UNSUPRISE cops stood their and watched.
But we were too enthusiastic to take any rational decisions...so we parked the car and went towards the entry.
There were 4 gates 1,2,3 for higher end tickets and 4 for the rest. And were all covered with fans with full of calmness but enthusiasm...We were all on dream land, thinking was this all a dream ??
Finally at around 1615 gates were opened for fans...and we rushed in to occupy the best possible view. Till 1630 we settled down...everything was set, we were about to have the best times of our lives.
Then an announcement came increasing our heart beat to knots.."Guys please sit down...the show is going to start in 30 MINS". At that very instant all of 30,000 odd people sat down followed by a roar of appreciation.
We were all set...watching instruments on the stage, imagining what is it like to hear METALLICA play live in front of our eyes ??
And then time passed...30 mins..nothing...45 mins nothing...the stadium kept filling, at about after 1 hour or so...we had an announcement that " We got a problem with barricade please all of you take one step back...until u do so there will be no music".
That was it... I had a feeling something was wrong as i didn't saw any damaged barricade and those people kept on repeating the same lines for about 30 mins.
1 hour...Nothing..crowd was as silent as they could..
2 hours..Still Nothing...Crowd was silent and patient.
Our hopes of listening Metallica were diminishing...few jokes were circling around the venue regarding, speaker failures and Mic failure. But we were sure that come what may....We will get Metallica tonight.
3 hours...A person came on stage and tell us that "There are technical difficulties going on with which we are dealing right now. And Metallica is in their hotel doing press conference about the same. So the show
is postponed and will happen tomorrow at 1600".
And the irony was that...at the same moment i was talking to this ISRAELI guy...and he was telling me how he found India...amazing. And just as he said the word AMAZING...pat came the statement of cancellation of the show.
He looked at me...half smiling...I too looked at him for a while then.....looked down .....and walked away...ehhh I LOVE MY COUNTRY.
I knew this was it....there ain't gonna be a show tomorrow or ever...We the common people of this country is FUCKED again by corporate whores and some Cocksucker with power and money beyond imagination.
But this was not it...as we were leaving all the exit points were shut and they remained shut for about 30 mins or so....creating huge problems for us and even more for the girls.
Yes....some people do got a little over excited and climbed up on stage and started damaging things....But wasn't it justified ?? And moreover the stampede creating persons weren't from the fans.
I mean you don't expect a ROCK fan who had paid 3000 RS for the tickets to do such a thing...we have better things to do in our lives.
And to simply put it...they 'looked' different.
For me it was all a setup...the show was canceled way before the crowd gathered...and i don't even believe that METALLICA is in INDIA yet....Has Anyone seen them on T.V ??
I was NUMB...couldn't feel anything about what happened...The feeling of joy was changing into fury and disappointment. BUT HEY...that's INDIA..We are born this way.
But still my mind and heart were fighting...Mind saying...concert will not happen, n heart trying to overpower it..by saying it will.
Agitated...we sat in the car...and after moving about about 10 mtrs or so....we found ourselves stuck in JAM...WHICH TOOK 2.5 HRS to get settled. FUCKIN MANAGMENT.
It took some time to sunk in the feeling of the loss..and when it did....my heart sank a little more with the realization that MY 3000 RS is also FUCKED..my HARD earned money...For which i work day in and day out..But again...this is INDIA...we are born this way.
The most funny part happened...when a msg came from one of my friend (living abroad) just after an hour of cancellation of the show...
..
Q )What do you call 25000 people with nowhere to go on the Friday night ???
A ) Metallica fans..
I just thought within myself....that what do u call 30,000 fucked in the name of METALLICA's concert.............INDIAN CITIZENS !!
This is what defines the Friday evening for Gurgaon city, which was supposed to host DELHI'S first ever ROCK concert being headlined by none other than METALLICA (God of Rock).
News channel says that...Crowd stampede causes the show to be postponed till Saturday...Well... not entirely true.
This is what really happened.
