Cashless Carnival

There was a program on Nat Geo the day before yesterday, which showed how the crew of The Rolling Stones geared up for their biggest live show ever which happened at Copacabana Beach, Rio De Janeiro in Feb 2006.

The concert was free of cost and it is estimated that over a million people attended it. The stage which was set up was at the height of a six storeyed building. It took 2 Boeing 747’s to get all the acoustic systems to the venue. The crowd occupied about half the length of the 2.5 mile long beach. There were about 8 giant video screens and more than a dozen sound towers installed to broadcast the concert for fans who were far off from the stage. The sexagenarian rockers opened the gig with “Jumping Jack Flash”, and blasted out about 20 songs.

10,000 police officers were posted all over the place to take care of any trouble which brewed during the concert. Thankfully there were no casualties, just that:

• About 10 people got squeezed between baricades and were rushed to emergency
• Police rescued about 24 people from drowning in the sea
• One woman went into labour during the concert  

Can you just imagine yourself being part of something of this magnitude? Watching Rolling Stones play to a million people by the beach side? WOW !! Would we ever have something like this in India?

Btw, Another interesting snippet which I managed to google out ;-)

Millions of free condoms were avaialble for those indulging.