Images: Up Front At The Big Day Out Auckland 2007

Images: Up Front At The Big Day Out Auckland 2007

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Brit Indie Rockers Kasabian were a big hit on the green stage with singer Tom Meighan a favourite amongst the crowd

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Brandon Flowers and The Killers

Crowd Economics

It's shortly after 7pm and The Killers are about to play but where I am in the outside middle of the D the mood is overwhelmingly Tool. I notice the quantity of folded arms over black faded tool t-shirts. I don’t think that these fellows are here for The Killers or Muse.

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The Big Day Out 'D-Barrier' can be seen above and is used at big events as a method of crowd control

I know if I want to get up front it will be to The Killers or Muse. I don’t rate my chances of surviving a Tool moshpit too highly.

Thus I start my apologetic looking-for-someone move forward, through the outer rings of the crowd.

Even getting into the D for this lineup is hard enough; and by now almost impossible with the crowd control gates a permanent red for no entry. Some die-hard fans have been fighting for their position on the blue stage since My Chemical Romance played at 3:30.

The anticipation is overwhelming; the crowd is buzzing in the absence of sound from the stage.

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The buzz of anticipation

The Killers come on stage and open with Bones. The first push to the front starts. In crowd economics I know that this is my time to gain some ground so I make my way past anyone showing sign of weakness.

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The Killers everybody!

I see a rough looking fellow making ground behind me. As he passes I jump in behind him. In his wake I make an easy few meters. But we are both stopped as we reach an in-penetrable wall of big rough looking women standing shoulder to shoulder. We will have to go around this lot.

Moving to the left closer to the center of stage the crowd slows down a little as Mr. Flowers performs his modest Enterlude to the echo of the crowd.

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Water check: only a little left – will need it soon though

As the crowd slowly notices the Mr Brightside riff the excitement sets. The crowd surges forward again and I find myself in a good spot for the show just a few meters from the barrier.

A Killers and Big Day Out moment comes with the crowd steadily chanting 'I got soul but I'm not a soldier' building up to All These Things That I've Done.

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'I've got soul but I'm not a soldier

As The Killers depart (without even playing their Exitlude) I move out of the D in hope of scoring some crowd photos from up the top.

I think I quite like being a journalist.

Big Day Out Observations

Every time 44,000 people get together there is bound to be problems. But perhaps thanks to the relative coolness and light breeze the St. John's Ambulance Service 'Chill Out Tent' had a less than expected number of ailments from too many party pills, (bad) ecstasy and dehydration and broken bones.

Out of the 1000 or so treated, only a few serious cases were taken to hospital.

The Big Day Out has always been plagued by logistics. It is after all a big battle organising a concert for 12 hours for 44,000.

Once again the line to the toilets almost went around the stadium. An improvement was the number of food stalls, where the line was not actually too bad, but did fluctuate between gigs.

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Big line to the girls toilets

At one point there was an hour and a half wait for Eftpos – it turns out they ran out of money.

One thing Scoop picked up on was the convention of water gatherers who found a tap a meter from a huge tower of plugs and electric cables. It may have been a little OSH of us to notice, but we did quickly tell someone just to be safe. We wouldn’t want to let the fine print on the back of our ticket down.

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Zap!

There was a definite and welcome sense of security, and crowd control was in no way oppressive. A visible but in no way overwhelming police and medical presence was also welcomed by those who needed it.

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The Police line-up

Overall there was a vibe of enjoyment which was brilliant to be a part of.

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Some anti-emo sentiment

ENDS

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