The nerves started to get us now! The boys just couldn't stop dancing, we all watched Michael's HIStory Tour (Gelsenkirchen concert) on video, played his music, shopped around the city for Michael-stuff and worked on our banners.

Our banners said:

Untill deep in the night we worked on the banners and admired MJ's video's....!

Today was the day of the Korean concert! Too bad we could not see it, but we checked MJIFC and all the other MJ websites all the time for news.
In the morning we took Damita to see the huge MJ HIStory statue here in Holland. It is our pelgrimplace here, always waiting for us on the parking-area of McDonalds in Best, near Eindhoven.
We,the MJ Fan Family, go there often to say "Hi" or to bring Michael flowers.
This time we bought red roses to bring to Michael.........he loved them!!! Hee hee!
Damita loved to be there and decided that she wanted to live there 4 eva! You can see pictures of this statue on our website btw.
Back home we finished the banners, composed a Prayer For Michael (see link) and packed our stuff.
Early in the evening we took some sleep and in the middle of the night, 02.00 am, we left by car for Munich!!!
You want to know what we took with us (ask Papa Bear, he said it looked like we were going away for a year!!!)? The tickets, Banners, MJIFC badges, MJ pictures, MJ CD's, our famous booster with tapes, leather pants, the Dutch flag in several sizes, the Bulgarian flag, home-made GOLD G-STRINGS with a small banner saying "Gold Strings In Munich Michael!", photocamera's, a videocamera, candy, soda's, sandwiches, sleeping bags, pillows, our clothes...!
Because Damita and I could not decide what to wear (like every girl!) for the concert, we took some extra clothes .....oh my, sorry Papa!
The road was long......dark and lonely, but Michael's voice kept us company all the time.......
We were NOT alone!!!

But, we didn't give up, and chanted for Michael to show himself at his window!
Ofcourse he did that, several times, even when the rain began to fall. Soken wet we kept on singing and enjoying Michael's thumbs-up gestures, his kisses, his gestures asking to come up and the smiles he gave. Thank you Michael!
Late that night, after we managed to get one hardcore-area bracelet for the concert, we went back to the youth hostel. We changed into other, dry outfits and headed for the disco in the cellar. It was fun to meet some fans there too, we asked the DJ for MJ music and then Damita showed us her great dancing talents! She performed BEAT IT and Billie Jean like no other, wooooohoooo!
What would life be without Michael Jackson and the dance..........

We woke up in our 5 persons bedroom and one look at eachother was enough.....this was the day!!!
After breakfast we left for Michael's hotel again, were we could walk inside and take a look without any problem. We even talked for a while with one of Michael's bodyguards, the blond guy. He was very friendly! The hotel-lobby was filled with people from MJ's own crew and with ppl who wanted to be interesting, like us....LOL!!
Around noon we left for the Olympia Stadium and we met several fans, like RICHARD, in front of the stadium. We bought 2 concert t-shirts, cool! Because we only had one bracelet for the pit, Peter and Bob queued in to try to be in front first. Romy and I waited outside for another person who would have a bracelet for Romy. It was a sad feeling that our family was separated this way, but I knew Peter was smart and that he would try anything to be with me and Romy. Our GSM-phones were very helpfull at this time (thanks to Nokia) and after 30 minutes Peter told me he had green bracelets for the 2nd area, right behind the pit. I decided to go inside the stadium and with a pokerface I took Romy wiith me in the hardcore area, right in front of the stage. Later she received her own bracelet from the securityguard there, no problems, she is small and ofcourse I could not leave her alone! The rain came down again, oh wow, we were all wet all over again!
We met so many fans again and enjoyed talking with them, we had some drinks, candy, took pictures (grrrr....then I found out that my film was full!!! ARRRGGHH!!!).
The show started at 3 pm with Status Quo and I enjoyed a lot of performers. I really loved to see Alan Parsons play, also Boyzone was great and Vanessa May. The sound technicians obviously were having a hard time, 2 bad some performers were bothered by that.
The first fainting people were carried away by first-aid helpers. The sun came through and from that moment on the sky was blue and waiting for its Angel....!
A surprising and wonderfull moment when my husband Peter and son Bob were allowed to enter the pit, it was around 6 pm. The security guard gave them permission, for various reasons, and now The MJ Fan Family was reunited!! Our dream did come true, enjoying Michael's concert all together, hand in hand....wow!!
In the meantime the huge videoscreen showed us footage from hungry kids from all over the world, headlines from the news showing Kosovo-children etc.It reminded us very well of the purpose of the concert and I felt proud to contribute to Michael's project. Everytime they showed Michael's face on the screen the crowd went bananas! We chanted, sang Heal The World, We Are The World (what a shivering sound to sing that with 62.000 people!!!!!!), You Are Not Alone; the atmosphere was great!
At 8.15 pm ZDF started to broadcast the concert and at that moment host Thomas Godschalk announced Michael for the first time.

