1st night GA wise was a total catastrophe. We arrived at our gate on the east side at about 7am, the staff then decided to build a barricade around us because presumably they hadnt thought that the biggest band in the world on the opening night of their UK tour would attract many people willing to queue all day.
So.... the barricade gets built and we wait, no one else is allowed in this enclosure but we don't have any toilets so they rely on having a marker pen number on our hands as a way to let us in and out to go to the loo. Bear in mind that the marker pen was a fan idea. We then wait till about 2pm when this guy appears with 100's of wrist bands for the front enclosure, theres a panic but we all get one (about 200 of us i would guess).
By this point, on my trip out of the enclosure for a toilet break, there were 1000's of wristband-less fans looking very angryly at me, rightly so too. Apprently security had told them that we were the ones who had camped so were going to get the wristbands!!! I later find out that those outside were randomly given or SOLD wristbands by security, no matter how far down the line they were. So just to recap, people who had arrived 10 mins after me and who weren't in the 'enclosure' as it was being built didn't neccessarily get wristbands. This is unfair to say the least.
It gets better. At 4pm ONE tiny gate opens and there is a stupidly frightening crush to get through which slows everyone down getting in. They then close the door and shout at us like kids. They then open them again (people are getting phone calls off their mates at the other side of the stadium telling them they are in, this makes the panic and anger rise even further!!!) bear in mind that there are huge doors in the middle to prevent this kind of crush, but these are kept shut. Idiots. Also bear in mind that those outside the 'enclosure' haven't even started to get into our area yet so wouldn't have got on the pitch until around 4:30.
So, we get in, i get a really good rail spot about 2 rows back from the front on Edges side. I was so lucky though, 10 minutes later arriving i'd probably have to have brought a wristband off some scally.
What killed the atmosphere that night IMO more than anything else though is the lack of people in the GA enclosure. It was ridiculous. There was a huge gap between the back of enclosure GA and front of normal GA. It looks stupid on pictures i've seen taken from the stands. No wonder people in GA were pissed off. If you look at the Oasis show from the same stadium (that's been on UK TV about 500 times!) the GA pitch is FULL and it looks like an incredible atmosphere, why couldn't U2 do the same. Bono must have felt it when he walked out to the mini stages.
1st night was great setlist and band wise, but the crowd were a bit off.
2nd night GA experience was better, more people in the enclosure and the magic happened.
