Fans dressed in leopard designs began to boo in frustration
 |
 |
R&B star Rihanna began her show at the On the Beach Festival in Helsinki’s Hietaniemi more than an hour behind schedule.
The long wait slightly deflated the early evening’s joyous atmosphere, which was still in full swing around nine o’clock among the audience, which predominantly consisted of young women.
15-year-old Henna Kuisma, in her leopard design dress, and her likewise 15-year-old friend Suvituuli Vainio had both bought new outfits for Rihanna’s Monday night gig.
“Rihanna is just so good! The lyrics and the songs are totally insane. We bought the tickets already in May, almost immediately after they became available”, the friends explained at the Hietaniemi bathing beach.
In all, 16,000 thousand tickets had been sold for the On the Beach festival.
Many of the fans appeared to be imitating their idol’s style of dressing.
The front of the stage was filled with girls dressed in miniskirts, micro shorts, and naturally tops with jungle animal motifs.
In the middle of “Hietsu”, a platform smaller than the main stage had been erected, on which skimpily-dressed warm-up dancers did their best to keep up the atmosphere.
Surprisingly the loudspeaker system played Madonna, even though the audience clearly belonged to Rihanna.
Although the evening’s top billing was not convinced (based on her Twitter tweets) about the Helsinki weather, the audience did not seem to be too concerned about the changeable-looking sky.
“The atmosphere here is really good. Especially now that the rain has stopped”, enthused Melissa Löyttyniemi, 19. She had travelled to Helsinki from Turku with her friend Judit Niemi, 18. “We want to hear the kind of songs the lyrics of which we know. The most important thing is a good vibe”, the girls said.
While waiting for the pop star, the audience kept singing and dancing in the darkening evening.
Some constructed kites out of toilet paper, while others snapped photographs with digital cameras and mobile phones.
After an hour and more’s wait, the vibe in Hietaranta started to lose its momentum. Booing began to circulate around the audience at the star's non-appearance, and thumbs-down gestures were to be seen in the crowd.
This was understandable. After all, the 23-year-old R&B singer from Barbados was by now more than 75 minutes late. The Finns are not used to the antics of the world’s great R&B divas.
In Finland an artist is expected to be stylishly late - no more than 15 minutes behind the clock.
Furthermore, many of the members of the Monday night audience had already waited the previous night for more than an hour for the arrival of American rap star Kanye West in Suvilahti, at the Flow Festival.
Once bitten, twice shy.
Fortunately, a couple of minutes later and before the mood had a chance to turn ugly, Rihanna finally left her dressing room and flounced onto the stage dressed in a top tied in a knot above her navel and a pair of blue mini shorts, and the bonhomie was quickly restored.
In the dark August evening, Rihanna kicked off her Helsinki gig with two well-known hits - Only Girl (In The World) and Disturbia - and she soon had the audience in her pocket despite the lateness of the hour and worries that the gig might have to be shortened to meet noise abatement requirements, or that people would have to leave before the end to catch trains and buses.
Though the promoters had hoped to sell 20,000 tickets for the event, it was generally pronounced a success, and it seems possible that the beach party could become an annual late-summer gathering.
The long wait slightly deflated the early evening’s joyous atmosphere, which was still in full swing around nine o’clock among the audience, which predominantly consisted of young women.
15-year-old Henna Kuisma, in her leopard design dress, and her likewise 15-year-old friend Suvituuli Vainio had both bought new outfits for Rihanna’s Monday night gig.
“Rihanna is just so good! The lyrics and the songs are totally insane. We bought the tickets already in May, almost immediately after they became available”, the friends explained at the Hietaniemi bathing beach.
In all, 16,000 thousand tickets had been sold for the On the Beach festival.
Many of the fans appeared to be imitating their idol’s style of dressing.
The front of the stage was filled with girls dressed in miniskirts, micro shorts, and naturally tops with jungle animal motifs.
In the middle of “Hietsu”, a platform smaller than the main stage had been erected, on which skimpily-dressed warm-up dancers did their best to keep up the atmosphere.
Surprisingly the loudspeaker system played Madonna, even though the audience clearly belonged to Rihanna.
Although the evening’s top billing was not convinced (based on her Twitter tweets) about the Helsinki weather, the audience did not seem to be too concerned about the changeable-looking sky.
“The atmosphere here is really good. Especially now that the rain has stopped”, enthused Melissa Löyttyniemi, 19. She had travelled to Helsinki from Turku with her friend Judit Niemi, 18. “We want to hear the kind of songs the lyrics of which we know. The most important thing is a good vibe”, the girls said.
While waiting for the pop star, the audience kept singing and dancing in the darkening evening.
Some constructed kites out of toilet paper, while others snapped photographs with digital cameras and mobile phones.
After an hour and more’s wait, the vibe in Hietaranta started to lose its momentum. Booing began to circulate around the audience at the star's non-appearance, and thumbs-down gestures were to be seen in the crowd.
This was understandable. After all, the 23-year-old R&B singer from Barbados was by now more than 75 minutes late. The Finns are not used to the antics of the world’s great R&B divas.
In Finland an artist is expected to be stylishly late - no more than 15 minutes behind the clock.
Furthermore, many of the members of the Monday night audience had already waited the previous night for more than an hour for the arrival of American rap star Kanye West in Suvilahti, at the Flow Festival.
Once bitten, twice shy.
Fortunately, a couple of minutes later and before the mood had a chance to turn ugly, Rihanna finally left her dressing room and flounced onto the stage dressed in a top tied in a knot above her navel and a pair of blue mini shorts, and the bonhomie was quickly restored.
In the dark August evening, Rihanna kicked off her Helsinki gig with two well-known hits - Only Girl (In The World) and Disturbia - and she soon had the audience in her pocket despite the lateness of the hour and worries that the gig might have to be shortened to meet noise abatement requirements, or that people would have to leave before the end to catch trains and buses.
Though the promoters had hoped to sell 20,000 tickets for the event, it was generally pronounced a success, and it seems possible that the beach party could become an annual late-summer gathering.
No comments:
Post a Comment