We went the other weekend Saturday to the Olympic concert at cannonhill park in Birmingham this was to the run up of the Olympics London 2012. The other half’s daughter had won 2 VIP tickets from a competition she entered when we visited Cadburys world, unfortunately because there was only 2 tickets and 5 of us in total, my partner rang up and got two standard tickets aswell by email, so we went with both girls aged 10 and 11. This did cause a few problems our end as could only get four tickets as the organizers said it was a maximum of 4 tickets per family.
Unfortunately because of going to the concert we didn’t see the running of the torch in our local towns, Lichfield, Great Wyley, Bloxwich, Walsall etc. As from leaving Burntwood / Brownhills, we had to go to Accocks Green to pick up my daughter, Because the tickets and the literature had different times on we got there for about 1pm. Around the area there were loads of Marshall’s blocking off roads and cones so that you couldn’t park. we got by the normal main car park entrance to cannonhill park and asked the Marshall about disabled parking he told us in a round about way was down by the nature centre on the Pershore Road, getting there this wasn’t the case, even asked someone else and they didn’t know, but the signs said disabled parking on the Edgebaston cricket ground parking, so got to the car park but no one on the gates, so had to ask inside, I know the normal parking was on the one side of the cricket ground, which did have attendants on, but the one of the Pershore road didn’t, so was very confusing on parking, incidently, when we got into the park we spoke to a disabled older guy that recently had a heart op and had the same problems he had parked on the nature center and when getting into the main concert area was told he shouldn’t have parked there and would have to move his car, by walking back as none of the officials would help him, not that great for someone that walked with two sticks and did seem out of breath.
Upon getting into to Cannonhill park there was the gates and barriers, as we was only about 50 people waiting when we got there, there was two entrance gates, as we had 2 VIP tickets we could queue at the one gate though this was a bit of a problem as only 2 tickets was VIP and the tickets i had for me and my daughter was standard, but because my partner is disabled they did let us trough the VIP gate. Now we had took a picnic bag with sandwiches and a few drink with us, now this was a real problem as they didn’t want us to take in any food or drink, but after abit of arguing as on the tickets or literature that we had it didn’t say that you couldn’t bring in food or drink, now for an outdoor concert i think this is very unfair especially as the tickets was either won or given away in different ballots. Even two girls next to us had two small bottles of coca cola taken off them, and remember this even was sponsored by coca cola.
Once in the main stage was at the one end with all the food, sponsors, bar etc on the sides. We did get by the front at the side, but did move back abit as we got a better view of the stage, at the sides of the stage was large screens so you could see what was going on in and on the stage anyway. The VIP tickets we had were to be honest a joke as we was told could access certain parts that people with standard tickets couldn’t, but no one there seemed to know anything about it, i had several trips from the stage to the entrance as we had been told to go back to the entrance, then when got there no one knew what to do, eventually is was found out that you had special wristband, which we did get, but there was another problem these wrist band let you get to a special bar and food area with better toilets, but because there was four in our family but only two VIP tickets they would only give us 2 wrist band even though my partner is disabled, so if i needed to go with her, we would have had to leave two children on there own. We wasn’t the only people that had problems like this as i spoke to at least 6 different people that had the same problems.
The concert part was great as there were three main acts Loick Ession, Morning Parade and the headline act The Wanted, between the main acts you had all different entertainment including samsung dancers etc.
We watched the torch being brought in and then light the cauldron on the stage by Kiran Sahota incidently next to us in the crowd was here family who was great as we got a close up look at the torch which was brilliant as my partners lad was doing a homework project on the torch and the Olympics and he was making a paper mache torch so was great to see it up close. After the major of Birmingham had made his speech etc there was the main headline act of the wanted playing, now this is where I am showing my age I really didn’t know there songs but the kids did, though halfway through their set the heavens opened and started to tip it down with heavy rain but that didn’t bother the girls, as they really enjoyed it.
Even after the problems we had and the rain at the end it was a great day out, though I think it could have been organised a bit better, I not sure of the security firm that was dealing with it in conjunction with Birmingham city council but with all the problems wouldn’t be surprised is was to do with G4S 🙂 Aswell we thought i was busy but with being mainly towards the front didn’t know how many people was there, i had heard that between 20-30 thousand people were estimated to go and the next day I had heard that just under 10,000 people had turned up.
See Images I created using the Olympic rings as inspiration, from using bottle tops, to lego mini figs click HERE
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