Mary

Of course (duuuuh Mary!) The two in the first pic are superstar and 77red! The other is Carolina (Rosa's sister), the Lollipop Boy (Frank? Franco?) and Luke. The last one, Sixtiine and her sister with the french flag, Rosa on the right, with the MFC badge.

That's what happened in Coimbra, for example. But here, Cranberries were co-headliners, why would MFC organize anything? There were other people in the list, not just MFCers, but it would have been even more frustrating to continue the list and then not going in first (that was out of the question for the festival staff) and not even get in in the proper order.

Pics from RADIO COMERCIAL:

Totally agree, especially the bolded part! I think people got so used to talking to him at the end, that sometimes it seems they get offended if he doesn't stop to say 'hi' and sign some things. As for the "first meeting feeling", my first time meeting him was last year, so it's all still very fresh in my memory. It felt like heaven, being able to hear him saying how much he liked the gig, the crowd, etc, and being able to give him some feedback too. But I also can relate with the bittersweet feeling you have when you're so close to finally meet him and he leaves before you can say anything. The girl who asked for the pic had never met him, and when she did, said the usual thing, asked if it was possible to take a pic with him. He said no, but agreed on taking a pic with the Portuguese FC, after she mentioned it. I was actually pretty surprised, but happy of course. And I warned people "YOO PORTUGUESE FAN CLUB TO THE PICTURE!" and well...apparently there's a couple "honorary portuguese" around here!

Haven't seen the video yet, but I filmed the whole song! Yes, not a written list, just a "normal" queue. Obviously the numbered people who were already there got in order and everyone arriving after, stayed after them in the queue. The thing is, there was not just one line to get in the festival, there were 6 lines, with 6 policemen searching our bags, 6 security guards checking the tickets etc. And obviously it would have been impossible to control the numbers there, there were 6 people entering at the same time. And I tried to explain that for MONTHS here, and still people were upset with that system. It's like that at every festival I ever went to, is it THAT different in other countries? This M&G was not organized at all, although it was a bit more civilized than I was thinking at first. But Mika was basically surrounded by everyone there. No screams, no pushing (just a bit towards the end, when he was about to leave and some people haven't talked to him or asked for an autograph), but still not organized. Oh we are spoiled, absolutely!

I have some more stuff to tell, and pics and videos to share, but it has to be later...now I'm going to sleep a bit.

The M&G, for me it didn't seem so "extreme" as Liliana described it, but some things still make me sad. Not mad, but sad really. It was the first time in 5 gigs here that we had the chance to actually talk to him as a group (in Lisbon they gave us 4 backstage passes only, so yes I had my dream M&G but 90% of my friends didn't). First time for many of them to actually SEE Mika off the stage. So yes, we got a bit "greedy" when he said (and I quote) "Just one picture, with the portuguese fanclub." And sad when he said that and people didn't leave room for portuguese fans to join (more than 2 appeared on the pic, I've seen it, but not everyone. I think Liliana didn't even got to be in the pic, and poor Mika ended up being squished for everyone to try to appear). You know I have NOTHIIIIIIIIING against the MFC or MFCers (ffs, I live here! LOL) but it seems some people (fortunately not many) just can't understand what it means to have a group pic taken with him, the first in 5 years. Bad things aside, he was extremely generous, kind and patient. Mika at his best, really. He was sooooo sweet asking for Superstar and 77red! I finally got my BG pic signed (have been trying since Vigo, last August) and got to ask him about the goddamn group pic with all the LG and BG at sudoeste: Me: Mika, can I just ask you a question? Mika: Yeah, sure. Me: we got a group pic taken with you at Sudoeste, LG and BG, last year, and we never got to see it. Mika *signing things* Yeah... *looks at me* Wait...no-one sent you the pic??? Me: Uh...no... Mika: I'll figure it out. *keeps signing things* *signs my pic* Me: so...about the Sudoeste pic...how will we get it? Mika: I have noooo idea! Who took it? Me: I don't know... Mika: One of the girls? Tour manager? Me: No, Maria told me it was probably a friend of yours. Mika: Uh...no. Me: Ok then... So, basically the pic is (and will be) lost in some twlilight zone! After this we took the group pic, and he left. Kachiiiing!

