Imagine this: half a million people bought tickets for Marko Perković Thompson’s concert at the Zagreb Hippodrome, making it the biggest concert in independent Croatia’s history. Yes, you read that right – 500,000 tickets! But while fans gear up for the spectacle, the city is in total chaos.
The morning before the concert looked like a disaster movie scene. The train from Osijek to Zagreb was so packed that people literally fell out of the wagons when the doors opened. Bathrooms had hour-long waits, and the ticket price included a reservation made two weeks earlier – of course, everyone paid up. Croatian Railways sold five times more tickets than there were seats in the wagons. Bravo!
In downtown Zagreb, Thompson fans sang and lit flares, while the fan zone at Bundek was empty. By evening, traffic was completely blocked in three neighborhoods around the hippodrome, including the Freedom Bridge and Većeslav Holjevac Avenue. If you planned to pass through that part of the city, forget it – you were stuck.
Organizers asked all attendees to download a special MPT app for the concert, the only place to get all info and help each other out. But will it save the day? We doubt it.
If you thought this was just another concert, think again. This event showed how ready Croatia is for massive gatherings – and how not ready it really is. If you were there or have a wild story, share it. Or just drop a sarcastic comment so we can all laugh at this circus together!
