Berlin To Bono: “Tear Down This Wall… No, The One Your Show Just Forced The Building Of”

As part of MTV’s Katy Perry-hosted celebration of the Berlin Wall’s destruction in the wall’s former home city this week, U2 will play a free show at the Brandenburg Gate later today. Freedom and free stuff! Yay! But with freedom comes responsibility, and those people who didn’t get their act together to get tickets for the gig—they, unsurprisingly, went pretty quickly—will have to watch on TV at home. They can’t even head down to the area near the Gate and try and hear the show… because a 12-foot fence draped with white sheets is being thrown up so ticketless people will have to stay at home and drive up the telecast’s ratings.

“It’s completely ridiculous that they are blocking the view,” said Louis-Pierre Boily, 23, who said he came to Berlin even though he failed to get tickets. “I thought it’s a free show, but MTV probably wants people to watch it on TV to get their ratings up,” said Boily, a native of Quebec City who was among several hundred people who gathered Thursday against the roughly 12-foot (2-meter) metal fence, draped with a white tarp that blocked off the view of the stage from the street.

You can’t really see the barrier in any of these pictures from the area, but you can get a hint of one of the songs they’ll be playing here. I guess a “Holiday In The Sun” cover would be too much to ask for? Outrage over wall blocking free U2 Berlin concert [AP]