Obvious Class Divide at 'Make Poverty History' Live8?
Very Baffled UK Citizen! | 08.07.2005 20:21 | G8 2005 | Analysis | Social Struggles
If the irradication of poverty is about equality and the sharing of wealth then why was there an obvious class division via the 'Golden Circle' at Live8 Hyde Park?
Class Divide 01
Class Divide 02
Class Divide 03
Says it All!
The concert on Saturday saw 200,000 music fans descend on Hyde Park.
However, the only beverages served in the main site were water and soft drinks however the festival laid on stalls including a margarita bar, champagne and Pimm's area and real-ale and Smirnoff tents within the Golden Circle? There were bars backstage and the so-called 'Golden Circle' areas for about 5,000 VIPs and corporate guests.
One ticket holder, who won access to the concert through the text lottery, said: "It doesn't seem at all fair that the so-called VIPs can drink and the rest of us will have to make do with water and fizzy drinks.
If you had presumed that the gold circle area was full of competition winners then you are very much mistaken as only 5% MAX went in competitions, 35% went in corporate packages, the rest were the media and their hangers on. I know someone who got a VIP ticket simply because his g/f has some flashy job that is vaguely within the media. Am I jealous? No... Pissed off? F*CK YES!!!
Live8 was all about inequality, injustice, the gulf between rich and poor. That was the big political cause. So this was the way that they organised the concert?!
Somewhere near the stage was a promised land, the Gold Circle, filled with VIP's who's paid up to £600 a ticket to be close enough to reach out and touch the stars.
This was a land where beer and champagne flowed like water, where Jonathan Ross reigned supreme in his Perspex bubble, enthroned high above the crowds below.
That was the First World of rock, Live8's G8. But there was another, far bigger Live 8 population, further back, massed behind a fence that cut them off from their ‘betters’ and denied the right to alcoholic beverages, were the huddled masses, the pop proletariat. They - well, we - were Live 8's Third World.
We proles faced a tricky dilemma. We could attempt to get near the stage in the hope of being able to see the glittering icons we'd come to worship. I tried that but I was still miles from the action when I was beaten back by the sheer mass of bodies, the claustrophobic, steaming press of human flesh.
So I took my position about one-third of the way back from the 200,000 strong crowd. The stage was so far away that the performers were invisible.
Whilst others queued for hours to get in, I managed by sheer luck to find myself one of the first few thousand into the park. I made my way closer to the stage, and ended up just behind the VIP section. Relatively speaking we found a good spot, but still couldn't see the stage.
The sense of irony of what the concert was trying to promote was evident throughout. That is fact not fiction, I was there, I saw. Some looked confused?
The first thing was that the site was completely enclosed by a massive fence. This was frustrating on the way in, when people had to queue for at least an hour to get through one entrance in a huge boundary, but was even more annoying on the way out. We left early, but was refused exit from most of the marked exits having been told that these would only open at the end. We had to go all the way back to where we came in (in the north of Hyde Park, quite a walk) to get out. It felt very claustrophobic. This kind of crowd control for free events is a relatively new development. At one time there were many free events in London that were open access and attracted huge crowds - Rock against Racism gigs in the 70s, GLC gigs in the 1980s, gay pride up until the mid-1990s. If things got too crowded, people regulated themselves by spreading out over a larger area or going home. Now even free events are ticket only and contained, preventing any of the spontaneous possibilities of loads of people getting together in a park to have a good time. Notting Hill Carnival seems to be next on the hit list, with plans to move the focus to Hyde Park being raised again.
Inside Hyde Park, it felt very much like the crowd were there to be extras for the TV show. The volume was low for a gig/festival, which destroyed any musical atmosphere, and the screens were out of sync with the sound. Bizarrely people only seemed to get animated when there was a camera pointing at them, perhaps because they felt so remote from the event. Every time the camera swept over the crowd people went mad and started cheering.
A gathering of 250,000 people demanding the abolition of poverty would be pretty amazing, even if the politics of the organisers were dubious. But it didn't feel like that - rather it was an assembly of atomised individuals self-consciously taking part (participating is too strong a word) in a media event. We'd only been there half an hour when we heard the couple next to us say - 'we've done it now - lets take some photos to show people we were here, and go home. We can get a t-shirt on the way out'. That summed up the event, along with having one of the richest people in the world, Bill Gates, talking about abolishing poverty from the stage. He got a cheer as a celebrity, with my lone boo seemingly unheard.
Nothing surprising, but depressing nevertheless.
