I'm pretty conflicted by this. I like being near the band, I'm not gonna lie. I used to do the lineup overnight thing and camp out.
But here's where I'm wondering about what a couple of you - who I care about a lot - have said about it being a secret list or started before it officially being allowed..to the disadvantage of the general public who is not informed..isn't that precisely how the old style camping lines started too? They were always started well in advance of anything official, and it was thru word of mouth, text, email, on the forums..essentially "secret". So how is it any different now?
Anybody who has ever been to a concert knows the hardcore fans are going to be there early camping out overnight for that spot on the rail. So at the risk of sounding like a massive hypocrite camping out early is very much a fact of life with shows by acts this big.
I wouldn't say that's secretive and at least with that scenario if you went to the stadium the night before or early in the morning you'd actually
see a long line of people sat in sleeping bags and folding chairs, putting in the hours and actually earning that spot, which these people clearly aren't prepared to do anymore.
So now, instead of a very obvious sign that people are lining up early and if you want the rail spot you'd better join the line before it gets any longer, you have
one person sat somewhere off site with a notepad and sharpie holding spots for 200+ people?? Sod that.
And on the secrecy thing it's only recently that people have tried "infiltrating" pretty off-the-beaten-track Facebook groups to get the line info out to more people. There's no question about them intentionally keeping it very secret to begin with.
They only share the line/list location and check in info with a wider audience under duress, it's never willingly given as we saw with that woman keeping the security stuff from everyone else simply so she could remain the one in the know and in charge. It's fucking pathetic, her especially seeing as she's been up on stage before and let's face it that's why she pulls shit like this.
It couldn't be clearer that these people think they're one level up on the U2 pecking order and are doing their best to protect that imaginary status. Fact is, they bought the same fucking ticket as everyone else and have no right telling the rest of a field of people what to do.