When a large crowd assembles for a concert, you’d think the organiser would have figured it out beforehand Eminem and I go back a long way! When my DH was offered a job based in either Detroit or Minneapolis some years ago, I’d just seen Eminem’s film ‘8 Mile’ set in Detroit. Let’s just say the movie made Detroit look rather gritty. Having never visited either city myself, I picked Minneapolis – and absolutely loved living there for a good five years. I’ve always thanked Eminem for that life choice.  When I heard Eminem Abu Dhabi was planned, I snapped up tickets. Then spent several months resisting Son2’s requests to bring him along too (Son2 thinks he’s gangsta – it was right up his street, but something told me it would be a bad idea). I was right. The organisation of the concert was a fiasco! We arrived to find riots were practically breaking out outside the venue. Thousands of people with tickets were locked outside, unable to get in due to a hopelessly inadequate queueing system. They appeared to be letting about a hundred ticket holders in at a time, and each time this trickle through security was allowed, there was a massive surge outside the gate. People jumped over barricades, pushed, climbed hoarding, stampeded – it was INSANE! Dangerous. There was not a single staff member in sight among the vast crowd outside – just a handful of security guards who’d completely lost control. On Twitter, there were reports the security guards had batons, and had threatened to use them. Then the police showed up… in droves. Other than the near-rioters and stampeders, most of the concert-goers were well behaved – just beyond frustrated that they’d paid so much money for tickets for Eminem Abu Dhabi and couldn’t get in. The disappointment was palpable. Think Flash -shame on you. Did you not think about the dangers of waiting crowds? And all the while, a recorded message played on repeat: “Enjoy the concert”. Many of these legit ticketholders gave up, and we would have done too, but something really weird and wonderful happened as we stood in our going-nowhere queue outside the Du Arena  – with, the final insult, no internet access! (For readers outside the UAE, Du is one of the country’s two telecoms operators). Someone (to whom I’m so grateful!) approached DH and I and beckoned for us to follow him with our tickets. There was a small flap in the hoardings that opened up to reveal a holding area, where the line snaked back and forth like a theme park queue. Suddenly, we were standing in the right place, and very quickly, we got in to the actual venue, where there was still plenty of space, and another 20,000 or so people wondering why the start of the concert was so delayed. I’ve no idea how we got so lucky. Maybe it was my sparkly, US-flag shorts, or maybe I looked old or pregnant. Either way, you had to be a real slim shady to actually see Eminem last night – who, I should add, was absolutely incredible – beyond brilliant – once he got started. A true superstar. I might even put Detroit on my bucket-list.