The highly-anticipated Backstreet Boys’ show is set to take place at the Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach on Feb 27.
The show, part of the American pop quartet’s Unbreakable World Tour 2008, follows the successful release of their sixth album Unbreakable, last October, which reviews had said to be of pure pop pleasure with a combination of older hits and newer guitar driven pop/rock sounds.

When contacted yesterday, organiser Artiste World executive director Arianna Teoh said the venue was the perfect site as it was in a theme park and The Backstreet Boys had earlier expressed their excitement over the venue.

“The boys love theme parks and they were excited when they learnt of performing at the surf beach as opposed to the conventional indoor stadiums,” she said.

“It will also provide a good atmosphere to the show…being a theme park and an open area. We expect a lot of dancing and moving around. I don’t think anyone is going to be standing still,” she added.

The venue, which is also strategically located within the vicinity of many colleges and universities, poses as an excellent spot for such young-audience based concerts.

“Because this is the Backstreet Boys, and because their music caters mostly to a younger audience, we anticipate loads of college kids and students,” she said, adding that the ticket price was also specifically determined to meet the affordability of the young school-going people.

Meanwhile, Sunway Lagoon Theme Park marketing manager Thilakavathy Munusamy said the venue was a good choice because it could cater to a large crowd of up to 50,000 people.

“It is a very versatile site. Depending on the expected number of people, if needed, we can even drain out the water in the surf beach and put a stage there or turn it into a dance floor. There is a lot that one can do with such a huge place,” she said.

“There is ample space and we have held a number of concerts and events here such as the Pussycat Dolls’ show, Leehom Promo Tour, the Asian X Games and rave parties,” she said, adding that because this was a standing concert, the open-door concept of the place would provide better and easier movements for the audience.

With the much-developed amenities around the theme park and in Sunway itself, people will not have difficulties in finding parking spaces.

Parking spots are available at the Sunway Pyramid shopping mall, Sunway Lagoon Resort and Spa Hotel, Pyramid Tower, and surrounding areas within the Sunway commercial centre.

“The mall itself can hold up to 5000 vehicles and coupled with the surrounding area of Sunway, some 10,000 vehicles can easily park,” Thilakavathy related.

The Backstreet Boys now comprises Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough, A.J McLean and Nick Carter.

The tour is the first without former bandmate Kevin Richardson, who left the band some two years ago to pursue other interests.

The album and the tour are said to be powerful comebacks for the group after a three-year hiatus. The fact is, all members are grown men now and the overly exaggerated reports on their demise from the industry were somewhat untrue. The boys never went away. They were preparing for a strong return and they have proven it, not only with the success of the album but also with the jam-packed concerts in other legs of this tour.

[Source]