Having scrambled to get the (60 quid!) tickets to see the best of Britain's bands, I and my died in the wool Blur and New Order fan friends couldn't wait to go to Hyde Park to see them, and experience the closing of the Olympics. In the event, it turned out to be the worst gig I have ever been to. Just heartbreaking. And a total rip off.
The bands, fair play to them, were brilliant. When we could hear them. The venue - terrible. Planning on spending the whole afternoon there, we took food, as the ticket said we could. We were stopped outside, told we couldn't take anything in, and joined the hundreds of people crowding outside the gates, scoffing what they had brought. Inside, after an incredibly long wait to get through security, it turned out that they had set up a venue to cater for 20,000 people and invited 80,000. Hour long queues for drinks, longer than that for awful food (best of British? Er, no), screens that kept going blank instead of showing the last of the Olympic action.
The overcrowding spilled into the unbelievable cues for toilets, lack of mobile phone reception meaning lost friends, and the fact that it was impossible to get near the stage. When Blur came on, we couldn't see them, much less hear them. All we could hear was the chattering of the bored fans next to us. It might have been a great gig - who knows? They turned the sound down so low we couldn't tell.
Note to self - never go to another gig in Hyde Park. Note to organisers - if the rules say you have to turn the volume down to the point where the audience can't hear, find another venue. And keep the guest list to a number you can cater for. I saw Blur in Hyde Park in 2009. It was amazing. Why has so much had to change? Could it be greed?