Hello!

I went to see All Time Low (for the fifth time!) on Thursday night and whilst I was going to write a review of the concert, I’m actually doing that on my university’s news day page – solentjournalism.co.uk (look for multimedia, that’s me!) and there were quite a few things I noticed about people and things that annoyed me at the concert so I thought I’d make a post about things (not) to do at concerts! More specifically, when you’re standing at a concert.

Bags
If you can help it, don’t take one – not only are they a risk that dodgy people might steal from them (though I know no one who’s experienced this), they often just get in the way – I was stood behind this tiny girl that kept glaring at me because I had to keep rearranging her massive bag to make sure it wasn’t stabbing me in the belly button! It was really inconvenient and luckily she and her friend moved away before the second support act came on but even then I was faced with massive back packs and more bags! A small over the shoulder bag is probably best but personally I try to avoid taking bags to concerts at all costs.

Height
I hate to say it, but if you’re short, you’re probably not going to see much and I don’t mean that cruelly – me and my friends were a head above most of the people in the audience and when people put there arms in the air, we struggled to see too. If you’re of a shorter persuasion and really want to have standing tickets to a concert, you have to be prepared that you’re more there for the environment than the sights. People who think they deserve to be in front because they’re short don’t understand that I queued for three hours too and I’m not going to give up my square foot of floor space!

Water
If you’re anymore than about five rows back, you are not going to get your hands on one of those plastic cups of water that security are giving out at the front of the crowd. ‘Why don’t they understand to pass back water?’ – because we live in a selfish world and people will always prioritise their needs before those of people they don’t know. I know this sounds brutally harsh but if you want water you need to get right to the front or go get your own.

Photos/Video
I’m very guilty of this, but try not to spend the whole concert looking through a camera or a phone – taking photos and videos for the sake of memories is amazing and makes good YouTube content for daily vlogs (see my January video featuring a Panic! At The Disco concert here!) but you won’t be there in the moment. At this concert, I did get footage for YouTube but when I had a nice clip of each song or took a nice photo, I put my phone away and jumped and sang and it was amazing! Maybe one day if I’m brave enough to not be scared of forgetting the concert, I actually won’t take my phone out at all!

Anxiety
Standing concerts can be the most anxiety spiking environments there is – I don’t often talk about my anxiety online because it’s something I deal with myself but I did have a panic attack at the concert and I had to leave this amazing spot right in front of the stage but it was worth it because we left the crowd and came back in after getting some water and it was so much less stressful than it would have been right in the heart of the crowd. My advice would be to do what’s best for you, don’t worry about how close you are because you’re not going to enjoy the concert if you’re spending the whole time trying to remember how to breathe. Stay safe and do what’s best for you.

Concerts are a tricky environment to be comfortable, I think so anyway and I’ve been to enough standing concerts that I should be okay with it now! But I learn something new and find something that annoys me every single time – I better go to more concerts and figure it out right? If only my bank account would let me!

Leave any of your own tips in the comments!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx




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