Thanks to Lise Ring Christiansen for sharing this eye witness report from the Confessions Tour stop in Horsens, Denmark.

“As you may know 85,000 tickets were sold to the grand stadium event – in 2 ½ hours by the way – and they were all general admission. Madonna has never been to Denmark before so it was by the media and general public considered a very special occasion. Needless to say, a good spot in the golden circle was highly sought after and hard to come by.

Consequently, my sister and I drove to the rather small provincial town of Horsens (pop. approx. 50,000, I think) the day before the concert. A camp site for those early fans was already set up and as it turned out we were number 25 and 26 in the queue in spite of our early arrival. People actually came three days prior!

The next morning we were all shifted to a different spot right in front of the entrances, along with many other fans who’d turned up over night and early in the morning. We couldn’t get any information on whether we would get any privileges as a result of our long wait, so the whole day turned out to be a bit frustrating, as no one would/could tell us anything. The gates were going to be opened at 5 pm, if on schedule, and there were about 20 gates in total. As all of us were placed in front of the gates the furthest away from the stage, obviously we were pleading the venue crew for a head start – especially because the venue was made up of 7 soccer fields and I estimate that we had to run about 500-700 meters once inside, whereas people at the front gates only had about 30 meters to run! Very nerve wrecking as you can imagine.

Click the Full Article link below to continue reading this report from Lise.

Right before we were let into the actual gates more people were let into ‘our area’ and that’s when things really started getting out of control. These newcomers did not understand our queuing system so they started pushing in front.

Ultimately my sister and I got into the first gate along with maybe 10 others of the over-niters and this gate was the first to open and we were the first people to be let into the venue! It was insane! As we were released one by one after body and bag search we sprinted the long distance to the front stage while vendors, guards, reporters etc. were cheering. My sister said she felt like she was running a marathon because of all the people cheering for us. It was crazy! I was the fourth person to arrive in the golden circle and I could choose anywhere to stand, and thanks to all my lovely newfound Triber-friends and their kind advice we stood in front of the catwalk on the left-hand corner. First row, of course. Brilliant! At that point it was SO unbelievable as it had been a day-long struggle to get there. When we got there the disco ball was down on the stage being cleaned and worked on. Suddenly they took out the engine and started working on it. This went on for probably nearly two hours, and a lot of Madonna’s crew (Guy Oseary amongst others) came out on stage all the time to see how it was going. It appeared to be a pretty difficult job! I was getting pretty worried that they were going to cancel the grand entrance in the disco ball. However, around 7.30 one of the engineers climbed the disco ball in order to fit the engine back in. Everyone in the crowd (who knew what was going on) were screaming of joy and cheering for the hard working engineers and mechanics and the guy in top of the disco ball had to do a little pose to please everyone. Hilarious!

I guess Paul Oakenfold came on stage around 8.15 and I believe his set was cut a bit short due to the delay, however I found it to be a great warm-up! He did Eurythmics, White Stripes, U2 etc. Around 9.30 the disco ball was descending and there she was – Madonna – right smack in front of us! She looked amazing, she was smiling a lot and she looked a bit nervous (no wonder considering the engine problems!), however she was later on quoted as saying she was a bit nervous because it was her first time in Denmark. Well, I guess you all know the drill from this point onwards and I don’t believe there were any important alterations in her show. In her little chat-session she said ‘Det er dejligt at være her’, meaning ‘it is lovely to be here’. One thing I would like to add is that I think her dancers deserve way more recognition and attention than they receive in the various reviews in here. They are OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD-INSANELY-GOOD!!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes during ‘Jump’. All in all a great and very well put-together show/art installation!

Being up there in front all you have eyes for is the stage and your own great spot in the audience. What we didn’t realize at the time was the huge disappointment of the people in the back. Many people could not see the stage at all and some couldn’t even see one of the two extra screens that were placed half way down the venue. People actually started leaving the venue in protest after 20 minutes! I find that upsetting even though I had a great experience myself. As a result the reviews in the various media the following day were mixed depending on whether the given reporter had been able to see anything or not! The show itself generally got good reviews, I believe. But the event as a whole was slaughtered. No wonder. Some were estimating that about 20% had a great experience up front while the rest were more or less disappointed. I can understand that, but at the same time I wonder what people expected? I mean 85,000 all standing – obviously you DO NOT want to be at the back. I hope the event managers learned their lesson; however it does not seem like it as they appear to uphold logistical issues, such as traffic, as a measure of success(!?)

On the day of the concert – as well as the days leading up to it – all the media could talk about was Madonna. It kind of resembles the royal engagement and wedding in terms of media coverage. And that is huge! The no. 1 daily Danish tabloid paper had Madonna as the page-9-pinup-girl on the day of the concert. A gig that normally gets rewarded with 500 Danish kroner (£50). Naturally, the paper wanted Madonna to collect the money and great effort was made to hand over the reward to her. Unsuccessfully I might add. A link to the photo can be found here.

Unfortunately, I cannot provide any visual of the whole experience, as I decided not to bring a camera. I find it when you do that you tend to be preoccupied with looking at your desired object through a lens, rather than being present yourself. And as this is my first and only Madonna concert on this tour I did not want that to be the case.

Once again, thanks to all the Tribers who provided me with answers to all my questions before my personal M-day!