THERE HE WAS!!! MICHAEL WAS ON STAGE!!!

Michael walked on the stage like only Michael can, a bit shy, with that soul-walk he has, smiling, gesturing many I LOVE YOU's! He looked gorgeous in black pants, white shirt and black sweater with gold emblems on it. His hair was in a ponytail (oh my, my heart.....) and he looked real well.
The only thing I didn't like from his outfit were his sandals....*lol*, I prefer the boots or mocassins!
Anyway, Michael speeched for a short while. He said he was delighted to see so many people united to help raise money for the Red Cross, UNESCO and Mandela's Childrren's fund and that he was happy so many artists performed without pay for the good cause.
Then he announced Andrea Bocelli, took Andrea's arm and helped him to walk to the microphone, so sweet!!
Michael left the stage, waving to all of us and the show started. Later on I heard a reporter say that the show was the longest supporting act for a Michael Jackson concert ever!!! *LMAO*!!!!!
I just could not believe that Michael was really there, meters in front of me and my family....like my kids said afterwards, it is so weird when you see him on video or TV for years and then someday you're so close to him.....like a feritale becoming true!
We found out that a few artists, like Pavarotti and Liz Taylor backed out of their promise to perform, others were unable to attend for personal or professional reasons. It was disappointing that because of that Michael did not sing "What More Can I Give". That was also why the single was not for sale in the stadium or afterwards.
The blue sky became darker.....the evening was there....the lights on the stage brightened our faces and we enjoyed the performers. Even the classical performers were supported in a nice way by the crowd.
Mind you, we were waiting for so many hours, after 4 nights without much sleep......finally it was 10.30 am, the time Michael was supposed to come on stage for his concert.
Andre Rieu, a Dutch classsical performer, who became famous with his orchestra playing Strauss waltzes, tried to entertain the crowd but got whistled off!!
In the meantime we saw Michael's equipment being prepared for his own show with his own band......the roadies were running on and off the stage, Wayne came on stage to send away the ZDF camera crew to another place, securityguards took their places on the sides of the stage.

He walked towards the audience in a cloud of smoke.....stood still....like only Michael can (remember the beginning of Dangerous Tour?)....he was wearing black pants and a cool silver jacket, his hair in a ponytail.
Wow, then he started The Way You Make Me Feel and we all jumped and danced on the music!
It was a GREAT feeling to see him there, he obviously felt happy and relaxed, performing a medley like in the MTV awards 1995, but different.
He sang the medley LIVE with a music-tape and he sounded great!
The famous songs followed fast after each other, like Billie Jean, Black or White (with a marvellous and funny SLASH performance). Michael changed outfits on stage, wooooohoooo, how I loved the ripped open t-shirt!!!!
When he changed into his Dangerous outfit (with a shiny red blouse this time!) I almost fainted, because it is my favourite LIVE performance!
It was a complete new performance, very very cool, sexy, tough and with the best choreography I ever saw! The accompanying dancers did a great job as well, wow, what a show!
Then the screen showed us planet earth, and we all knew Earth Song would be the next one....
With emotion and power Michael performed the song.....and by the end a steel bridge was elevated on stage, The Bridge of No Return. A group of people, meant to be as refugees suffering from war and hunger, walked over the bridge when Michael sang "What about us....". Then Michael walked on top of the bridge, singing to the audience.....
And then it happened.....the upper part of the bridge fell down, fast, and was no longer held by the engines and only stopped from falling free by the cables that were attached to it. Michael clinged his right hand to the steel bridge and violently hit the ground below stagelevel.We, the audience, noticed that the bridge came down very fast, but we thought it was all part of the show. (Michael was supposed to walk on the bridge untill a soldier comes up to him with a gun and takes him down. Then, a tank breaks in and the performance should have ended the same way as in HIStory Tour. This was how the performance was done in Seoul 2 days before. *Thanks to JacksonPlanet for the report*.)

