Bruce Springsteen’s highly anticipated gig at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland on Tuesday night was delayed by half an hour, as fans queued up in the rain for hours and others were left facing a travel nightmare to get there.
Arriving on Wearside for the first time in 12 years, The Boss was always going to be a huge draw, with a crowd of around 45,000 expected to greet him at the Stadium of Light; however, with under half an hour to go, the ground was still looking pretty sparse, as droves of fans lined up to get in as rain lashed down and others were still queuing up to get a Metro to Sunderland.
In scenes worse than those for Beyonce’s packed out Sunderland gig last year, there was gridlock at both Monument and Central Metro stations in Newcastle, with customers reporting queues as far down as the Theatre Royal for Monument and ‘chaos’ at Central as travellers not even going to the concert were made to wait on the main concourse as staff tried to get people on trains as quickly as possible.
With all of that going on and drivers on roads seeing their journeys impacted by the awful weather, it wasn’t too much of a surprise when, just after 6.30pm, it was confirmed that Bruce’s Sunderland gig would have a new start time of 7.30pm, half an hour later than scheduled.
A ChronicleLive staff member inside the stadium was told by the concert promoter that the delay was due to staff at the ground ‘anaging the ingress’ of people coming in.