The past 48 hours has seen a historic rapprochement between the United States and Cuba with President Obama becoming the first sitting president since Calvin Coolidge in 1928 making an official visit to the country. Relations have been thawing politically and economically, but part of the opening up has been culturally as well. The Rolling Stones were slated to perform on March 20, but the arrival of President Obama and the spotlight he stole with his visit has pushed it back to March 25.
According to Reuters UK, they pushed back the date upon learning of President Obama's arrival.
"He's our opening act," Rolling Stones production manager Dale "Opie" Skjerseth joked to Reuters. "At one point we thought he [Obama] was coming to the show," he explained. Apparently the President was going to be a little too busy to catch the concert, though he did attend an exhibition baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Cuban National Team with Raul Castro this afternoon.
The show is expected to be attended by 500,000 individuals, close to the number that showed up to the Major Lazer concert earlier this month. According to the Reuters report, the band shipped 61 containers with an estimated 500 tons of equipment to Cuba in order to put on the concert. The whole undertaking has required the efforts of 140 employees from The Rolling Stones and 80 on the ground in Cuba.
The Rolling Stones won't be the first Anglo-American band to host a show in Havana. Audioslave did the same thing back in 2005, but to only 50,000 fans.
This will be a historic show for the Stones who would be the biggest act to perform in Cuba since the 1959 revolution led to the rejection of rock music. It helps that the current Vice President, Miguel Diaz-Canel and potential heir to the presidency is a fan of the Rolling Stones.
