Akon in Cairo

Akon had a concert in Cairo, Hend got us tickets, three stages collapsed, and fun was had my all!

One Thursday night Denise, Hend went to go see Akon, Senegals finest rapper, at the Cairo opera house. After hustling our way into the VIP raised seating area we watched as hundreds of tween worried about weather or not their crush was standing nearby, if their shoes really did match their belts, how cool they looked smoking their cigarettes, and if the girl nearby noticed that they were standing on a chair dancing. After about one hour of this, we got there way to early, a loud crash, crash, plop, planky, crash, crash was heard at the front of the VIP section rapidly moving towards the back. Hend, Denise, and I moved quickly, not running because you should not run in mob situations, off the stage. As soon as we were off and had a clear view underneath the platform, shotily constructed of two-by-fours and rusty nails, we realized the whole front right corner had caved in. Couches, rugs and probably a few people went with it. Looking around it did not seem anyone was hurt; there were a few tween tears, but no ambulance sirens and the music did not stop. The three of us walked across the main floor to the second VIP section on the other side.


Once there we looked to our right, away from stage, and realized the exact same thing had happened in the third VIP section. Glad to be in the second we decided to get up front and waited for Akon. Turns out Akon got stuck in traffic and was super late, but while we were waiting the second stage collapsed right after Denise, Hend and I decided it was time to move to the floor and mingle with the commoners. Lucky we moved when did, Akon arrived, lip-synched an energetic concert, and fun was had by all.



What you must take from the concert is that it exemplified everything there is to love and hate about Cairo.

HATE-Three stages collapsed, people were hurt, there was almost no disaster response.
LOVE-No one was visibly shouting at innocent ushers, the music did not stop, the concert was not shut down, and anger was not a present emotion.

HATE-Akon was nearly three hours late because he was stuck in traffic, logically everyone knows there is horrible traffic on a Thursday night so logically you would have the star of the conert leave early, right? Wrong!!!!! That is definitely something to hate, no logic.
LOVE-None of the hip-hop loving tweens threw stuff at the craptastic opening act, no one left, no one demanded money back and people were still excited when he arrived on stage ultra late.

In summation when crap goes wrong people accept it and find away to deal. This is good because people have patients and understanding. Still, most of what goes wrong in this country could be stopped with the application of a little logic and thought out planning. Most importantly I truly believe that people do not change things unless they can no longer accept them. If you live in a country where people can accept crap like three stages collapsing in an area where people paid over 1000 pounds to sit then you are accepting to much. Egyptians accepts too much from their government, from the USA, and from their own people.