Was DNA Twiddling Their Thumbs?

I'm no expert on music events, but I've had some experience with events in general, and music events in particular, to add my two cents worth in this uproar created by the Metallica debacle in Gurgaon.


First let me set the background a little. Traditionally, Indian metal fans have not had much more to satisfy themselves with apart from illegally downloaded music. I remember when I was growing up the likes of Napster and AudioGalaxy (still considered my favourite online music community) were the saviours... But things were not easy for us back in the day. The RIAA was hellbent on making our lives hell, and most music shops had not even heard of some of the bands I was listening to at age thirteen. Things got better though - today you can walk into a music store and actually find some bands, and of course torrents are the answer to all of life's problems. BUT, metal shows were still a rarity... My first recollection of a BIG metal act in India is of Iron Maiden in 2007. That was a dream come true for some 70,000 metal fans in India. Since then, we've had a pretty good in-flow of niche and commercial metal acts from all over the world...


Metallica is a different league altogether though. They've been around forever (forever means since before I've been around :-P). They are one of the biggest bands in the world today, to the extent that it is almost impossible for any new band to be as big, especially in the same genre. Whether you like them or not, you've probably heard them at least a couple of times in your life. Many of us grew up listening to them and the opportunity to watch Metallica live is almost like a childhood dream come true. With the canvas painted like this, everyone in India knew that the Metallica show was going to be complete mayhem and madness, but quite magical... That was till some inconspicuous retard got on stage at 6:30 PM on October 28^th, 2011, at the Leisure Valley Grounds in Gurgaon and announced that Metallica cannot play today because of some 'technical difficulties' and will play tomorrow at 4 PM. There were at least 30,000 of us in the grounds at that time, all stunned and shocked that the FIRST ever Metallica show in India just got canned. I'm sure there were others apart from me who thought, hoped and wished that it was just a prank. Alas, that was just wishful thinking...

What followed was mayhem, but it was quite different from the mayhem we had come prepared for. Fans went berserk. Fingers were shown, obscenities were screamed, the stage was broken down, banners were burnt, equipment was thrashed... Some of us just stood in a corner, dejected in disbelief. And while I will not condone the violence and vandalizing that ensued the cancellation, I can somehow understand the emotions of the dejected fans, some who've waited all their lives for this, some who would've saved for months to travel cross-country to watch their favourite band live. It is natural to feel cheated to the point that you get violent.

This brings me to what I really want to talk about... What, after all, got the event canceled? Was it technical difficulties? Was it the rowdy crowd that broke the front barrier? Or was the band simply throwing a bitch fit? Here is where my miniscule experience with music festivals and live events comes into the picture, and I sincerely want to ask the organizers, DNA, what they were doing eight months prior to the show when they started preparing for it? Twiddling their thumbs?! Anyone who has attended a couple of big concerts in their life would have realised even before they entered the venue that chaos reigned the entire place. Parking was haywire – we really didn't know where to enter from, where to get a parking ticket from, where to get the car checked, even though a parking attendant said all of this needed to be done. As we walked from the parking lot to the entrance gates, a huge swarm of people – like bees hovering around a beehive – greeted us. An indistinct sign told us this was the ticket counter and the entrance gates were up ahead. While walking in from the entrance gate we realised we were walking over broken barricades – remnants of the war fought a few hours back when the gates were opened. There were no proper lanes made for queues, you couldn't tell if the male and female security lines were different, or if there were any security lines to begin with. The peek into my bag was a mere formality; the only thing they paid any real attention to was my ticket. It was the same for the entire group I was with. Apart from the four people checking the crowd walking in, there was no security at the entrance; no bouncers to control any untoward instances.

Once inside the venue, the only things you could see clearly were toilet signages and DNA and Vladivar branding across the perimeter of the ground. You couldn't tell if there were any F&B stalls, where they were and what was available at the stalls. We finally found one one stall, again with bees flocking it. I managed to wriggle my way through the bees to the front and found that there was no water available, so we had to make do with an insipid burger and some coke. No other food stalls, no clear indication of where to get water from, and absolutely no alcohol. Shittness! While we were looking for food to fill our stomachs and water to quench our thirst, there was an American screaming into the PA system asking the crowd in the front to take a GIANT STEP BACKWARD (yes, the first thing that came to my mind was that Neil Amstrong would be twisting in his grave listening to these words). Apparently, the front barricade had broken down and the show could not begin till it was fixed. The LED screens (very small in comparison to the size of the venue) on both corners of the stage asked the crowd to move back while the barricade was fixed. This kept going on for two hours. During the entire time there was no sign of any security or crowd control measures. We did not see even a single person who looked like he belonged to a security agency employed to maintain some form of order. The reports from those in the front were no different... And then we all know by now what followed.

So was DNA really just twiddling their thumbs? Yes, the crowd was mad and chaotic. Yes, handling such large numbers is not an easy job. I am under no illusion that being on the other side of the stage is an easy cakewalk. I have been a part of and experienced some pretty tense last minute glitches backstage myself. But DNA is no neophyte to events and music concerts in India. They are the main event producers for the IPL. Thanks to them, the Indian audience is almost tired of watching Bryan Adams live (though his last show did get canceled for lack of permissions from the government). The Iron Maiden show mentioned above was done by them twice over in two different cities. Soon after the second Maiden show, they single handedly managed a maverick, deliriously drunk friend of mine who broke through all security checks to greet Machinehead personally! (He is quite a handful, trust me). After all this and more, one would think that handling a crowd of 25,000-30,000 people would be well within their capabilities. But the lack of security and crowd control measures, the inchoate F&B arrangements, inadequate toilet facilities for the magnitude of people gathered, and the complete last minute cancellation of the show leave a bittersweet taste in the mouth as far as DNA is concerned. Many of us will probably think twice before purchasing tickets for their next show...