I reached the venue at about 1500 hrs, exact time as the entry was to be started. On reaching the parking, first thing i encounterd was DUST blowing like a HURRICANE... within which bunch of guys were giving out parking tickets which i am sure were not legal...but hey...WTH it's metallica coming, so who cares.
So after spending 50 bucks we proceeded further and the scenes we saw were not great. No one was there to guide the parking of the car, it was all a ruckus created by dust and cars. It was pretty evident by then only that it's gonna be one hell of a JAM when the show ends. And to my UNSUPRISE cops stood their and watched.
But we were too enthusiastic to take any rational decisions...so we parked the car and went towards the entry.
There were 4 gates 1,2,3 for higher end tickets and 4 for the rest. And were all covered with fans with full of calmness but enthusiasm...We were all on dream land, thinking was this all a dream ??
Finally at around 1615 gates were opened for fans...and we rushed in to occupy the best possible view. Till 1630 we settled down...everything was set, we were about to have the best times of our lives.
Then an announcement came increasing our heart beat to knots.."Guys please sit down...the show is going to start in 30 MINS". At that very instant all of 30,000 odd people sat down followed by a roar of appreciation.
We were all set...watching instruments on the stage, imagining what is it like to hear METALLICA play live in front of our eyes ??
And then time passed...30 mins..nothing...45 mins nothing...the stadium kept filling, at about after 1 hour or so...we had an announcement that " We got a problem with barricade please all of you take one step back...until u do so there will be no music".
That was it... I had a feeling something was wrong as i didn't saw any damaged barricade and those people kept on repeating the same lines for about 30 mins.
1 hour...Nothing..crowd was as silent as they could..
2 hours..Still Nothing...Crowd was silent and patient.
Our hopes of listening Metallica were diminishing...few jokes were circling around the venue regarding, speaker failures and Mic failure. But we were sure that come what may....We will get Metallica tonight.
3 hours...A person came on stage and tell us that "There are technical difficulties going on with which we are dealing right now. And Metallica is in their hotel doing press conference about the same. So the show
is postponed and will happen tomorrow at 1600".
And the irony was that...at the same moment i was talking to this ISRAELI guy...and he was telling me how he found India...amazing. And just as he said the word AMAZING...pat came the statement of cancellation of the show.
He looked at me...half smiling...I too looked at him for a while then.....looked down .....and walked away...ehhh I LOVE MY COUNTRY.
I knew this was it....there ain't gonna be a show tomorrow or ever...We the common people of this country is FUCKED again by corporate whores and some Cocksucker with power and money beyond imagination.
But this was not it...as we were leaving all the exit points were shut and they remained shut for about 30 mins or so....creating huge problems for us and even more for the girls.
Yes....some people do got a little over excited and climbed up on stage and started damaging things....But wasn't it justified ?? And moreover the stampede creating persons weren't from the fans.
I mean you don't expect a ROCK fan who had paid 3000 RS for the tickets to do such a thing...we have better things to do in our lives.
And to simply put it...they 'looked' different.
For me it was all a setup...the show was canceled way before the crowd gathered...and i don't even believe that METALLICA is in INDIA yet....Has Anyone seen them on T.V ??
I was NUMB...couldn't feel anything about what happened...The feeling of joy was changing into fury and disappointment. BUT HEY...that's INDIA..We are born this way.
But still my mind and heart were fighting...Mind saying...concert will not happen, n heart trying to overpower it..by saying it will.
Agitated...we sat in the car...and after moving about about 10 mtrs or so....we found ourselves stuck in JAM...WHICH TOOK 2.5 HRS to get settled. FUCKIN MANAGMENT.
It took some time to sunk in the feeling of the loss..and when it did....my heart sank a little more with the realization that MY 3000 RS is also FUCKED..my HARD earned money...For which i work day in and day out..But again...this is INDIA...we are born this way.
The most funny part happened...when a msg came from one of my friend (living abroad) just after an hour of cancellation of the show...
..
Q )What do you call 25000 people with nowhere to go on the Friday night ???
A ) Metallica fans..
I just thought within myself....that what do u call 30,000 fucked in the name of METALLICA's concert.............INDIAN CITIZENS !!
