Joel Gibson
July 9, 2007
Out front, Crowded House were getting reacquainted, Missy Higgins made a cameo with Paul Kelly, and a beamed message from the "former next president of the United States", Al Gore, told the 45,000-strong throng they had the power to halt climate change.
But out back, where revellers go to buy their fluids and to get rid of them, and where big events often live or die, there was a different kind of drought. Faced with record beer queues, thirsty fans at Saturday's Live Earth concert at Sydney's Aussie Stadium were seen by the Herald offering others $50 for their beer rather than wait an hour to buy refreshments.
Thousands, deprived of the traditional rock 'n' roll accompaniment, went to a Coca-Cola stand, forgetting that its manufacturers had been under fire in India for allegedly creating water shortages and pollution around their bottling facilities.
Scores were seen leaving within the first two hours of the nine-hour festival, fed up with the lack of basic services, cutting their losses on a $99 ticket. Gate attendants were heard telling the human tide that they should complain to the promoter.
It was "unAustralian", one spectator protested. "This is what happens when you let hippies organise a big event," another said. One woman, asked by Missy Higgins "how you all are back there", earned a wry round of applause from the stands when she shouted: "Sober."
But Rina Ferris, a spokeswoman for the event's promoters, Michael Chugg and Mark Pope, said neither the venue nor the promoter had received a single complaint. And queues and sobriety were not enough to prevent the global party from being a roaring success for those who stuck it out until the dying strains of Crowded House.
Squads of pamphleteers handed out tips - on recycled paper - about tackling climate change. The stadium's hoardings were covered with the event's "seven pledges" for improving our carbon footprint.
Police charged 19 people with drug offences.
The Sydney event was one of eight Live Earth concerts. . The others were in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hamburg, London, Johannesburg, New York and Rio de Janeiro, with a token gig in Antarctica.
In Britain, organisers had to explain Madonna's participation after the US Fox News Network revealed her links to some of the world's biggest polluters. Her Ray of Light Foundation has $US4.2 billion of shares in companies such as the aluminium giant Alcoa, the Ford Motor Company and Weyerhaeuser, a forest products company.
Kevin Wall, the founder of Live Earth, told London's Sunday Telegraph: "Madonna is here today, which shows her commitment. Today we're not focusing on what she or any of the artists may have done in their past; it is about the future."
Greenpeace criticised the German leg of the concerts because the carmaker DaimlerChryslerhad been chosen as a sponsor.
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