Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Today as I walked down out of the office the street had a particularly empty feel to it. My work is in the Baixa (downtown) which is never big on street-lighting or any non-illicit activity after dark at the best of times.
But tonight is the first of two Gilberto Gil concerts and they have cleaned the city out. Gilberto Gil, longstanding famous musician from Brazil, is now culture minister in Lula's centre-left government, so concerts are fairly rare even on the other side of the Atlantic. Given that, when someone as famous as him does a gig in Moz everyone who's anyone goes, even if they're not a fan.
So why I am I not going, you cry? Well, Gil's visit has a specially Mozambican rub: he's playing for two nights. Tuesday is a USD50 per head seated event, and Wednesday is for the commoners, with tickets for only USD6.50. Guess which night sold out immediately?
Yup - the expensive one - when people are rich here they really have money. Apart from being slow off the mark, I balked at paying 30 quid plus none of my Moz friends could have afforded to come. So I am going to tomorrow's plebeian mayhem instead, which will no doubt end as usual with drunken crowds cleverly managing not to actually fight in the streets around the venue (which is just down the road from the Ministry of Finance, actually...)
But tonight is the first of two Gilberto Gil concerts and they have cleaned the city out. Gilberto Gil, longstanding famous musician from Brazil, is now culture minister in Lula's centre-left government, so concerts are fairly rare even on the other side of the Atlantic. Given that, when someone as famous as him does a gig in Moz everyone who's anyone goes, even if they're not a fan.
So why I am I not going, you cry? Well, Gil's visit has a specially Mozambican rub: he's playing for two nights. Tuesday is a USD50 per head seated event, and Wednesday is for the commoners, with tickets for only USD6.50. Guess which night sold out immediately?
Yup - the expensive one - when people are rich here they really have money. Apart from being slow off the mark, I balked at paying 30 quid plus none of my Moz friends could have afforded to come. So I am going to tomorrow's plebeian mayhem instead, which will no doubt end as usual with drunken crowds cleverly managing not to actually fight in the streets around the venue (which is just down the road from the Ministry of Finance, actually...)
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