I remember Michael's face when the bridge almost hit the ground, like he was scared, and he looked very confused for a few seconds.....but regained himself very fast, kept on singing the song with his body emerging half from the stage hatch, climbed out of the bridge by holding on to the cables and carried on his performance, kept on singing like nothing happened! What a professional, no sign of pain or distress, peforming the rest of Earth Song routine with the tank on stage.
The soldier approached him now, very aggressively, and tried to hit Michael with the riflebutt.
Michael held off, ofcourse, and then a little boy came on stage with a sunflower in his hands.
At that point my daughter Romy bursted into tears......so did I....and when Papa Bear saw us 2 crying, he cried with us.....big guys and women standing next to us were obviously moved by the sight of this crying bunch and started to cry too........what a moment....I will never forget it.
A few minutes later You Are Not Alone began.....the tears couldn't be stopped anymore now!
Michael appeared on stage in his Earth Song outfit (because of the accident he could not change, lucky us!!!!lol), with his white t-shirt ripped wide open...wow...what a way to sing YANA!!!
Unfortunately this time no girl was invited on stage, boy, would she have been lucky to feel that
skin!!! AAARRGGHH!!!
Michael's vocals were perfect, given the circumstances of the shock after the accident, and he ended the song with a large group of children on stage.
He ended his performance like we all know him.....his arms wide open, spotlight only on him......and he left the stage with saying "I love you" several times.........
Then the stage was dark and empty again.......it was all over.....!!!
The showhost tried to entertain the audience with announcing an Indian dancing group (Enjoy Michael's favourite dancing group!") but we were all impressed by Michael's performance and still screaming for him, chanting for him, asking for more!
But Michael did not come back on stage, ofcourse not, because we found out later that he was immediately taken to the hospital.
After the Indian performance everyone left the stadium and I think we were the last ones.....lol...it was so hard to go after all these magic moments and, besides, our feet were really killing us, we could hardly walk! We felt sad that it was all over, kept on saying how GREAT Michael's show was.....and then it started raining again!!! Like heaven was missing an angel!!!
But we didn't care to get soken wet again, and we walked back to the car as a family, together with Damita and Richard, talking softly and feeling exhausted.

The drive back to the youth hostel was depressing because of the rain, but also because we all knew that it was all over now.....Ofcourse we talked about the bridge coming down so fast, but we were not aware of what really happened.
Back in the hostel we tried to find some dry clothes and walked barefeet to Richard's room (after helping the kids in their beds) to have a small afterparty. Thanks for the chocolate Richard, we sure could use some extra in our bloodsugarlevel!!

Special kisses and thanks to :

Jana (MJIFC)
Rajesh (MJIFC)
Richard (thanks for making us laugh so much......ssssssss!)
Jeremy (thanks for the CD!)
Marco (great handkiss that was!)
Michal (you're great girl!)
Monica, Vally & HG (BEAR hugs)
summer (it's not raining, it's MAGIC!)
Lisamarie (kiss for your dad too!)
Stadiumsecurity
Michael Jackson's personal security, Skipper and Wayne Nagin
Teddy Lakis
Marcel Avram
Hotel Bayerischen Hof (especially for taking care of the fans health)
Munich Polizei
Bayern Radio ANTENNE 3
ZDF television channel
Munich Tram-management
City of Munich (thanks for the hospitality)
ALL performing artists
ALL Michael Jackson fanclubs
and everyone else with whom we had the pleasure to share great moments with.

As Michael would say:

WE LOVE YOU!!
Marjo, aka Dirty Diana Oh..no..
and the entire MJ Fan Family
The Netherlands
July 3d, 1999.