Maryland has gone mad for Justin Bieber.
The Maryland Transit Administration extended light rail service hours today to accomodate hundreds -- if not thousands -- of fans who hope to catch his appearance at the Maryland state fair. Light rail service opened at 7 a.m. Sunday morning and will end when the last train leaves Timonium, Md., at midnight.
The sold-out show starts at 7 p.m., giving some fans a good five hours to bask in the reflected glory of Bieber's floppy-haired performance before they make their way home.
Biberheads won't be able to take the train to BWI Marshall Airport, BWI Business Park or Penn Station, as extended service will not reach those destinations.
Hundreds of fans lined up at the Maryland State Fairgrounds this morning to stake out good spots to see Bieber perform this evening. Gates opened at 8 a.m. so fans could retrieve bracelets for the show, and traffic clogged nearby roadways. Bieber himself is perhaps old enough to hold a driver's license -- perhaps.
Twice this year Bieber and company have found themselves on the wrong side of the law as authorities chastised them for endangering the public.
In March, Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, was arrested for reckless endangerment and for being a criminal nuisance when he failed to advise Bieber's fans via Twitter that he was canceling a show at the Roosevelt Field Mall in Long Island. In April, Australian authorities canceled his show after several fans were injured in a crowd crush.
More recently, Bieber won over an older, hipper fanbase with one of his biggest hits. Musician Nick Pittsinger used free software to transform Bieber's hit single, "U Smile," by slowing it down 800 percent -- and thereby turning his uptempo bop into a contemplative dirge worthy of any great Hopelandic composer.
But post-rock–loving hipsters are unlikely to be among the crush of Bieber fans gathered at the Maryland State Fairgrounds -- fans who number in the hundreds already, hours before Bieber is scheduled to appear.
