The U2 360 Concert at Cape Town Stadium. (19 Feb)

What an amazing experience it was to finally be able to see the famous band in Cape Town, as for many years there really hasn't been venue in the Atlantic Seaboard area and that has left the whole of Cape Town at a loss... This is the major benefit of having had the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa: greater facilities for events and an improved organisational skills of both the city and security structures, like the police.

The Cape Town Stadium had been set up for the concert to deal with 66,000 spectators and even I was surprised by the turn-out in the center of town, as there were literally mobs of crowds thronging the FanWalk.


There were myriads of people filing along the route from the Cape Town Station, as a couple of African dancers performed for the crowds and vendors tried to get the people to buy their merchandise (especially, the U2-360 t-shirts). As we got to the pedestrian-bridge that carried the fans over the busy Buitengracht street, we encountered the first bottleneck, as everyone tried to file up and over the bridge. There were a number of people taking fotographs of the crowds and the scene in front of us.

When we got passed the bridge, we found an amazing scene were a local DJ was playing U2 songs over an impressive sound-system, which had a lot of people stopping to watch the monitors, as the video footage was displayed for all to see. About 50m, there was a local cover band on the roof of the one petrol-station, who were playing a number of U2's more well known hits: Mysterious Ways; Staring at the Sun;With you or Without you; In the Name of Love...


                After that there was a big area of restuarants and shops that were making a killing out of the concert event, as they had a prime location directly on to the Fanwalk, which was absolutely packed to the gills with fans.

When we finally got to the Stadium, we found that there were thousands of people squeezing through the pedestrian underpass towards the front gates and with all of the beers that were drunk on the way, there was a bottleneck for the half dozen portaloos available. We followed the crowds through the railings and then up into the Concession Area, before we made our way up to where our seats were situated. I was more surprised that the organisers had managed to keep all the fans under control, as the layout was more complicated than usual, because of there being 10,000+ people set out to be in the Standing-Room-Only area around of the stage. There easily had to be over 66,000 people inside the Stadium, as there wasn't an empty seat to be seen anywhere and still more people coming in!

At 8:30pm (roughly), U2 came out onto the stage and got the concert started with a bang, as they launched into one of their current hits from their new album. The noise from the crowd was incredible and without the massive speakers, no one would have been able to hear anything at all!

I could see that Brianna, Torquay, Su-Tze and Mei-Li were awestruck by the level of the performance that they were witnessing and Even Shimbavi  and Kimberly were dumbstruck by the atmosphere inside the Stadium, which was on par with a number of the other U2 concerts that I have seen overseas in Montreal and Los Angeles.

The ladies were completely enthralled by the U2 songs, One Life and U2's cover of "Stand By Me", which had all 66,000+ people singing along in unison. That was amazing, even for me, to hear thousands of people singing with one voice! I don't know what the Johannesburg concert was like, but the Cape Town Stadium left an indelible mark on both me and the ladies, because of the incredibly exciting music and atmosphere...


Brianna and Torquay were completely mesmerised by U2's In the Name Of Love and there were visible tears in theire eyes, as they listened to the voice of Bono. I was really happy that they had been able to experience this U2 concert, as they will remember it for a long time!