This entry is 2 months late. You can imagine our EIC spanking me for this. :P
Last June, I jetted off to Dubai+Abu Dhabi, UAE to watch my FIRST-EVER concert (at 26) and rightly giving the honor to the Queen of Pop, the most iconic woman in the history of music, you got it: Madonna.
I've been a fan since the early 90s. Kids my age had a high probability of being dressed about by their mothers in Madonna-inspired fashion, ala-Like A Virgin music video, complete with the excessive bangles, the leather jacket and a bow tied up their hair. As a teenager, I succumbed to the boy band mania and even to the rock n' roll genre, but Madonna was always there. Churning out hits like 'Frozen' and 'Music', with each song/album presenting her always-reinvented self. And I was always amazed at how she was able to do it.
When I read that she was going on tour and that she had a tour date in the Middle East for the first time, I really thought that this was my chance! Lucky for me, I had friends who were Madonna fans too and when I shared the news with them, they were as excited as I was to attend this once-in-alifetime concert!
Mind you, we bought our tickets as early as February during the pre-selling period (Official sales was at March and the concert was slated waaay over to June). We had to pay extra to get membership to the Madonna Fan Club website so that we can get the code for the pre-sold tickets. When the March public selling date opened, the tickets were ALL SOLD OUT in less than two hours! This prompted the tour to later on add a Day 2 Concert.
The venue was set for Yas Island in Abu Dhabi and my friends and I had originally planned to get the Golden Circle tickets (the one that comes after the VIP status), but even when we were able to get through the pre-selling period, by the time I was able to log in, the Golden Circle pre-selling tickets were already sold out, and we were stuck with General Admission. Deep breaths I thought. It's better to buy them now than to fight and wrestle through the internet connection during the public selling. So there, at 495AED, we got our MDNA concert tickets via email:
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| The event was promoted by ThinkFlash UAE. |
The big day finally arrived and I was in the UAE for five days (Dubai for strolling and Abu Dhabi for the concert, entry on that to follow). I arrived with my concert buddies Ate Czes and Doc D. We had a jam-packed itinerary and upon arriving at Abu Dhabi, we were supposed to do certain things, like go to Ferrari World first before going to the concert. However, when we arrived there, we realized that the lines at Ferrari World could take forever and since our concert tickets were only General Admission, I didn't want to risk losing my chance to be in the front row of the line to the gates. I didn't want to be all the waaaay back of the stadium only to see Madge from the big screen! if that were the case, then I would be better off watching her on Youtube, in the comfort of my own house, right?
Even if my friends were reluctant, they agreed to sit it out til 7PM, which was the official opening of the gates. So, that made it four (almost five, actually) hours of sitting outside, on the grass, under the sun, heat+humidity et al.
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| We inquired if we could still upgrade our tickets, but no, totally SOLD OUT. |
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| The entrance grounds. |
