...this morning I spent two hours at OAKA stadium, where the stage for the upcoming Bon Jovi concert is being set up. the heat was scorching, so I opted for the lightest camera combination possible - I only carried my dSLR and a 20mm ultra wide lens.
we (me and a fellow journalist) arrived at 11:00, got our bump-in passes (no idea what the name means, really) but we didn't see anybody working on the stage - most of the people were resting in the shade, something quite understandable given the extremely high temperatures that have been hitting Athens in the past days.
since I had no information about the time-schedule of the workers and about how long I would be allowed to take photographs, I walked around the place capturing wide-angle views and other small interesting details.
...after a while the heat was getting to me and I decided to move for the shade. there I met all the "steel hands", who were relaxing in the cool area below the stadium's seating stands. all of them were Greek and none of them allowed me to take portraits, so I had to settle for faceless photographs. they did have interesting stuff written on their helmets, though - one of them even bore the Full Metal Jacket "born to kill" motto.
I was getting bored of taking photos with no people in, the sun was merciless and I was thinking that I should pack up and leave, when I saw people coming on to the stage. these weren't "steel hands", they were foreigners and they were set on continuing the building of the stage, which I was told would be a lot bigger and higher than the one I was confronting at the moment.
I was allowed on stage for a couple of shots and then they shooed me off, but it was more than enough.
I spent some more time watching around for anything photographically interesting, and then I decided to call it a day and go have a sweet cold shower - if it wasn't for the heat I could easily have stayed until the afternoon. I'll be back on wednesday for the gig.
