OPINION: Put Your Friggin Phones Away At Concerts
WHAT a weekend.
It was one of the biggest weekends in the history of the UAE in terms of musical performances.
Not only did the four Yasalam concerts see some of the best artists give their all, Ed Sheeran blitzed the stage at Autism Rocks Arena, DJs like Carl Cox and Tiesto performed in Abu Dhabi and the afterparties were outta this world.
But upon attending some of these events, a standard peeve really, really irked me.
The aspiring videographers, social media influencers and general braggers were on their phones for nearly the entire concert.
Why does this annoy me so much?
I can’t be sure, partly because they get in my way of seeing the stage sometimes, partly because I feel like who needs all these shaky distorted videos and partly because I just want everyone to enjoy the artists….
It happens all over the world, sure, but I feel like the UAE is on ‘roids when it comes to phone usage
People who paid top dollar for Ed Sheeran fan pit tickets (a whopping AED895) were watching the concert in its entirety, through their phone screens.
They barely looked up from their phones because they were too busy trying to film it, get selfies and upload to Instagram at the same time.
I mean, by all means, get a few happy snaps – and a couple of videos to make people jealous if you’ve spent top dollar to be right at the front (I sure did), but don’t forget there’s an actual concert happening and to enjoy the music.
As Bastille’s lead singer, Dan Smith said at RedFest DXB… there are enough crappy versions of these songs on YouTube already
Put your phones away and bloody enjoy the concert!
