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Obama lands on Sunday for a 48-hour visit 15 months after he
reversed more than half a century of U.S. policy on Cuba and
started normalizing relations with the former Cold War
adversary.
The Stones' Latin American tour happened to roughly coincide and
the band was at first set to play Havana on Sunday, but
organizers then learned of the Obama trip and postponed the show
until Friday, the band's production manager said.
"At one point we thought he (Obama) was coming to the show,"
Dale "Opie" Skjerseth told reporters on Saturday from the
outdoor sports complex where the Stones will play.
"He's our opening act," Skjerseth joked.
The Stones added the free show to the end of a Latin American
tour, becoming the first major international rock stars to play
Cuba.
"They like to be the first of everything," Skjerseth said.
He said the band members were also aware their music and that of
the Beatles and Elvis Presely were once banned by the Communist
government as "ideological deviation."
"They figured they'd like to come here and give it (rock) to
them," Skjerseth said.
Havana is preparing for Obama with an extraordinary
street-paving campaign and restricting areas he will visit for
security reasons. At the same time, the groundwork for the
Stones production has also been impressive if not unprecedented
for Cuba.
The band brought in 61 shipping containers with an estimated 500
tonnes of equipment such as the stage, speakers, lights and
video screens, Skjerseth said. A Boeing 747 arrived on Friday
from Mexico carrying the last of the equipment, he said.
A crew of 140 Stones employees and at least 80 Cubans have set
up on grounds including a football field and adjoining baseball
fields with room for hundreds of thousands of spectators, who
are invited to arrive for free on a first-come, first-served
basis.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta, Editing by Franklin Paul)
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