Older readers might remember my travails last summer in trying to get tickets for my youngest daughter to see Taylor Swift. This involved a confusing combination of sign-ups, lotteries, waitlists and last-minute reprieves.
By the time, Ticketmaster finally allowed me a five-minute window to buy a ticket, I was grateful enough to hand over half my yearly salary for the privilege.
I may be exaggerating slightly there, but the tickets, as I may have reminded my daughter, are more than I have ever spent on a concert for myself.
They are, however, not as expensive as the tickets now available on resale sites. It is with a modicum of regret that I didn’t buy four tickets to sell two on.
The going resale rate for the two tickets I do have would leave me in profit by several thousand pounds. But my daughter, a proper Swiftie, gave the option short shrift when I suggested selling. So next Tuesday, at Wembley Stadium, we’ll be there for the final concert of the European tour. I even have my Taylor Swift themed T-shirt, emblazoned It’s me, hi, I’m the Dad, it’s me.
Older readers may also relate to my next concern, which is how to see the concert out without a toilet break. The Eras setlist, featuring a selection of songs from each of Taylor’s albums, has a running time of over three and a half hours. Taylor will take to the stage around 7pm, but to get a good position in the crowd (we’re standing), you’ll need to be in position when the gates open mid-afternoon, and then stay by the barriers for several hours in advance.
For some people, this wouldn’t be a problem. I was at Wembley Stadium last month to see Bruce Springsteen. Bruce is in his mid-seventies these days but played his three plus hours without a pause, let alone a break – unlike his audience, who one observer calculated had an average age of sixty, and were popping in and out the facilities as the night went on.
I’m old enough to remember the ‘glory’ days of festivals, where fans in need would make use of their drinking vessel before lobbing it over the crowd in front. Yup, happy days. If that’s not a present-day option, one alternative suggested is to consider an adult nappy. That was the advice given to some guests at the King’s coronation, who had to be in position two hours before the three-hour ceremony, with no toilet facilities available.
I prefer the advice for the 1953 coronation, when guests were advised not to drink anything from 12am the night before. As such, I think I’ll take Taylor’s Midnights album as inspiration. Fingers crossed.
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