And so the dust settles on Hyde Park, Live8 the first cracks are immediately apparent. The dreaded VIP (nice toilets, no queues, food, alcohol) area, where some are most definitely more ‘equal’ than others creates a vacuum at the front of the stage. The aerial shots show the great disparity that is unforgivable in an event such as this. And stuck in the middle of it all is Londonista Ken who penned a few words from the horrors of his comfy chair and free champagne whilst flirting with the great and the good!
Having been truly apathetic about Live8, having no opinion one way or the other and not even planning to watch it on TV, it was an odd feeling being presented with Golden Circle tickets at 6pm the night before the event.
Apathy transformed into guilt and a certain cynicism on Saturday, however. We felt somewhat uncomfortable being in such a privileged position, swanning about in the Golden Circle (which contained so much free space, picnic blankets were laid out comfortably and ‘privileged’ children were able to run around playing nicely) while behind us were people crushed up against a barrier!?
Of course, we didn't feel so guilty about it that we'd willingly give up our comfortable privileges and swap places with the unfortunate masses, though.
The question is: is ‘that’ attitude something that translates to the bigger picture?
Back on the beeb there's a lovely shot of a pretty young thing dancing at the back of the VIP area in front of the 'poor' people crushed up at the barrier that separates them, and Londonist suddenly visualises a full on zombie attack on said young thing. Now that would have been a statement on the redistribution of wealth. Eat, as they say, the rich!
A small percentage of the crowd (those who paid for their tickets, and not on ebay either), were allowed in the "inner circle" where they had a perfect view of the stage and were served plenty of refreshments, including alcoholic drinks (Pimms by the gallon from what I heard). The rest of the crowd were too far away from the stage to see anything more than tiny dots and weren't allowed alcoholic drinks. As the majority of the crowd (the deprived group) were behind the privileged minority, they were able to enjoy the concert without having to worry about the injustice going on behind them.
Sure, that's an exaggeration. Not being allowed alcoholic drinks is a minor deprivation and you do kind of expect to not be able to see much of the stage at that sort of gig... BUT
It did strike me that this scenario represents the world really well. The West enjoy their lush, comfortable lifestyle, ignoring the plight of the struggling countries because as long as we can't see them, we don't have to think about them."
I think the golden circle was disgusting, with the exception of special needs groups, but its a sad reflection of the way this world works. People in rich countries have an "I've got it so I'll have it and stuff the rest" attitude.
It IS necessary to have a gap between the stage and the crowd although it doesn't need to be that big. The reason being that if the crowd surges forward, the metal barriers can be pushed down and there is space for people to run into. Without the metal barriers and the space, a crowd surge would result in those at the front of the crowd being crushed against the stage which wouldn't give way. But it's no way necessary for celebrities to be in that gap. Grr!!
However, the only beverages served in the main site were water and soft drinks however the festival laid on stalls including a margarita bar, champagne and Pimm's area and real-ale and Smirnoff tents within the Golden Circle? There were bars backstage and the so-called 'Golden Circle' areas for about 5,000 VIPs and corporate guests.
One ticket holder, who won access to the concert through the text lottery, said: "It doesn't seem at all fair that the so-called VIPs can drink and the rest of us will have to make do with water and fizzy drinks.
If you had presumed that the gold circle area was full of competition winners then you are very much mistaken as only 5% MAX went in competitions, 35% went in corporate packages, the rest were the media and their hangers on. I know someone who got a VIP ticket simply because his g/f has some flashy job that is vaguely within the media. Am I jealous? No... Pissed off? F*CK YES!!!
Live8 was all about inequality, injustice, the gulf between rich and poor. That was the big political cause. So this was the way that they organised the concert?!
Somewhere near the stage was a promised land, the Gold Circle, filled with VIP's who's paid up to £600 a ticket to be close enough to reach out and touch the stars.
This was a land where beer and champagne flowed like water, where Jonathan Ross reigned supreme in his Perspex bubble, enthroned high above the crowds below.
That was the First World of rock, Live8's G8. But there was another, far bigger Live 8 population, further back, massed behind a fence that cut them off from their ‘betters’ and denied the right to alcoholic beverages, were the huddled masses, the pop proletariat. They - well, we - were Live 8's Third World.
We proles faced a tricky dilemma. We could attempt to get near the stage in the hope of being able to see the glittering icons we'd come to worship. I tried that but I was still miles from the action when I was beaten back by the sheer mass of bodies, the claustrophobic, steaming press of human flesh.
So I took my position about one-third of the way back from the 200,000 strong crowd. The stage was so far away that the performers were invisible.
Whilst others queued for hours to get in, I managed by sheer luck to find myself one of the first few thousand into the park. I made my way closer to the stage, and ended up just behind the VIP section. Relatively speaking we found a good spot, but still couldn't see the stage.
The sense of irony of what the concert was trying to promote was evident throughout. That is fact not fiction, I was there, I saw. Some looked confused?
