My Concert Experiences

So everyone loves concerts, right? Hearing your favourite band playing live, seeing them in the flesh and singing along and screaming along with hundreds of other fans. Not much could be better than that. For most people at least. For me even a trip to the dreaded dentist, or even worse the orthodontist (having your braces tightened is painful), would be better than a crowded concert, full of sweaty, screaming fans.

Although I can't really conclusively say that I don't like concerts at all, having only been to two concerts in my life. The first doesn't even really count as a proper concert. Our school won a competition which meant that we got to have a concert in our school hall. The artists performing were Chipmunk, who I was obsessed with at the time, and You Me at Six, who at the time I had never even heard of. It took place after school, and me and my friends were so excited, so we ran straight from our last lesson into the Hall. I was in year 9 at the time, which was the youngest year allowed to attend, so rather than standing in the main part of the hall, we had to sit on the raised platform t the side. We thought that this would spoil the fun, but it was actually great as it gave us an amazing view of the stage. Now that I think about I actually had a pretty good time at that concert, so I don't really know why I am including it in a post about how I don't like concerts, but like I said it doesn't really count as a proper concert.

The second concert that I attended was last summer. Again it wasn't a normal concert, it was more of a one day festival, with multiple acts. Although nowhere near as much fun as a real festival because there was no camping, and despite the fact that there were rides and food trucks, we didn't get to experience these due to the fact that my friends insisted on standing right at the front where we stuck in the middle of a crowd. It opened an hour or two before the first act came on, and of course since my friends wanted to be at the front we got there an hour or two before that. This meant a lot of waiting around, which would have been fine, if it weren't for the fact that it was the most scorchingly hot, sunny day, and we were in the middle of London (I should probably clarify that the concert was outside). So we were sweating before the crowds even packed in, and the concert started.

The concert began with a band unknown to me, who were surprisingly good. The crowd was packed in close, but not too close so there was room to move and room to breathe. However, as each act went on it got hotter and hotter, and more and more people were trying to get close to the front. At some point some drunk middle aged men managed to get next to us, instead of the very lovely boys we had been next to all day and chatting to between acts. This was where things started to go downhill. These two men were very annoying, and not just to us to everyone around us as well. I don't particularly remember what they were doing, but I do remember them spilling beer all over me and one of my friends.

By this point there were only one or two acts until the main headliners - Mumford and Sons - so it was getting very cramped. And this was the point where I started panicking about how close I was to all these people. And I was so hot. And my legs wouldn't stop shaking. And I had a terrible headache. And I needed to drink water, but it was difficult because now my hands were shaking too. And I was worried that I might faint. And I just wanted to go. But I didn't want to fight my way through all of the people, and I knew that if I left my friend would come too, and I didn't want to ruin it for her. But eventually after her giving me a lot of worried glances during Ben Howard, and me attempting to smile and reassure her that I was fine, we left. We still saw the music, we just sat on the grass outside the big crowd, where plenty of other people were also enjoying the music, whilst our other friends stayed at the front.

I didn't faint, but I didn't have a great time either.

And that my friends is why I don't like concerts. I have someone managed to allow my friends to persuade me to attend an Ellie Goulding concert in March though.