Brazil Day 24 - FIFA Fan Fest

I started the day in pursuit of breakfast after electing to take a break from my Frosties, and after a terrible night's sleep. I've finally succumbed to the dreaded Media Centre Virus (hereon "MCV") and have a massively irritating cough that is not "productive", just extremely annoying. This transpired to keep me up all night so I thought I might as well get up early and get something to eat.I headed off in a taxi (£2.50) to Forte de Copacabana where there is a nice cafe (refer back to Day 15). Unfortunately it didn't open until 10am and it was only 8am. Instead I hung around the far end of Copacabana for a while in a beachside cafe where I got a toasted mixto i.e. ham & cheese toastie. I spent some time contemplating how crap my pictures from yesterday were. Granted the shooting conditions were against me, but I couldn't get the pics right in post processing when pitchside either due to the bright reflections on the screen and the need to shove the contrast and clarity sliders right up to get something resembling a bit of detail. Also the content wasn't that great either, with nothing that I thought afterwards was a recently good shot of the day.The thing is that the standard I have to measure myself to is so high as the absolute best sport photographers in the world are here, and they are exceptionally good. Having a bad day is grim, and looking at some of the stuff the other guys get is just depressing. Part of it is just getting used to the shooting conditions - the cramped work area pitchside, the sun, the weird and annoying people who sit next to you - it all detracts from the very high level of concentration needed to do this stuff. For a first-timer like me it's been (and continues to be) a very steep learning curve.That's the depressed grumpiness over with. I managed to reject the constant demands of Mike P to take lots of pictures of the thonged-up women on the beach which is just a bit pervy, but also didn't take any of the rather ripped triathlon guys who were training in & out of the sea (sorry Surrey mums!). I ate my mixto (and drank a Coke Zero), then found I needed to use "the facilities". Along the Copacabana there are lots of loos available at R$2 apiece (50p) but instead I walked purposefully into the Copacabana Sofitel, which is very posh and where all the FIFA grandees stay, with my FIFA credentials around my neck. Not an eyelid was batted as I passed through the security guys and the chauffeurs waiting to take their high rolling clients somewhere. There were quite a few "full house" people walking about - those who have all 9 numbers on their FIFA credential badge - essentially "access all areas". I've only got 4 (but including the essential #1 which is pitch access). The loos were very nice indeed.As you may have gathered, the objective of the day was to go to the FIFA Fan Fest on Copacabana. Each host city has a Fan Fest, which is a place with monster screens that ticketless fans can go en-masse for free and experience some of the atmosphere of a stadium, and of course partake of many of the services of the tournament sponsors who have big stands and suchlike. Today's Fan Fest was showing both the quarter finals - Argentina v Belgium and Holland v Costa Rica, and some pre and inter-match entertainment.Being accredited for match coverage, I was able to get press accreditation for the Fan Fest as well without any problem. I had been told that the Brazil games are completely full but any other games to just turn up at the gate. The Fan Fest itself needs an aerial shot to show how big it is, which I don't have as my attempt to get to the top floor of the hotel opposite was thwarted before it began by cautious security guards who wouldn't let me get to the lifts despite my arrogant "I know exactly where I'm going" swagger.  But, paint a mental image of a 400m long enclosure, about 100m across, on the sandy beach, with a massive stage and screen at one end, and you're there. This fisheye pic shows half of it - the other half behind me.The place was pretty much full of Argentina fans who were pretty boistrous. They went mental when the first (and only) goal went in.The only real problem was the heat. In full sun, with thousands of people crammed in, it was baking. With my press creds I could get to a couple of shooting positions, one at the front and one at the middle diagonally opposite, where I could have a bit of space, but no shade. Getting between the two spots meant traversing the heaving mass of craziness in the middle. And the best pictures were to be had in the middle of it all.As the game went on the place became more and more packed. It was getting ridiculous, and more people kept piling in. I was getting quite concerned about how crowded it was - it was pretty impossible to move around and I ended up joining a sort of caterpiller of people who were moving along the way I wanted to go. I'd be surprised if there weren't more than a few people carted out of there with heat stroke. I was very conscious of protecting my kit - I had my Olympus EM5 with a 8mm fisheye and 14mm wide angle, and my Sony A7R with 90mm Konica with me in a nondescript brown canvas shoulder bag. I just kept a careful hold of everything and was OK.After a couple of hours, and seeing Argentina win, I just had to find a shot of a Belgian fan looking sad and I was done. This was harder than it might seem as the place was full of Argies, but I got one eventually, by which time I was feeling particularly dicky and keen to get the hell out of there.With massive relief I got out of there and headed back to the apartment to edit and send a small selection of the pictures into the papers. The air conditioning in the taxi was delightful. The combination of lack of sleep, the MCV, and not having a decent breakfast or lunch had taken it's toll. Bleuurgh.Tomorrow should be a bit more sensible - I'm planning on heading off with BenQ somewhere interesting and less frantic.Full gallery of pics here.