Cars, Free Music, Good Company

I'm not much of a Formula One fan. I don't really understand it. So, when tickets went on sale a couple months back priced at over 2000 dirhams ($560 USD), I opted out. The ticket price did include 'invitations' to the concerts on Yas Island-Abu Dhabi's recently built Forumla One car circuit thingy. Beyonce, Aerosmith, Kings of Leon (I think that's the name), and Jamiraquai all performed over the course of 4 days. Tickets weren't sold for just the concerts (you had to buy the Formula One pass), but a few friends managed to win some tickets for Jamirquai on Friday evening, so off we went!

We arrived around 4:30, and an hour or more of the racecar noise were more than enough to satisfy what little curiosity we had for the cars. The photo above is as close as we could get to the action. To be fair, hosting the Formula One in Abu Dhabi was huge for the emirate. There were loads of free concerts on the Abu Dhabi corniche (Timberland seemed to be a big draw). The city was buzzing with activity, and it was my experience that the logistics were incredibly well-organised. We barely waited for beverages(beer was sold), food, and toilets. The buses that took visitors from the parking lot to the arena were plentiful. I expected a long wait after the concert, but the organisers had bus after bus lined up taking concert goers back to their cars. It was really well done! Those who attended Beyonce the night before (triple the attendance) were not so lucky.