LIVE8: "Did that just happen?" exclaimed Bono after his band's performance with Sir Paul McCartney opened the biggest concert in world history. It was a question the audience was asking itself. David Stimson reports from Hyde Park
If Bono felt privileged, imagine how everybody else felt.
With so many wearing the white "Make Poverty History" wristband, and others with the slogan emblazoned across their cheeks, it clearly wasn't just the music that brought them here. Yet as some 200,000 packed into the park the anticipation was less of the G8 Summit, than the performances of bands like REM and Coldplay.
Andrew Smith (26) had seen them at Glastonbury and thought them "awesome", which just about described their collaboration with Richard Ashcroft on Bittersweet Symphony.
It was possible to find some concert-goers sceptical about the motivation of some of the ageing rock stars behind the event. Andrew Smith wondered about Bono, commenting that "he has a profile to maintain and albums to sell".
But he spoke highly of Bob Geldof: "The man has dedicated his life to campaigning, it obviously means a lot to him."
For Corrinne Scurville, Brentford, "Sir Bob" was just "wicked, fantastic, a good man"; while Fi McCallum, Chiswick, said Geldof's campaign was "part of history" and "the world should get behind him". Each time he appeared on stage Geldof was greeted with huge cheers and applause. The fervour with which he spoke was infectious, and his performance of Tell Me Why? I Don't Like Mondays provided one of the great moments of the day.
The organisers plainly wanted everyone to have a good time, while the short films highlighting African poverty during performance intervals meant the campaign was never allowed to escape people's minds.
The moment when Birhan Woldhu, now an accomplished and beautiful young woman saved 20 years ago from Ethiopian famine, was introduced was incredibly moving. A powerful rebuke to the sceptics, she was greeted with a mix of rapturous applause and sighs of empathy and remained on stage during the first part of Madonna's exhilarating set.
Will Live 8 have a similar life-saving effect for millions more? Some were doubtful. Catherine Oliver, London, questioned whether the G8 leaders would listen, exclaiming that "they never do".
But most were probably happy to believe with Bono that the sheer numbers of people demanding change cannot be ignored.
Not many of the estimated three billion viewers can have been ignorant of the reasons for the show. In fact I would guess that the only person guilty of that was one lady next to me in the audience, who, at the initial introduction of Sir Bob Geldof, asked: "Who?"
It's to be hoped the G8 leaders were paying more attention.