Outrage over wall blocking free U2 Berlin concert

U2's Bono, left, and Adam Clayton perform at the 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert at Madison Square Garden, Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in New York. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)Associated Press

BERLIN - Fans hoping to glimpse U2's free concert celebrating 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell were outraged Thursday to find that a 12-foot (3.6-meter) metal barrier was installed to block the view for those without tickets.

Both Berliners and tourists alike saw the irony in building a wall around a concert dedicated to the wall that has already come down.

"It's completely ridiculous that they are blocking the view," said Louis-Pierre Boily, 23, who came to Berlin even though he failed to get U2 tickets. "I thought it's a free show, but MTV probably wants people to watch it on TV to get their ratings up."

Boily, from Quebec City, was among several hundred people who gathered Thursday against the new fence, which was draped with a white tarp that blocked the view of the stage from the street. Some fans were already trying to tear down the tarp before the concert, which was being held in front of Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate.

The music network MTV, which organized Thursday's concert, said it worked with the local promoter, the city and Berlin police to install a temporary fence "around the site to ensure the safety and security of the attendees at the event as well as residents and businesses in the area."

U2's publicist RMP refused comment about the barrier.

Some 10,000 tickets were made available online for the Irish rockers' free show and they were snapped up in just three hours.

U2 was performing four songs but only one song was being shown later on television Thursday as part of MTV's European Music Awards, according to MTV.

The Berlin Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989, ending almost 30 years of Cold War division between the communist East and the democratic West.

Throughout those decades, the Brandenburg Gate stood just inside East Berlin. In 1988, musicians such as Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson performed in a three-day "Berlin Rock Marathon" on the western side of the concrete barrier, with the landmark as a backdrop.

Concertgoers in the West hurled bottles and firebombs at the wall, while some 2,000 youths gathered on the eastern side to listen, many shouting "The wall must go!"