March 14th, 2010 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil @ Apoteose [CANCELLED SHOW + INFO]

[babydolls]

So, to whoever wants to believe this...

I live in Sao Paulo.  I went to the Palestra Italia show, trully amazing, almost shitted myself when Axl threatened to leave (there is more to shitting myself, keep reading) and had a blast.  Came home, slept, woke up, had breakfast (lunch actually) and headed to the airport for my 16:40 to Rio.   The flight left at 17:20, we got to Rio at around 18:00 and were about to land in the local airport (Santos Dumont) whent he pilot announced that the world was falling down and that the local airport, which has a VERY SHORT runway, was closed and we were diverting to the Internatinal Airport (Galeao, much bigger runway).

We flew for another 10 minutes, the pilot did the final left turn and lined up to the runway.  At this point, it was 18:20 (yes, the stage fell about 15 min after that I think).  About 20 seconds before landing (I know this because we talked later) he got an ABORT ABORT from the tower, gunned the throtle to FULL and flew straight up and into the storm.

Basically, this is the really pant-shitting part... I have flown quite a bit, but never, NEVER experienced anything like this.  Have you seen the first episode of LOST?  Well, we went short of the plane breaking in two.  Lightning, thunder, turbulence, people praying, I for the first time picked up the puke bag (to no use).  10 minutes of hell. The pilot had to climb back all the way to cruise altitude to clear the clouds, and even so it was a scary sight.  We ended up landing in Belo Horizonte, some 500km away and only then I found out that the show was off.

I spoke  for some time with the pilot while sorting out what to do, and he said it was one of the worst he has ever experienced. We were the last plane to try to land before they closed the airport, and we aborted landing about 500m from the runway.  some 45mph crosswinds were hitting the airport.

I got off in BH, checked on the weather, and hopped a plane back to Sao Paulo.  I aint worried about the money, probably because (a) I?m glad we made it and (b) my ticked for April is still valid.  But I?m probably driving there.

Having said that, I would like to say I?m very glad no one got seriously hurt, and the crowd was still outside.  A flying pannel like the ones from the roof, which are probably metal, would cut someone in 2 like butter when flying/falling from up there...

Cheers, 

Rafael

OH my god... that is horrific. glad  to hear you are ok.
and that youtube clip was like a disaster movie, very ominous feel to it. nasty stuff. it really is incredible that everyone is ok. lets hear it for the crew for coping so well and making sure everyone was safe.

[Voodoochild]

When I landed in Santos Dumont airport at 1:00 pm it was one of the bluest sky Ive evef seen. It was like 40 degrees, hot as hell. Never thought the weather could have such a twist...

[kukol1978]

Man! that sounds horrible!

So, to whoever wants to believe this...

I live in Sao Paulo.  I went to the Palestra Italia show, trully amazing, almost shitted myself when Axl threatened to leave (there is more to shitting myself, keep reading) and had a blast.  Came home, slept, woke up, had breakfast (lunch actually) and headed to the airport for my 16:40 to Rio.   The flight left at 17:20, we got to Rio at around 18:00 and were about to land in the local airport (Santos Dumont) whent he pilot announced that the world was falling down and that the local airport, which has a VERY SHORT runway, was closed and we were diverting to the Internatinal Airport (Galeao, much bigger runway).

We flew for another 10 minutes, the pilot did the final left turn and lined up to the runway.  At this point, it was 18:20 (yes, the stage fell about 15 min after that I think).  About 20 seconds before landing (I know this because we talked later) he got an ABORT ABORT from the tower, gunned the throtle to FULL and flew straight up and into the storm.

Basically, this is the really pant-shitting part... I have flown quite a bit, but never, NEVER experienced anything like this.  Have you seen the first episode of LOST?  Well, we went short of the plane breaking in two.  Lightning, thunder, turbulence, people praying, I for the first time picked up the puke bag (to no use).  10 minutes of hell. The pilot had to climb back all the way to cruise altitude to clear the clouds, and even so it was a scary sight.  We ended up landing in Belo Horizonte, some 500km away and only then I found out that the show was off.

I spoke  for some time with the pilot while sorting out what to do, and he said it was one of the worst he has ever experienced. We were the last plane to try to land before they closed the airport, and we aborted landing about 500m from the runway.  some 45mph crosswinds were hitting the airport.

I got off in BH, checked on the weather, and hopped a plane back to Sao Paulo.  I aint worried about the money, probably because (a) I?m glad we made it and (b) my ticked for April is still valid.  But I?m probably driving there.

Having said that, I would like to say I?m very glad no one got seriously hurt, and the crowd was still outside.  A flying pannel like the ones from the roof, which are probably metal, would cut someone in 2 like butter when flying/falling from up there...

Cheers, 

Rafael

OH my god... that is horrific. glad  to hear you are ok.
and that youtube clip was like a disaster movie, very ominous feel to it. nasty stuff. it really is incredible that everyone is ok. lets hear it for the crew for coping so well and making sure everyone was safe.

[estebanf]

When I landed in Santos Dumont airport at 1:00 pm it was one of the bluest sky Ive evef seen. It was like 40 degrees, hot as hell. Never thought the weather could have such a twist...

yes. in fact, I came to Apoteose very early (like 15.30), and im not the kind of guy who likes to wait being quietly stood up. So I decided to walk for a bit, and found a cemetery near the sambodromo. I stayed there like for 2 hours, taking pictures, and I was glad because there was a lot of sunlight and the weather was just incredible (very hot).
Then i went back to start making the row, and when the first drops of rain came i was more than pleased, because it was hotter than hell and because i was dreaming an incredible hot and under the rain GNR gig in rio, which should be a dream for every foreign GNR fan!
But later, the rain came truly heavy, with huge winds and the temperature started to fall down. When I started seeing people leaving the row, i immediatly said for myself ''oh no, this just cant be true... i kept myself in the row, just waiting for a miracle, because even though the rain was heavy, i would have never expected that it could just destroy the stage! In fact, i discovered the stage felt down when I came back to Copacabana and went to a cyber to see if there was some news about a possible reschedule date.
The overall vibe before they announced the show was cancelled was the best possible. That neighbouhood was a little bit scary (i would have never walked those streets if there wasnt a GNR show or a whole lot of people doing it along me) but i was just having a great time, looking brazilian guys and gals playing football under the rain, singing, having fun, and there was also a lot of fans singing GNR songs in a very rustic and hybrid english!
Got my flight back to Argentina today at 17.30. Then, the 18th, i have to go in a ferry boat from Buenos Aires to Montevideo to see the band there at the Centenario Stadium, and then my last show at Buenos Aires.
Bittersweet experience until now. Got lots of good memories (specially from Belo Horizonte) and some other not too good ones. Anyway, I would do this same journey all over again to see GNR. GNR is worth everything. I just seen this with my own eyes. Once you see Axl dancing and singing with his characteristic fury and aggressiveness, nothing else matters.

On another note, im so sad I couldnt shake hands with Tico, Leatrice, Mandy, Voodoo and Manets, and all those crazy brazilian GNR fans. That was another part of my dream what couldnt happen. Now i have to meet some argentine and uruguayian fans that I came to love but never had the chance of meeting personally.