Hiiiii! 7 am here! Just slept like a baby and... oh wait... I'll just do the possible report now (please keep in mind that I haven't slept for basically 24 hours and I'm dead tired! LOL) So, first... thank you everyone who came to the pre-gig meet up! Finally got to meet my penguin Mommy; Her Royal Awesomeness, miss Ingie (your sooo famous! Like! OMG I DID HANG OUT WITH YOU! WOWZA! ), Jazzy, Luke, Treasa, Kath, Sylvie, Sixtine, THE AMERICANS! ,oh god...I will forget someone, so I might aswell stop now. My spanish girls...WAPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS! Miss you already! And the usual portuguese gang, you are the best. So...now...the festival. LOL It's kinda "funny" (in a twisted way, I mean) when you plan THE DAY BEFORE that there will not be any list, and then you arrive at the festival and there's a list since 8 am. On the other hand, it's pretty easy to finish it, apparently. So, mission number one was accomplished at around 1 pm. LOL Anyway, we adopted this very weird new queuing system: order of arrival. Bet you never heard of that one! It all went well in the end, but it took 2 guys from the festival staff to say the numbers thingy wouldn't work, so people would believe us. Yeah, sad I know... Oh well... Inside it was a bigger mess (have I mentioned before that there would be a second barrier inside? Hmmmm) When they opened it it was the most insane thing I've ever seen, people running, people falling, a dust cloud covering all of us... As I tweeted before and you could see on the pics, we got 1st and 2nd row, great places, if you ask me. I was lucky enough to have this amazing bunch of Cranberries fans in front of me, Liliana's boyfriend was front row, and we ended up giving one of those girls his spot to see Cranberries, and they gave us their front row spots after their gig. I love you greek girls who gave Dolores the floweeeeers! They were extremely firendly, and it was a win-win situation. Aurea, the first act, was amazing. Loved her voice live (it was my first time seeing her) and I was impressed. Thumbs up! Tindersticks gig was torture. Pure medieval torture. With rain? DOUBLE torture. Cranberries were great! Dolores has an incredible stage presence, and despite all the technical problems with lights and sound, it was a very good gig. And then Mika. No need to say anything, right? Short gig (maybe the weather didn't help, he had Touches You on the setlist but didn't play it, for example. Dunno, and it doesn't matter. I had the time of my life. End of story. iMMa rooooocked as always. OMG that Happy Ending finale? Sould be one of the 7 wonders of the world! And yay Ben, liked him on stage. He's no Jimmy, obviously, doesn't interact so much with everyone, but seemed really cool! Overall, it wasn't the worst gig (not even close) but maybe the worst festival experience. Awful weather, awful middle act (lol), stressing queuing and stuff, uncomfortable place, etc. But I also need to say that meeting everyone made up for all that. (M&G report and a couple funny details coming)

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Parabéééééééns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Erm...oui.

Nooo no, I'm not talking about advantages for the homies. Just respect. For example (and I've experienced this): when you tell someone that in your country people start queuing at, let's say, 6 pm, and that there's no need to queue during the night, and STILL people do that, just to get in front of you...I mean...it's stupid. This is not a competition (I mean, for the normal people it's not). When you start hearing stuff like "oooh, the people from forum X want to get there before the ones from the forum Y, and the girls from country A need to get there before the ones from country B..." , it's a sign that thing are getting out of control, especially when you see this coming from people who have seen Mika a gazillion times. And in the middle of that, the homies are totally ignored, I'm afraid. I don't really mind if people start ququing at 2, 3, 5 or 6 am, because I know I won't do that (unless I'm on drugs or something). The thing is, people got so competitive they do that everywhere, no matter what you tell them.

:bow: This queuing thing is getting too mad, IMO. I even read people saying the queuing for Porto gig would be a disaster without the numbers. WTF? I mean...you don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand the "normal" queuing system, are you? I only got to use the numbers at Mika gigs, and never EVER had a problem in a queue, and didn't even need to start at stupid o'clock. The thing is, there are a number of people who WANT to start the list, no matter what, WANT to take care of eveything (must be a very empowering position ). And this is a snowball effect, if you want to start the list, you need to get there first. If you hear someone's going at 6 am, you get there at 4. But then someone knows that, and go at 2... And so on... It got to the point of people not trusting each other ("ooh they say they're going at 9, they want to fool us, let's go at 7!" ) Seriously?? Pretty idiot, if you ask me, but who am I to tell people what they should do, I leave it to common sense. I won't even comment on the "patrol" thing. It's way too stupid for my understanding.

Oh my, I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking this! It's not an anti-foreigners thing (I speak for myself, love having people from other countries here), is more a matter of respect for the usual "rules" of the countries where the gigs take place. But I don't want to sound bitchy, and get on with this discussion here, just wanted to...agree.

I seriously have troubles understanding why people start queuing at such stupid hours. But that's just me. Do they even get to the gig in good physical conditions to enjoy it? The "organizers" probably wanted their friends to get there earlier than the other fans, that's how it seems to me. That's what you get when you have 12 year olds taking care of stuff. Glad the gig went well anyway, and that no-one got hurt during all that mess!

Wow I want a 3 hours concert too!!!! Thanks for the videos and pics! It all made me even more anxious for the Lisbon gig!

Lucky you!

For a moment I thought you were posting this one:

What tha...?

As long as he's fresh and ready to rock on saturday, I'm fine with it.