Backstreet Comes to Hanoi!

The biggest concert in Hanoian history occurred this past Saturday, with almost 20,000 people in attendance. The streets around My Dinh soccer stadium were flooded with crazed fans, ranging in age from a few months to ancient. A group of 9 of us arrived together, singing the ballads of our youth for all the hear. A large group of white girls always gets noticed, but even more so in the throngs of Vietnamese Backstreet fans. We were asked to pose for multiple photos (see below) and even managed to finagle a couple free glow-sticks.

We arrived 10 minutes late, and found that our designated, ticketed seats were already taken, so we moved all the way towards the left and to the back, where we had enough space to sing loudly and dance wildly. According to my students, even though tickets were sold beforehand with seat numbers, once you got inside of the stadium, it was a free-for-all, so we ended up on the outskirts due to our own lateness. Either way, our seats were horrendous, but I was thankful that the Backstreet Boys (or men, rather) were wearing sparkly jackets and shoes so we could see the choreography... more or less. They played every single hit they ever had, which ended up being 2 hours worth, and I kept surprising myself by knowing all the lyrics. Apparently, their hit songs in America vs. Vietnam differed a little bit, since the Vietnamese people around us sang along to the newer songs that we didn't know, yet we belted out the "oldies"... much to the dismay of some nearby fans. When the concert came to an end (there was no encore, and they actually started rolling credits...) everyone started running towards the stadium exits. It was a bit scary as we followed the masses of people out into the street, trying to hail anything that resembled a taxi. By this point, all the cabs were full, and we were beginning to worry that we would be stuck in the street, quite far from the city center, for the rest of the evening. Just then, we noticed that 2 girls from our group had gone missing. This caused much alarm, as none of us knew exactly where we were, or even what direction Hanoi was in. After some frantic phone calls, a van pulled up with our two girl friends hanging out the window. Apparently they had kept walking further down the street while the rest of us were frozen in one spot, paralyzed with the fear that we were to be stuck in a Backstreet mob for the next few hours. By some stroke of fantastic luck (I'm thinking the red hair of my friend Lyndsey had something to do with it...) they managed to get a 7-seater van, which we then squished all 9 of us into. As we were driving by the remaining thousands of people trying to get cabs, I couldn't get over how lucky we were to be out of the street. Really, 20,000 Backstreet Boys fans taking to the streets is a very scary thing.

Overall, we had a great girl's night out, despite the less-than-ideal view. It's really amazing that Backstreet Boys is the biggest band to ever come to Hanoi and the whole city has been abuzz with excitement for an entire month. Now that the concert is over, I am not quite sure what Hanoians have to look forward to next... as Backstreet has been the constant topic of conversation. The next "celebration" is a labor day of sorts... the first few days of May. My friends and I are taking this opportunity to rent a van and go on a waterfall tour in the North, crossing the border of China for a day of trekking to a final waterfall destination. We will be sure to bring our Backstreet Boys cd for that...