Liesje
Blue Crack Addict
As an American, I do truly sympathize with the fans from the rest of the world. Like others have said, being young and in college is actually the best time to travel to see the band, since re-arranging school and work is so easy without family issues and deadlines worth millions of dollars. I truly feel blessed after my Vertigo experience. Tickets went on sale while I was still in Africa, and before I left I'd made the choice that the opportunity in Africa was far greater than a few U2 shows. I'd pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to any U2 concerts. However, I met so many cool, generous people through Interference, 0 shows became 2, 2 became 4, 4 became 9. To date, I've purchased 12 U2 tickets at face value from other U2 fans I met online. 9 shows and I never once had to buy a plane ticket or pay for a single hotel room! (of course, there were some 9 and 12 hour drives, but it's worth it) Part of the reason I was so impressed with the GA experience was it makes things so cheap. You can bring your own food and tents and all you pay for is the ticket, the gas, and the parking. I can't imagine having to go to another country for a U2 concert. I know when you look at per capita numbers and supply-and-demand, it only makes sense for the US to have so many shows (for example, the population of Ireland is only half of New York City alone, so based on per capita it makes sense that NYC had twice as many shows), but I still do feel really bad for the European fans, especially those from Eastern Europe. I made choices and sacrificed a lot of things to see my U2 shows (I've never had a cell phone, an iPod, a car....lots of things most people have and don't think twice about), but I'd never put that on anyone else. No two people are in the exact same situation, so it's unfair to blame people who say they can't go to as many shows and it's unfair to blame people that could.