The first thing was that the site was completely enclosed by a massive fence. This was frustrating on the way in, when people had to queue for at least an hour to get through one entrance in a huge boundary, but was even more annoying on the way out. We left early, but was refused exit from most of the marked exits having been told that these would only open at the end. We had to go all the way back to where we came in (in the north of Hyde Park, quite a walk) to get out. It felt very claustrophobic. This kind of crowd control for free events is a relatively new development. At one time there were many free events in London that were open access and attracted huge crowds - Rock against Racism gigs in the 70s, GLC gigs in the 1980s, gay pride up until the mid-1990s. If things got too crowded, people regulated themselves by spreading out over a larger area or going home. Now even free events are ticket only and contained, preventing any of the spontaneous possibilities of loads of people getting together in a park to have a good time. Notting Hill Carnival seems to be next on the hit list, with plans to move the focus to Hyde Park being raised again.
Inside Hyde Park, it felt very much like the crowd were there to be extras for the TV show. The volume was low for a gig/festival, which destroyed any musical atmosphere, and the screens were out of sync with the sound. Bizarrely people only seemed to get animated when there was a camera pointing at them, perhaps because they felt so remote from the event. Every time the camera swept over the crowd people went mad and started cheering.
A gathering of 250,000 people demanding the abolition of poverty would be pretty amazing, even if the politics of the organisers were dubious. But it didn't feel like that - rather it was an assembly of atomised individuals self-consciously taking part (participating is too strong a word) in a media event. We'd only been there half an hour when we heard the couple next to us say - 'we've done it now - lets take some photos to show people we were here, and go home. We can get a t-shirt on the way out'. That summed up the event, along with having one of the richest people in the world, Bill Gates, talking about abolishing poverty from the stage. He got a cheer as a celebrity, with my lone boo seemingly unheard.
Nothing surprising, but depressing nevertheless.
And so the dust settles on Hyde Park, Live8 the first cracks are immediately apparent. The dreaded VIP (nice toilets, no queues, food, alcohol) area, where some are most definitely more ‘equal’ than others creates a vacuum at the front of the stage. The aerial shots show the great disparity that is unforgivable in an event such as this. And stuck in the middle of it all is Londonista Ken who penned a few words from the horrors of his comfy chair and free champagne whilst flirting with the great and the good!
Having been truly apathetic about Live8, having no opinion one way or the other and not even planning to watch it on TV, it was an odd feeling being presented with Golden Circle tickets at 6pm the night before the event.
Apathy transformed into guilt and a certain cynicism on Saturday, however. We felt somewhat uncomfortable being in such a privileged position, swanning about in the Golden Circle (which contained so much free space, picnic blankets were laid out comfortably and ‘privileged’ children were able to run around playing nicely) while behind us were people crushed up against a barrier!?
Of course, we didn't feel so guilty about it that we'd willingly give up our comfortable privileges and swap places with the unfortunate masses, though.
The question is: is ‘that’ attitude something that translates to the bigger picture?
Back on the beeb there's a lovely shot of a pretty young thing dancing at the back of the VIP area in front of the 'poor' people crushed up at the barrier that separates them, and Londonist suddenly visualises a full on zombie attack on said young thing. Now that would have been a statement on the redistribution of wealth. Eat, as they say, the rich!
A small percentage of the crowd (those who paid for their tickets, and not on ebay either), were allowed in the "inner circle" where they had a perfect view of the stage and were served plenty of refreshments, including alcoholic drinks (Pimms by the gallon from what I heard). The rest of the crowd were too far away from the stage to see anything more than tiny dots and weren't allowed alcoholic drinks. As the majority of the crowd (the deprived group) were behind the privileged minority, they were able to enjoy the concert without having to worry about the injustice going on behind them.
Sure, that's an exaggeration. Not being allowed alcoholic drinks is a minor deprivation and you do kind of expect to not be able to see much of the stage at that sort of gig... BUT
It did strike me that this scenario represents the world really well. The West enjoy their lush, comfortable lifestyle, ignoring the plight of the struggling countries because as long as we can't see them, we don't have to think about them."
I think the golden circle was disgusting, with the exception of special needs groups, but its a sad reflection of the way this world works. People in rich countries have an "I've got it so I'll have it and stuff the rest" attitude.
It IS necessary to have a gap between the stage and the crowd although it doesn't need to be that big. The reason being that if the crowd surges forward, the metal barriers can be pushed down and there is space for people to run into. Without the metal barriers and the space, a crowd surge would result in those at the front of the crowd being crushed against the stage which wouldn't give way. But it's no way necessary for celebrities to be in that gap. Grr!!
Very Baffled UK Citizen!
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