Wireless Festival gave me my second chance to see Rihanna live. The first time was at the Loud Tour in October. Wireless Festival was Rihanna’s only UK open concert of 2012, so I had to go, whatever the cost.
The festival was held right in the centre of London, Hyde Park. After a rainy weekend, Sunday arrived. Hyde Park had no grass to be seen, just mud, mud and more mud. This never bothered me, I just couldn’t wait to see Rihanna perform. The atmosphere was fantastic, everyone was covered in mud…and drunk. The Sunday date was the quickest to sell out and everyone couldn’t wait to see Rihanna.
As 8:20pm approached the main stage had crowds of around 65,000. Rihanna was a little late (thanks to Jessie J deciding to party on 20 minutes extra) but the crowd was hyped and excited! Finally the drummers appeared and the set began, the crowd screamed. Rihanna started with “Only Girl (In The World)” and I screamed along with everyone else. Rihanna look and sounded great.
Rihanna’s set continued with all her hits, it made me realise how many people knew the lyrics to Rihanna songs. Rihanna made a few Navy jokes, asking Patrick for water ( I lol’d) and shouting out to everyone who was partying on through the rain just to see her. The crowd raved through “Where Have You Been” and the Navy through “Birthday Cake”.
The set was coming to a close, Rihanna made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when she performed “Love The Way You Live (part 2)”, the crowd appreciating her amazing singing by giving her a round of applause. “Umbrella” was a very relevant song of the night, the umbrella’s were up across the crowd, it was an amazing sight. Finally, the song we were all waiting for…“We Found Love”. I have never seen anything (and probably will never see anything like this again) like what the crowd were through this song. They were screaming, jumping and it was just one massive mosh pit throughout the crowd. The song ended with fireworks and massive balloons with a “R” on them being bounced around the crowd. It was a truly special moment.
Overall this experience was better of that at the Loud Tour. Rihanna put the rumours of her “drunken” performances to bed. She was special and finished the festival in style…Rihanna style.
Written by: Katherine Jones