On Thursday, a bit late in the day, I got news that I have received a photo pass for R.E.M. that evening in Udine, Italy. Well, technically, in Vila Manin. I covered the event for Delo.si here.
The drive to Udine was fast (I did have good company :-) ), but parking... Holly crap. We parked a kilometer away. And we could easily have driven closer to the venue. But we were told by the organizers that there are 10.000 people expected, so we decided to park where the masses parked :-). Next time, I don't plan on making that mistake.
Before R.E.M. we saw a group called__Editors. As we were a bit late, we didn't get to hear them whole, but from what I heard, they were interesting. Reminded me of The Killers. Interestingly, we weren't allowed to photograph them, only R.E.M., from beneath the stage, but we could from outside the barrier.
As R.E.M. took the stage, all of the photographers were, I think, expecting a much better lightning that what was seen. Michael was colored yellow throughout the concert. But hey... It was still fun :-). What really shocked me though was, that after the concert we were escorted outside of the barrier and allowed to take photographs from the outside.