Many of those waiting outside the concert gates to be among the first to get in were foreigners, for whom seeing Cuba was as novel as seeing the Rolling Stones is for Cubans.
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Cuban fans of the Rolling Stones are already lining up in the venue of the British band’s first-ever concert there on Friday, March 25.
Following the Cuban revolution, the music of the Rolling Stones and other foreign bands was considered subversive, banned from being played on the radio.
About 500,000 people were set to attend the concert, which StonesNews reported was set to start at about 8:30 p.m. EDT at Ciudad Deportiva de la Habana.
HAVANA (AP) The Rolling Stones are gearing up for an historic free concert on Friday in Cuba, where the communist leadership once silenced rock and roll music.
The audience of hundreds of thousands of fans ranged from teenagers to pensioners. The London pair had traveled all over the globe to see Rolling Stones.
A Bigger Bang brought more than a million people to Copacabana Beach..
Cuban leaders saw counterculture music of the 1960s and ’70s as a direct challenge to their authority, in part because it had its own revolutionary air, said Eric Zolov, a Latin American studies professor at State University of NY at Stony Brook, who has studied rock music in Cuba.
Footage from the show is hard to come as Wi-Fi on the island nation is poor, but fans on Twitter were eager for updates.
The band then kicked off with “Jumpin Jack Flash”, according to several reports.
Security was low key and there was a noticeable absence of would-be entrepreneurs selling T-shirts or memorabilia. I’ve always dreamed about this.
“Time changes everything”, Jagger told reporters upon his arrival at Havana airport on Thursday. In Cuba, rock music was something well beyond frowned upon for decades – it was illegal to a large extent.
The concert comes three days after President Barack Obama wrapped up a visit to the communist-run island during which he declared an end to the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas. We have performed in many incredible places, but this concert in Havana is going to be a historic event for us.
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For Juan Carlos Leon, 57, the event was more than special. “It’s the same kind of atmosphere with a little different twist when groups like the Rolling Stones are playing it”. “The Stones are the greatest”.
