Hello Zoners
First of all, thanks for all your greeting and welcomes. You're a really nice bunch!
I've read in a few posts that the GA area of Hyde Park is not expected to be a good experience. My experience there wasn't too bad, so in case anyone going is worried, I'll relate the details.
I went to see Simon and Garfunkel in Hyde Park last summer. At this particular concert, the Golden Circle was all seated. Needless to say, seated tickets were very costly and rare as hen's teeeth so I settled for GA.
Upon entering the venue at 18:30, it loked like a picnic field. People had marked our their territories with picnic blankets and waiting comfortably. There were little gravel pathways among the grass lawn which made it easy to find ones way back to the territory.
The Hyde Park concert area is sort of eliptical. Although the stage is really wide, the stage end is narrower than the rear end of the area, and the whole area gets gradually wider the further you get from the stage. The rear or the area was lined with food and drink vendors, and there were plenty of toilets - I never had to queue.
As most of us know, the golden circle encircles the stage in a semi-circle. Just inside the barrier, on the GA side, there was a huge lighting/mixing tower. It was covered (not see-through), so the crowd gathererd on either side of it.
The sound was good, but not the same as an indoor arena. It started out a bit too quiet, but gradually got louder. A funny thing was that it was a bit windy, so when a gust of wind came during a quiet passage the sound was slightly delayed and the key dropped by 1/4 note.
There were eight screens in total. These were indeed the saviour of the show, because everyone got a close view of the action. One screen was behind/over the stage, and there was one on either side of the stage. The were 5 further screens for the GA area. There was one at the rear of the lighting tower, and one in each of the four corners of the area, which meant that people in the back could enjoy the view whilst being close to toilets and beer, and also far less crowded - some people lay on their picnic blankets until the end of the show! I suspect that Q+PR will be more crowded tho.
I stood 5 meters from the front of GA area. The atmosphere was great and the view perfectly fine. It was 'comfortably crowded' - never pushy. The stage figures looked a bit distant, but most time was spent looking at the screens, singing along with the friendly crowd, and just enjoying the buzz of a huge concert (my biggest ever, until 8/7).
Hope this gives you some idea.