Madonna has left the country
She's gone now, they wrote on Ilta-Sanomat. They also wrote what she has eaten, what she has shopped, where she spent her day and how great the concert on yesterday evening was. But that's another story.
What impresses me most, is the fact that the massive concert went so well. It's been said everywhere that it was the biggest ticket-selling concert in Nordic countries, 85000 tickets bought and sold out. Plus maybe some 15000 listening without tickets (an estimate before the concert). The place was Jätkäsaari, the old harbour area in western Hki, where they're planning to build new houses.
One day before the concert Helsingin Sanomat published one-page-sized map of the "Madonna area" and how to get there. There were extra trams, metros, trains, buses, parking places, some closed streets, closed sea area around the concert place and the most impressive - the concert area with its football-stadium-sized gate areas, three audience areas with 8 huge loudspeaker towers and the about 50x90m stage.
My favourite piece of Madonna news was in sports section: some big horse racing event in Lappeenranta had faced surprising problem because practically all the Finnish festival toilets (bajamajas) were in Madonna concert. :D
On the concert day it seemed that the whole Finland (or at least all the medias) had gone Madonna-crazy. It had been on tv news every day, but now it was on every news and every paper, there were even live reporters on the gates. Imagine how much an advertising campaign like that would have cost?! But there's no need to advertise. All you need is Madonna, her first concert in Finland and 85000 people.
They had only minor problems, such as too small waiting area outside gates, long queues to the 1000 bajamajas, even longer queues to the Madonna merchandise shops and drinking area (for less than 20000 people "only"). Policemen/security men were helping with the metro queue around midnight, they let one train-full (900) of people go at the same time to the metro tunnel, it took an hour to get all the people safely in metro. Most people walked and the car queues weren't too massive. Phone operators had put up more masts to Madonna area, but it wasn't enough, phone connections didn't work properly.
The best surviving method in audience was a diaper - no need for toilet queues! The one who invented that is ingenious! :)
Yes, I would have wanted to be there to witness it with my own eyes, but probably I haven't missed much, thanks to the hyper-active media. Gotta raise my Marimekko hat for all the numerous people who organized and built this event, they did excellent job!
And of course I need to raise my hat for Madonna, not every person can create this kind of fuss!
What impresses me most, is the fact that the massive concert went so well. It's been said everywhere that it was the biggest ticket-selling concert in Nordic countries, 85000 tickets bought and sold out. Plus maybe some 15000 listening without tickets (an estimate before the concert). The place was Jätkäsaari, the old harbour area in western Hki, where they're planning to build new houses.
One day before the concert Helsingin Sanomat published one-page-sized map of the "Madonna area" and how to get there. There were extra trams, metros, trains, buses, parking places, some closed streets, closed sea area around the concert place and the most impressive - the concert area with its football-stadium-sized gate areas, three audience areas with 8 huge loudspeaker towers and the about 50x90m stage.
My favourite piece of Madonna news was in sports section: some big horse racing event in Lappeenranta had faced surprising problem because practically all the Finnish festival toilets (bajamajas) were in Madonna concert. :D
On the concert day it seemed that the whole Finland (or at least all the medias) had gone Madonna-crazy. It had been on tv news every day, but now it was on every news and every paper, there were even live reporters on the gates. Imagine how much an advertising campaign like that would have cost?! But there's no need to advertise. All you need is Madonna, her first concert in Finland and 85000 people.
They had only minor problems, such as too small waiting area outside gates, long queues to the 1000 bajamajas, even longer queues to the Madonna merchandise shops and drinking area (for less than 20000 people "only"). Policemen/security men were helping with the metro queue around midnight, they let one train-full (900) of people go at the same time to the metro tunnel, it took an hour to get all the people safely in metro. Most people walked and the car queues weren't too massive. Phone operators had put up more masts to Madonna area, but it wasn't enough, phone connections didn't work properly.
The best surviving method in audience was a diaper - no need for toilet queues! The one who invented that is ingenious! :)
Yes, I would have wanted to be there to witness it with my own eyes, but probably I haven't missed much, thanks to the hyper-active media. Gotta raise my Marimekko hat for all the numerous people who organized and built this event, they did excellent job!
And of course I need to raise my hat for Madonna, not every person can create this kind of fuss!