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Fans hoping to glimpse U2's free concert celebrating 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell were outraged Thursday to find that a nearly 6-1/2-foot (2-meter) high metal barrier was installed to block the view for those without tickets.Both Berliners and tourists alike saw the irony in building a wall around a concert dedicated to the wall that already has come down.The music network MTV, which organized Thursday's concert, said it worked with the local promoter, the city and Berlin police to install a temporary fence "around the site to ensure the safety and security of the attendees at the event as well as residents and businesses in the area."U2's publicist RMP refused comment about the barrier.Some 10,000 tickets were made available online for the Irish rockers' free show — and they were snapped up in just three hours.U2 was performing four songs but only one song was being shown on television later Thursday as part of MTV's European Music Awards, according to MTV.In 1988, musicians such as Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson performed in a three-day "Berlin Rock Marathon" on the western side of the concrete barrier, with the landmark as a backdrop.Concertgoers in the West hurled bottles and firebombs at the wall, while some 2,000 youths gathered on the eastern side to listen, many shouting "The wall must go!

The U2 “spaceship,” as Bono describes the Irish band’s monster stage, will land again in Soldier Field next year, on July 6.U2, which opened the North American leg of its massive “360 Tour” at Soldier Field last September, announced Monday that it will extend the tour through America and Europe next year. The July 6 date at Soldier Field is set between a July 3 appearance in Toronto and a July 9 show in Miami, suggesting the band may add an additional Chicago date if ticket demand exists.The show is set on a circular stage underneath a 90-foot-tall, four-pronged canopy that suggests an alien invader from "War of the Worlds." The steel structure takes four days to build, and houses a 150-foot pylon and a 54-ton cylindrical video screen.As stadium events go, the tour is said to be the largest and most expensive of its kind, requiring an army of 2,500 people to stage.