Days after <person>Branson</person> launched his concert, <person>Maduro</person>'s government announced that not only would they hold a rival festival but that they would also deliver over 20,000 boxes of food for poor Colombians on Friday and Saturday.
In contrast to the festive spirit in Cucuta, most of the acts at the pro-government show were lesser known, the crowd of a few hundred much older and some attendees reported being bussed in by the government from as far away as the capital, Caracas.
"We're facing a situation of possible aggression by the North American empire," said <person>Jose Saavedra</person>, a 61-year-old lawyer attending the concert. "We can't allow them to come here and impose conditions and a president on us. The president is elected by the Venezuelan people following the constitution."
While the pro-<person>Maduro</person> conference was being broadcast on state TV, people inside Venezuela had trouble tuning into the fundraising concert. Internet watchdog group Netblocks said YouTube, Bing and Google services inside Venezuela went down for nearly an hour on state-run internet provide CanTV. On widely used DirecTV the plug was also pulled on two foreign networks that carried the concert live.