Has anyone here done anything crazy like camp out overnight before a concert?
For shows I’ve been to that were general admission I’ve always gotten to the front of the crowd by showing up just an hour and a half or so before the doors opened which in my opinion is pretty early. For lesser known bands I got there at showtime and there wasn’t any problem.
I’m seeing Morrissey in October and had an extra ticket which I sold to some dude on a Morrissey message board (which I am not a member of as they are far less civilized than here or any message board I’ve ever been a part of even as a 13 year old who was obsessed with No Doubt and posted on their forum). He advised me to show up as early as 3AM for an 8PM show saying that people who saw the show the previous night (He’s doing a Friday and a Saturday show at this venue, I’m going to the Saturday one) will probably camp out overnight at the venue to get in line for the next one. :eek:
Has anyone ever done that/heard of people who do that? I wouldn’t be surprised if teeny boppers did that for someone really huge like Justin Bieber, but on the other hand I would hope their parents wouldn’t allow that. I’m really hoping this guy is wooshing me.
The only thing I ever did like that was when Bob Dylan played at The University of Alabama when I was a student in 1990. You had to buy the tickets at the student center on campus and people had camped out the night before they went on sale. I went early in the morning with a friend of mine, around 6am, to get in line. It took us a few hours of waiting to get the tickets.
I liked The Smiths back in the day, but there is no way in hell I would stand in line that long to see Morrissey. Especially not at my age now!
That does remind me- when I was in college I was part of an honor society that sold discount Broadway tickets to members (I went to college in NYC) and people lined up as soon as the building opened up to get tickets for Equus**, the show Daniel Radcliffe was in. To prevent that from happening again the administrators of the program instituted a lottery system for all future ticket sales. Thankfully they also found extra Equus** tickets for those of us who waited in line but didn’t get them.
I think the longest time was arriving at the Cow Palace at 11AM for a Ten Years After/King Crimson show. The doors opened at 6:30 and the show started at 8.
Then there was the time we went directly from a Yes concert to get a place in line for Springsteen tickets that were going on sale the following morning. That was a huge clusterfuck as a bunch of BASS employees decided to skim off tickets for themselves before opening the doors that day.
I’ve seen Morrissey several times (and I’m going again in October) but I’ve never bothered sleeping overnight. Frankly, I think your correspondent is deluded. Morrissey isn’t Justin Beiber anymore and I doubt there would be more than a handful of people sleeping over. You could almost certainly get a spot at the rail if you show up the morning of. (Is Moz even doing any GA shows this tour?)
I tried to get Radiohead tickets once (one-off show in NYC in 1999) but I arrived at 6 am to a crowd of several hundred who had slept overnight in pretty cold weather and all the wristbands were gone.
24 hours to get tickets to Tori Amos at the Park West, followed by 24 hours to get in to get seats. She was trying to do it the old way to reward the big fans.
Which was then completely shit upon by the record company weasels who let in a few hundred people standing room, all of whom were standing in front of us.
Camped overnight for Bowie tickets, twice. The second time was totally worth it - intimate show, less than 100 people in the audience. Fucking awesome.
I saw Radiohead at some field a couple of blocks away from Soldier Field in Chicago. I believe this would have been either for Kid A or whatever came after Kid A. I think the ‘doors’ opened around 5 or 6 hours ahead of time. It was blazing hot out and the water was so stupidly expensive that no one was buying it (like 7 dollars a bottle). At some point, someone convinced management to turn a couple of firehoses on the crowd. It was a welcome relief.
Anyways. We all sat there, nice and spread out for hours and had a good time. It was like a giant picnic. My friend and I were probably about 50 feet away from the stage and were pretty psyched about our decent seats. That is, until Radiohead took the stage. Everyone pushed their way forward and we got shuffled to the back. We might as well have gotten there 10 minutes after the opening act got on instead of sitting in the sun all day.
For both of U2’s Zoo TV Tour stops in the San Francisco Bay area in the early 90s. My college roommate and I waited overnight in south Oakland to buy tickets the next morning. It’s not a good feeling to be in Oaktown in the middle of the night having a few hundred in cash on you.
I never really waited too long for general music concerts. However, for many special events and new shows at the Tokyo Disney theme parks here, I’ve been known to wait up to 12 hours in order to get a prime viewing area. For the annual “New Year’s Countdown” parties on Dec. 31st, I’ve waited two days in the parking lot braving the elements in order to secure a spot. Yikes!
I’ve showed up about an hour or so early for some wrestling shows. One time it frustratingly did no good at all because when they opened the doors for some idiotic reason they let the general admission ticket line in in its entirety before they started letting the ringside (which was assigned seating) ticket line in. I don’t know why they even had separate lines, it was the only time I’d ever seen them divide them that way.
I would never camp out in line overnight (or longer) for pretty much anything. I can’t think of anything I want THAT badly.
People have started lining up to get $26 rush tickets to the newest Best Musical winner **Once **on Broadway as early as 3am! The box office opens at 10am, so I guess it’s “only” 7 hours even though the show is at 8pm, but still, 3am!! And when Al Pacino was starring in Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare in the Park a couple years ago, people would start lining up before the show had even ended for tickets to the next day! (Of course, those tickets were free.)
Earliest I’ve personally done was probably this past Saturday when I waited for tickets to One Man Two Guvnors and got there at 7:45am. (Totally worth it, btw.)
Cool. I haven’t seen anything on Broadway in a while- I’m too impatient to get rush tickets though- I normally just pay full price.
I saw Shakespeare in the Park though when Anne Hathaway was in Twelfth Night, but I waited for a day when it was drizzling figuring I’d take my chances as to whether or not the performance was canceled. And it wasn’t! Didn’t have to wait in any lines. There was a brief break where it was raining too hard for the show to continue, but they came back on as soon as it let up- kudos to the actors for putting on a great performance outdoors in shitty weather.
In 1985, I was part of a group that lined up for Springsteen tickets on Friday morning waiting for the ticket office to open on Monday morning. My brother and his girlfriend got there first, and by Friday afternoon had organized a system that allowed people to leave and come back periodically. My brother and a couple of his friends were there most of the time, and I stayed all weekend. The Baltimore Sun published this story about it, in which I was quoted. I was interviewed for the story by David Simon, who moved on to bigger things not long after.
I’ve never shown up more than an hour before the gates open for an event. But when I went to laser light shows I was always afraid of the Pink Floyd ones selling out even though they never did and I’d show up an hour early for basically nothing.
My most successful was when I showed up an hour before a Fountains of Wayne concert and was third in line for a decent sized show (almost 1000 people.) Needless to say I did get front row [del]seats[/del] standing.
For Radiohead? Wow. That’s happened to me occasionally but only for moshable shows. Okay, at one concert there was a rush forward and I voluntarily went backward out of fear of being crushed but I don’t remember who that was, but that usually only happens when people are moshing (and granted sometimes they use that as an excuse to move forward in the crowd.)
Return of the Jedi, we had the out of work guy camp out over nite, we got there after work the next day, first show was at midnite. So he camped more than 24 hours, we waited in line about 6-8 hours.
Note that this had become a tradition as we also saw the first show of Star Wars (hour line), and ESB (where our guy got in line that morning around 10).
