Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Hundreds of thousands of Michael Jackson fans have descended on Los Angeles ahead of the 50-year-old King of Pop's funeral set for Tuesday morning.
The singer, who died of a cardiac arrest on June 25, is due to be buried early Tuesday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in a private ceremony attended by family and friends, hours before a memorial service at the 20,000-capacity Staple Center in downtown Los Angeles.
Ken Sunshine, a spokesman for the Jackson family, said earlier that the public memorial service, which is to be broadcast live, would start at 10:00 local time (17:00 GMT). Among the line-up paying tribute to Jackson is Mariah Carey, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney.
Although 20,000 people are expected to attend the ceremony, thousands of firefighters and police have been called in to deal with the crowds which according to estimates could reach over 750,000 people.
Some 8,750 fans have been issued with two free tickets each for the event with some tickets reportedly changing hands for up to $10,000.
The cost of the staging and policing the event has been put at millions of dollars, and it remains unclear who will foot the security bill.
City Councilman Dennis Zine was cited by The Los Angeles Times as saying that promoters AEG should cover the costs of the memorial service.
"It should be at their expense, not the taxpayers," Zine said.
