Thousands of people were queuing today for their second chance to see Saturday’s star-studded Live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park.
Additional free tickets to watch the event on giant screens at the park were being given out across the country. They will be made available today from venues in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester, Oxford and Southampton.
The 55,000 extra places are being given out in pairs on a first-come-first-served basis. Outside the Apollo Victoria in Central London, the barriers were already filling up with scores of people equipped with deckchairs and sleeping bags.
Robert McDonald secured his place at the head of the line at 1pm yesterday. The 41-year-old, who was in Belize and so missed out on the original Live Aid 20 years ago, downed tools at his commercial cleaning company as soon as he heard of the ticket giveaway on the radio.
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He jumped on the first train he could from Whitstable, Kent, and said today: “I did 25 texts (to try and get tickets). I just basically want to go and see the groups and have a good day out and be part of it. I am looking forward to seeing U2 and Pink Floyd, definitely.”
He added: “The whole thing’s worth camping out for, the whole atmosphere. It has been pretty chilled out, but there was not that many people - only 12 of us here until about 4pm then people just started filtering through. It stayed like that through most of the evening until the early hours of the morning.”
Behind him Aldo Seimandi, from Mexico, together with girlfriend Zoe Goodman, was also looking forward to seeing the reunited Pink Floyd. I got here at 4pm, second in the queue. It has been a long time - an eternity, but worth it.
“I have never seen them before. I have been waiting for this moment for a long time,” said the 22-year-old, who is working in London as a barman.
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Students Suzy Huber, 20, and Catelyn Roberts, 21, from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Canada played cards and even managed an hour’s sleep after their 1am arrival. Catelyn said: “It is actually not been that bad - everybody we have met has been really nice and we all just chatted, hung out, shared food.
“We really wanted tickets. We don’t want to risk coming late and not getting them. Our original plan was to go to Hyde Park at 1am and climb a tree and hide out, but we figured this was a better bet.”
Some 150,000 people have already been allocated tickets to the concert itself after a text message competition. Those who missed out may now still go to the park and watch the concert on screens set up in an area south of the Serpentine, if they manage to obtain one of the tickets released today.
Those not lucky enough to obtain either have been warned to stay away and told they will not be able to see anything from outside as the park will be surrounded by a wall. They were urged to go to one of the other screens being put up around the country, or to head for Edinburgh to make their voices heard at a Make Poverty History rally set to take place there.
Stars such as Madonna, Robbie Williams and Sir Paul McCartney will play at the London event to draw attention to Third World poverty and debt. It is taking place just days before the leaders of the world’s richest countries meet for the G8 conference at Gleneagles in Scotland.
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Other free concerts will take place on the same day in Philadelphia, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Johannesburg, Tokyo and Toronto.
The 55,000 extra free tickets will be restricted to two per person. They will be issued from 3pm until 7pm today, with box offices re-opening tomorrow at 10am if any have not been claimed. They will be issued in London at the Carling Apollo Theatre in Hammersmith, The Apollo Theatre, in Victoria, The Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Road, and at Stargreen Tickets in Argyll Street in the West End.
Outside the capital, tickets will be available at the Birmingham Alexandra Theatre, the Bristol Hippodrome, Cardiff International Arena, Manchester Palace Theatre, the Oxford New Theatre and at Southampton Guildhall.
The event will also be broadcast on BBC television, and will be shown on big screens at public venues around the country. The following screening locations have been confirmed:
Manchester, Exchange Square
Birmingham, Chamberlain Square
Liverpool, Clayton Square
Hull, Queen Victoria Square
Leeds, Millennium Square
Bournmouth, Meyrick Park
Plymouth, Armada Way
Wrexham, Queens Square
Belfast, Customs House Square
Inverness, Caledonian Stadium
St Helier, Jersey, People’s Park
Guernsey, L’Eree