Sunday 31 March 2013

Words on Hanging Rock...

Unlike the seats in the arena, where during one show in Sydney I was in the floor seats, Hanging Rock's seated area is essentially, just another GA pit.
I left a bag of food on my chair in A7 and went to the bar on the other side of the venue near the A1 section with the plan to head back to the seats when The E Street Band came on.
I never made it back.

In fact, I never sat down once. And unlike the second Sydney arena show where people threw bottles at me - despite ticket selling websites saying that people will be expected to stand during the show, and Springsteen later telling the crowd to 'get off their arses' - nobody at Hanging Rock said a word.

This was a little surprising after the show when I realised that printed on my wristband is clear instructions saying 'Please do not stand in aisles'.
Which is precisely what I and most other people did for almost three hours.
After being annoyed at people who thought that everyone should sit down at a Springsteen show - WRONG - and then stopped by security in Melbourne for taking pictures on my phone, it was excellent to see the Hanging Rock staff weren't too bothered about stopping people from having a good time.

GA for Hanging Rock - 2 looks set to be a lottery system after dozens of fans arrived early for the show and the large site at one point saw two individual lines of people waiting in line, thinking they were to get first entry.

One line was numbered and recorded in the established Springsteen roll call fashion that has taken place across the Australian tour. The other was not.

I never made it into GA for the first show but arriving before gates opened at 12pm they were still handing out GA numbers and the situation didn't seem too explosive.

The lottery system works so that everyone before a certain time gets given a number, then at that time - I believe to be 1.30pm today - a number will be called out, and the set amount of people from that number onwards get to go in.

So if they are letting in 200 people, and 400 arrive before cut off time, and the number 357 is called, it will be the 200 people from 357 onwards... (357-400 then 1-143...)

But looking at the GA Front Standing on Saturday as late as 4pm, their is still plenty of space to grab a front row spot on the wider stage.

One word of warning at Hanging Rock however, wherever you're seated or standing, don't expect to get home in a hurry.

Cars were still stuck trying to get out after 2 hours on Saturday with people getting angry and frustrated with the parking and exit layout.

If you're heading there today, best take one of the buses.

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